The LumberWorksForums

We have over 24,000 board feet of mixed lumber in our barn. We are looking for an easy way to dry it. Is it fisable to try to put tarps over it and blast propane heaters into it?

Is it still green or has it been air drying for a while?

I'm curious - you got a buyer that wants that much lumber in one batch? Or, are you wanting to break it into smaller batches? Forgive my questions. I'm just trying to see where your coming from.

The lumber has been in the barn for approximately 10 years so yes it has been air drying for quite some time. Drying it with the propane blasters would just be to get the moisture down the last few percent. We are hoping to avoid the pricey kiln cost... especially since alot of the lumber is 30 some odd feet long..

No, the lumber is for mostly for personal use... we are putting on an addition and it will go for trim, doors flooring etc. We are pretty sure we will use all of it and then some (hence the recent LM2000 purchase) and if not we will sell the rest.

I'm not going to tell you that what you have in mind won't work. But is seems to me that it would require a significant effort to build a safe temporary kiln on that scale. I'm no expert here. If I were in your shoes I would contact someone like Koetter Dry Kiln and rent a kiln from them. (I think it was Koetter that rented kilns?) They would also lend their expertise on operation. This would allow the proper control over the varibles and give you better assurance as to the outcome. On the other hand, if the need extends indefinately beyond this batch, I would build a proper kiln. If this is a one-time thing I would hire it out. But that's just me.

Craig,
I seem to remember some saying they had built temporary kilns but I can't remember any details. All I can remember was the discusion turned to fire and many claimed they lost their kilns. I'll keep my eyes open and post here if I find something interesting.

You said you were turning most of this into trim. What species and thicknesses are you dealing with?

I'd like to know what spiecies you have, and what it has been cut to,, If it's been stickered for TEN years, in a pole barn,, you wanna make trim and stuff with it,,,If you have a lot of stuff cut a 4/4 it's most likely ready,, the rule of thumb, but not etched in stone is one year for every inch of thivckness cut. I'd go to work and start making trim and what have you, My HArdwood stock I have here in the shop is northern kiln dried, if I Can get a reading on moisture content, it's usually 7% maybe a pinch more, depending on the species, But I bet in most cases with what your gonna do, 15-20% moisture will not have much of an effect on the trim your wanting to make,, trim being moldings and stuff,,,, If trim is 1 x 4's and the like,, go ta work,, 2x4's,, go ta waork,, etc,,
Thats Roberts pinion,,,If after the project is complete and you see somethin that has twisted or warped, most likely it would be just a board or trim er 2, easy enough to pull and replace,, But it may never happen.

It's mostly red oak with alot of white as well as maple, ash, black walnut and sassafras

We started milling flooring on With water oak, the floor is beauriful,, in fact the flooring wasnt stickered a year, most likely about 6 mounths with fgans on it, air drying, moisture content was about 15% , you can see post of the flooring on the old web site, the post is called A Recent Project, I'm in the process of recovering that post before it's gone,,, on the post, none of that was was old, Maybe at most dryed 6 mounths,, and it all was cut onthe mill,,,,,,,,,,Red Oak , Sassafrass ,, and Walnut dries fast, the the rule of 1 year for every inch of thickness would apply to it,,

this is our air drying area
a solar kiln will be built onto the other site of the shipping container..

I M kinda with Robert here, you could pull a small batch at a time (500 feet or so), stack it carefully with good air space and fabricate a temporary cover with tin & whatever else, then heat it for a few days and see what you get. You will have to try to keep the heat from being too close to the stack, and try to get the flow distributed well through the stack of lumber. That two wheeled device that I see in your photo next to the shipping container caught my eye, it looks a lot like my homemade logging arch, what is it?

Craig,
I haven't had any luck locating the links I refered to above on homemade kilns. I'll still keep my eyes open but it looks bleak.

I'm curious about how many board feet you would like to dry per batch and what kind of turn-around time you need per batch/entire job?

yes junglejim, its a log hauler