# DIY wood kiln?



## buckeyetd (May 26, 2012)

I've located a couple of sawmills that offer fairly cheap cypress in florida but the lumber is only air dried which is OK but it rains quite a bit in florida and the wood takes a while to dry out and I was wondering if anyone had a good idea for a home built of course low buck kiln? that would help resolve this issue. Thanks

I also read somewhere that cypress doesn't do well in kilns.


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## SASmith (Mar 22, 2010)

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.


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

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.


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

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.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

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).


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## buckeyetd (May 26, 2012)

Thank you everybody, great info.


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## HalDougherty (Jul 15, 2009)

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.


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