Building a small Solar Kiln to dry wood
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- A solar kiln I have built this summer to dry some wood I sawmill from two old falling trees we had in the garden, and for future more I might get so I can dry my own wood.
The kiln is based on the well know Virginia Tech design, adapted for my own needs and materials I could find easily on local hardware stores. Mine has a storage space inside of about 1.5 m in length, 0.85 m wide and 0.65 high (~5’ x 2.75’ x 2’ ). This design uses the sun to heat up the wood inside during daytime in order to release moisture, then the wood will rest throughout the night, same cycle the following days, until the moisture reaches the desired level, and it can take from several days up to one or two months depending on the wood state, outside conditions etc.
More details about the design and build I have wrote on this blog article www.adrianpred...
and the first results, charts, recordings etc www.adrianpred...
■ Tools used in this video:
• Evolution Sliding Miter Saw R255SMS amzn.to/2m29Arg
• Bessey Kliclamps - Bessey Kliclamps -amzn.to/41Y3Y0x (Amazon), bit.ly/2UJ3pan (Dictum)
■ List of all my tools: www.adrianpred...
■ Tools list on Amazon www.amazon.com...
■ Plans and Products I make on my store here www.adrianpred...
■ Follow my INSTAGRAM for insights and other projects:
/ adrianpwood
As an Amazon and Dictum Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases made through these links.
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Music
by Epidemic Sound:
www.epidemicsound.com
#Woodworking #Solarkiln #Dryingwood
I SO love it when you don't talk. I'm glad you assume that those watching know what you're doing and how you're doing it and why you are doing it.
Great video.
I absolutely *love* how you integrated the construction sounds into the music.
You should get yourself a decent cordless drill and driver. Life will never be the same. So worth it. Nice job, :)
In the meantime I got a drill, but for an impact driver...neah I rarely do this kind of carpentry projects so I better buy other tools instead :)
Syncing the music to the footage is some next level shit. It really adds to the watchability of the vid.
Thank you, glad you like that!
Foarte buna lucrare mult succes și multe realizari
Adrian Preda yeah I’m currently on a binge watch of your channel, it’s next level stuff
Literally gonna say the same thing but everyone did
I noticed that too.
Nicely done. So, almost two years later, how's it working out? Would you do anything different, while keeping the same scope of the project? Has the decision not to insulate the floor caused any problems?
You can check here www.adrianpreda.com/blog/solar-kiln-run the first results and recordings of the first run.
This really is a satisfying video. Well thought out. And damn the drill through the finger. Ugh, been there 10 or 15 times over the years lol. Especially with Phillips bits.
Looks like an excellent way to store green firewood off by south deck.
I was with a friend last night talking about Japanese joinery and I showed him some of my projects and he said, there’s nobody else in Slovenia who does this and I said... I know a guy! I was talking about you and along comes this awesome video, nice work!
Thanks Randy!
Don't worry you are still the only one :)) I don't live anymore there, we moved to Romania some months ago :)
Adrian Preda I’m sorry to hear that you’re not here anymore. I hope you’re doing well and enjoying your new home.
So basically you built a house for the wood you're going to turn into boxes. Well played sir
A house for wood to be cooked, then cut and sliced, spiced with danish oil and then served
You guys are awesome
hei Adi, where do you live? I work with wood in Sibiu and my name is Voicu
I used the wood to destroy the wood. It almost killed me. But the work is done. It always will be.
Next you can hook up an Arduino and some servos, and open a close those air ports automatically to keep the temperature and humidity constant. Great project.
Thanks! Yep, thinking to implement this, maybe also control over gsm or internet to control it from home
The editing on this video is GREAT!
Great video loved the syncopated construction sounds especially drill\ describing at the beginning. Great work as usual 🎼🎼
Thank you Glen! Yeah, this was fun to edit, had more action to play with🙂
Great video, thank you very much! It just made my day :) After reading your articles on this kiln half a year ago I was thinking about building one and now I have this helpful video, definitely gonna try it. Just need to think and read first how differences in climate might affect the structure.
Sharp looking unit, Adrian! I'm building one from an old Emery Airfreight container. It's not going to look near as good as yours, but it's almost free. Except my labour, and I'm retired.
Thanks Nik! That's cool with that kind of container, looks nice.
Mine I had to beautify it a bit so it will integrate in the garden when we will set it up more nicely :)
Some nice video cuts to align with the music! Great project, simple tools, amazing.
Revisited your channel and this vid almost a year ago, still 1:53 is the most enjoyable part of all the build videos out there! :) Especially a sax solo kicking in after.
That first shot of the finished product was so nice I thought you HAD used the cherry and walnut to build it hahaha good job man!
Haha no😀 I've used to cheapest construction lumber and paneling for this. The cherry is for fine woodworks stuff
This is a fantastic project. Great job, and thank you for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
I am pretty sure this is the first time I've watched a build video where I have found myself tapping my foot. Nice touch sir...... Oh and the solar kiln is pretty slick too. Nice work all round. Great idea..... Will watch with interest as you get some results.
Bravo, Adita. Keep up the good work and follow your dream.
Mersi Vic!
Excellent job, sorry about the finger... Glad to see you back...
Ha ha, it's already cured, just a tiny scarf left, but it really drilled my finger that PZ2 bit :))
Thanks!
Great project and a fantastic job as well! You dodged the bullet with the glove, but the drill won in the end. I always say, “it’s all about hard work and self sacrifice”. Thanks for the great idea!
Thank you very much! Yep, that hit me :) forgot to take them off after I put that nasty wool
Very nice build and a great addition for the dyi'r. Great job all around
Thank you!
Major bonus points if you heated your shop with it.
Very Nice!
Really cool idea. Nice video! Thanks.
Torx longe live ♥️💪🏾. Great job man. Love that you show the "bad" footage.
Really interesting build. Excellent presentation (no constant facials!) Like the way thought through the design. Will sub, Thanks Adrian
Very tidy build, very well put-together video. Cheers for sharing!
Thank you very much!
Impact and Torx bits- will change your life!
I can relate, but I don't do this kind od prjects so often, I better spend the money on other tools :)
Hello my friend. Good idea for drying wood. furnace I watched curiously. congratulations. You did good. greetings..............
Thank you too for watching! Cheers!
That looks amazing good job 👏
Very cool!
You are back! Good!
A different work, magnific like always, thanks to share it 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thanks for watching too!
Satisfying build video Sir 🖖
Fantastically well done video, great skills all round
Very nice and looks like it will work great! Thank.
Great job!
Bravo Adrian, super frumos!!
Multumesc!
Super build and video 👍
I am thinking if you made a steam box... it would be good with ventilation holes at the bottom - maybe in the floor or walls and the top of the walls. It could make the electrical fan unnecessary 🤞
I think you have to make more natural airflow in the box 🙂
Hi Adrian, I was wondering where you have been! I like the drying kiln, nice job! Nice to see a power tool in your hand, but hope the wood dries soon. Looking forward to see what you make out of it!
Thank you Patrick! The cherry is already dried :) I will begin using it very soon, can wait to see what fiber will be revealed after planing.
Slightly insensitive Patrick given that at 7:44 the power tool was literally in his hand.
pretty pretty pretty cool, mate.
Thank you!
Realy great work! Thanks
Really enjoyed the video until the end. You didn't show me the finished wood!!! 😊😊😊Geez!!!
You will see plenty of it in the next weeks :) I'm building a desk from it. First video tonight :)
Dude, I loved this video. You did some shit that I think every guy whose not some world renowned carpenter has done. Getting yourself with the drill and needing to do first aid. Or when you left the jigsaw running while you adjusted your position, while completely letting go of the tool in the process. That's guy shit that we think is funny but hear about it from our spouses.
Nice one Adrian. Been thinking about this myself!
Thank you!
Beautifully done. Don't understand the need for the fan: with air inlet at bottom and outlet at top, would passive ventilation not be sufficient? And am dying to know what internal temp & RH is usual, and what wood moisture content resulted.
Thanks! You need the hot air formed up to go through the wood, natural will not happen. Check out my blog post in description there is a lot of data and graphs
nice
Bro, buy battery power impact drill for screws, that drill is for predrilling holes only. You will be amazing when you put your first 3 1/2" deck screw in like butter with a impact driver. Way lighter, and cordless is where its at
You also wont strip screws near as easy. They are amazing. Ive put in 100's of thousands of screws in and pulled them out planking the wood onto custom yachts
Oh, and it also wont slip off and bust your fingers open near as easy. You will thank me. Impact driver. Can get dewalt combo set both the impact driver and drill...note how one is called a driver and one a drill. Predrilling holes then driving screws in. You can also bump the screw in a sense to snug it without slipping out of screw head slightly stripping it..
Well done!!
Thank you!
Bravo!
Chiar frumos.
Multumesc!
Awesome project as always! :D
Thank you!
Do you think you could dry lumber in an old polycarb roof conservatory with a fan, mine is horrendous for getting hot in summer? It must be good for something
In cat timp e gata un uscător plin?
Cam 2-6 saptamani, depinde si de grosime, esenta, cat a fost zvantat inainte
@@AdrianPreda imi voi face și eu unul, ca e tare bun și ca spațiu de depozitare a lemnului. Iarna cat de eficient e?
oh boi this is a good one
Why use a fan, is the convection not sufficient? Edit, aaaah to push the hot air around instead of gathering at the top. I see
Why not put it on wheels so you can move/rotate it with the sun?
Great build, well done! Couple questions for you:
1) Where do you get "pallet boards" that are tongue and groove? Would love to get some of those!
2) Why did you build it so small for a lumber kiln? Do you only work with small dimensions?
3) How can you do such a great job on that little kiln.. but still haven't put Tyvek/weatherproofing/siding on your shed?! =p
Good stuff.
Thanks!
1. It was a circumstance, got it from a company, I believe it was a custom big pallet/box holding some kind of high voltage substation equipment.
2. I only use small lumber, yes. Plus it's easy to transport with a normal car the lumber from the sawmill, or when I get a tree trunk from a neighbor or somebody else.
3. Not familiar with that, but if you mean vapor barrier I considered it was unnecessary. It is not a home, not 100% sealed, when unused it stays open, any moisture coming in, same way will get out.
@@AdrianPreda Yeah, I thought that had to be a special circumstance, lucky you!
With regards to the building, I'm talking about the exterior wall of your shed being OSB. Exposed OSB like you have will rot being exposed to the elements. It didn't appear to be treated, and even if it were, the treatment will only protect for a few years. I would get something on it ASAP if I were you. Water is the enemy of buildings.
Again, nicely done. Can't wait to build one myself. Just started my woodmill last week, so I'll need a kiln next year.
Ah, you were talking about the shed behind, that's just a temporary thing to shelter some junks :) I'm not worry, a couple of years is more than enough
Top quality work; pro production values. Just throw on some PPE when necessary to set the example and you're golden.
Where did you get the hammer-in probes? I watched a few times as I was building a kiln basically like yours and the probes are the one thing I can't seem to find - probably because I don't know what keywords to use when searching, and just keep getting a bunch of probe types that are definitely not what I want.
Also, I only use corded drills. There's just no substitute for reliable and predictable power and performance.
Hi, those are just some M2.5 screws (were the most similar I found in diameter like the meter's pins) and sharpened by me on a dremel tool.
Foarte tare! Cam cat te ajunge la final cu toate materialele sa il construiesti?
Mersi! Parca m-a ajuns vreo 1200 lei, plus ce mai aveam eu mici resturi
Why did you make a shiny metal roof, and a black interior? Should be the other way around.
The roof is not shiny, it's transparent so the light/heat get inside. The interior is black in order to keep the heat inside, not to be reflected back outside
that green bosch is crying for help.
Can you believe I have it for 12 years and never replaced the battery :)
Nice!
Looks great, hows it perform?
Great video , inspiring. Have you used it to dry small logs/bowl blanks ? Was wondering how long things took to go from green to 10% dry? Thanks
Thanks! Nop, I am not into woodturning
When your kiln has better cladding than the side of your house.
That's just a shed behind, the house is gorgeous :))
do never have gloves with drilling machine. Not allowed at my company. Nice Job.
Forgot to take them off after wool mount, that's why I have added that scene, even with a simple drill, shit can happen
@@AdrianPreda I appreciated you. You added the scene to the video so others learn something...
How have you found the Kiln after a year? Moisture content down in those pieces?
You mean the kiln itself? It looks pretty good, just as any wood ages outside. I keep it with the doors closed, vents opened and the roof clear, so any moisture that gets inside, in the walls, osb, wool etc for sure will be throw out during the day, as it gets hot inside, few considerable degrees even in the winter.
@@AdrianPreda I more meant it's performance in speeding up the drying... But yes, my wording was pretty vague.
Great job. And does this kiln dry wood as expected ? Lessons learned ? And very nice video.
Thanks! It did yes, I have made a blog post www.adrianpreda.com/blog/solar-kiln-run with some charts and recordings for now, I will add these days some explanations, details too, you can have a look if you're into numbers :)
Wie bist du mit der Kappsäge zufrieden von Evolution?
It is quite good and solid for the price. Didn't done any precise work with it but it should perform decent.
Wouldn't the insulation collect moisture and eventually develop mold?
That's a risk, but it must be insulated to work. Otherwise, when not in use I leave it half open, so if the moisture get in, eventually it should come out sometime
uses two corded drills that's like seeing bigfoot very rare sight
super curat și arătos. bravo! mă interesează și pe mine modelul circularului și al clemelor, mă poți ajuta?
Mersi! Sunt in descriere linkuri catre ele. Circularul il gasesti la noi la Brico
Say, please, how did you dry them. I like your videos, but i'am tired of waiting it)))
Thank you Oleg! I will post this days a post on my blog how the drying process went in detail
How u manage fifo? First in first out
A wood dryer in a garden? Where is the dry air coming from?
How long in this build does it take for the wood to dry?
Depends on its initial state, from 1-2 weeks to 1-2 months. My cherry batch, air dryed before ~4 months, took 8 days.
@@AdrianPreda thanks man. Loved the video and detail.
Results?
See on my blog, link in description
Not very long boards can fit
With the price of lumber today this would cost about 10K! ha!
Fain, o sa fie o caldura inauntru de se topesc cablurile :)
Doar 95 grade acolo sus au fost :) A rezistat
That was terrific, what you have conjured up! 👌
Why did you delete me again? 😕
?? delete, what?
You also subscribed to me (we both!)
Now I can not find your list anymore!
Good for growing weed too😂
We tried to plant seeds of various vegetables in the early spring last year. Half of them never made it out, and the rest died at after their first leaves. The heat is too strong even in cold days with a little sun
Michael Jackson style @ 6:06
Pallet wood? no that's tongue and groove floorboarding
As I told in a previous comment, it came from a large shipping box for a big industrial equipment
You need to live on a homestead
It's very nice but it does seem hilariously overbuilt.
That poly roof has more screws in it than my entire house.
I guess if you've got the time and resources, why not?
Just pray you never have to tear it down for some reason. You'll probably need high explosives lol
Those many screws are to air seal as much as it can the roof so will not loose heat, they are still not enough😂 I made it so "nice" because it is placed in our back garden, which will be turned into a nice place soon and didnt want this to look ugly, industrial thing there.
In addition to being a fantastic and useful build, I love the way you synched the working sounds to the music. Very nice build and very well done video!
My state (Texas) is a solar kiln. :)
How's that going for ya now?
Confess: how many times did you have to watch it to make it so perfectly synced with the music? Story line is perfect, made me chuckle a few times. You built something really awesome. Can I hire you for a small greenhouse? 😂😂😂
Not to many times sincerely, compared to the previous ones :)) Sure, anytime, you can pay me in tomatoes, I eat them like fruits :)) Thanks!
The video cutting with the drill is awsome! It sounds great :-D
This is just beautyfull, very well made. Might copy parts of it one day. You are really inspiring.
Thank you very much!
Uses a corded drill and a cordless skilsaw? I guess use what you have
You are the first person I've seen in many years to use a plugged in drill as opposed to a cordless one 😲😲
Good job though, nicely built 😄👍
Glen 👍
P.S. how long does it take on average to dry your timber out in your solar kiln ?? I might build one for myself 👍
Yes, that was savage! :) I cannot justify spending 2-300 something on a good cordless drill or a set with an impact driver, I just don't use them in my kind of work. There are others in line, handplanes, saw, chisels etc that will make more use :)
About 1-2 mo depending on how wet it is, thickness, sun outside etc. I did a blog post about the first batch I dried, it took me 9 days but it was already at 12% before kiln drying.
Thanks!
Liked the video even before watching. Had no clue it would be this good though. Might have been a week since last time I smashed the like button to put it into perspective. Good job and thanks a lot.
Thank you also for watching! Very glad you enjoyed it! Cheers!
Nicely done and edited video. Far better than most of the ones I've seen on UA-cam. As much attention to detail and construction that you put into it I'm surprised you didn't use solar panels and thermostatic controls to run them.
Every wood worker should have one of these turning free wet wood into super expensive furniture ready wood year round.
I’m waiting for someone to make one of these with a solar furnace next to it pumping in free heat.
I thought about that
هذا الذي تقوم به هو الأن حلم لكل نجار سوري بسبب تكلفته الباحظة وعدم توافر عمل .
عمل رائع جدا دمت بخير صديقي