Kiln dried firewood

[jrcurto]

Is that an attention grabber? I was thinking of building a cement block kiln to dry wood quickly, or quicker. Say 10X8" and whatever height I could manage. I could design it to handle small wood fire and move the heat through but really was thinking of running a propane jet type blower heater through it. This would only be used to dry off some oak or other dead standing wood I am bucking up now and after splitting it fairly small. Another question is: How burnable is standing dead White Ash? From my experience burning green white ash, it is almost unbelievable how it burns just weeks after felling. I did notice that it burns worse a year later after storage outside. What moisture meter should I buy? Any thoughts on these questions is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jim.

 

[Slow1]

Hmm.. i wonder just how much fuel you will burn (either wood or propane) to dry that wood out. Overall economics of the situation would be interesting to figure out. Wood burning to dry the wood seems the best option IF you have a free (or very inexpensive) supply of wood. Then of course I would hope you would be able to burn the wood clean and hot - i.e. don't go burning green wood to fuel that kiln and smoke out the area.

If you go forward with the project I'd love to see the results of how you do it. I don't have the time, space, or wood supply for such a thing but it is an interesting idea.

 

[prajna101]

Wood is probably best heat. Propane burns it has a byproduct of water, making a wet heat which may be counterproductive.

Cost benefit analysis should be done. Heck for 400 bucks you can have a 4x4x8 pallet of kiln dried 2x4s delivered. That would be a heck of a cord of pine!