Given the number of local saw mills around me that offer a wide variety of air dried lumber at good prices, I’ve been interested in my own dehumidification kiln for some time now. Last night while at one of our East Tennessee Woodworkers Guild meetings, held in the highschool’s wood shop, I was talking with the instructor about one that he built there from the plans in Fine Woodworking issue 91. He was able to loan me that issue to guide me in design and construction. Before I launch into this project I’d like to find out first if there were any follow-up articles that may have modified the design or, if anyone has any experience with their’s. The only modification he made was to use ceramic heaters to get higher temperatures. That caused him to locate the dehumidifier outside the box to avoid thermal cut-out problems. He achieved this by relocating the evaporator coil from the dehumidifier into the box. Currently, I’m planning on building the kiln as defined in the article.
Thanks for your help.
Replies
There are some alternatives which don't require the use of a dehumidifier, for example solar kilns, which use a fraction of the power. Take a look at these four
Solar Kilns 1
Solar Kilns 2
Solar Kilns 3
Solar Kilns 4
Scrit
Thanks for th eprompt reply. I failed to mention that I need to place the kiln in my basement workshop.
I used to run an Arrowsmith dehumidifier kiln in a small workshop some 15 or so years ago. The "kiln" was actually built from cheap shuttering plywood (douglas fir construction plywood) lined with expanded polystyrene (the sort electrical goods come in). It worked quite well. John Arrowsmith was the guy who originally designed the Ebac dehumidifier kiln units and his firm may be found here. They are very knowledgeable about the subject and their web site and literature include details about kiln construction which may be of use
Scrit
I don't know about the article, but years ago, I looked at building a dehumidifier kiln, and there was a company that made different level machines you could buy and build the box to hold the wood. The one I looked at was only 250bf, but they had much larger ones as well. It was called EBACS. You could do a search and see if they are still around.
I've owned a dehumidifier kiln for several years now. The dehumidifier itself was made by Nyle, and the box was built by the fellow I bought it from. I've used mine alot over the years and I'm pleased with the results. About 120 degrees is about as high a temperature as I'll take mine to (usually I'll keep the temperature around 110) and it takes around 9-14 days to dry a stack of lumber (previously air dried to about 15%). Just recently a friend of mine built a kiln similiar to my kiln box but he uses a dehumidifier he bought from Lowes, a small heater, and a attic fan to move the air around. He's reported to me as having good success with the lumber he dried, however it took him about twice as long as mine does. I think the total price on his unit was around 2,000.00 which is about half of what mine cost.
BTW American Woodworker a few years ago done a article on a small kiln that might be worth looking into. It actually used a light bulb as a heat source, and the kiln box was small (I think it could do about 300ft at a time).
Robert
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