DIY wood kiln?

You could look into solar kiln plans. I bet you have plenty of sunshine where you live.
There are also plans around that use dehumidifiers.

-- Scott Smith, Southern Illinois

If you have a small storage shed, it is easy to convert it into a kiln. I have turned small rooms into kilns by adding an electric heater, several box fans, and a home dehumidifier. Within 2 weeks I can take oak from 15% down to 6-8%, running the kiln at 100 degrees.

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f23/small-wood-drying-kiln-plans-dry-your-own-lumber-3103/

This is a link to another forum where a guy has been selling kiln plans for about 5 years. Must do something correct or it wouldn’t have been there for so long, IMHO.

-- Michael :-{| Diapers and politicians both need to be changed often; and for the same reason.

I stack and sticker mine in the attic of my shop. Amazing how hot and dry it is up there (and it doesn’t cool off a lot at night).

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

Thank you everybody, great info.

-- http://www.gulfcoastchairs.com

I’ve been using the attic of my farmhouse for over 5 years to dry lumber to make gunstocks. The farmhouse is almost 100 years old and is uninsulated so it gets hot in the day and cools off at night. Just like a gentle solar kiln. This time of year in Tennessee air dried lumber goes down to 6 to 12% in less than 30 days. Virginia Tech has a great website with plans to build a solar kiln. You can size it just about any size you want. PDF files are on these VT sites.

http://sbio.vt.edu/about/extension/vtsolar_kiln
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/420/420-030/420-030.html

I’ve also heard great things about Darren Nelson’s dehumidification kiln plans. He’s a member here so do a search for him and send him a note to ask any questions you have.

http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/pb/wp_395bc3fb/wp_395bc3fb.html

You can also find a lot of good information on this site about solar and dehumidification kilns on this site.

http://www.allwoodwork.com/article/woodwork/solarkiln.htm

You can also search Google and you’ll find more information than you will have time to read.

-- Hal, Tennessee http://www.first285.com