Who's all doing the "shrink wrap kilns"?

[warno]

I've seen them on here and I'm just wondering if who ever had tried the plastic wrap kiln to dry their wood faster could post the results? I'm wanting to try it this spring on some stuff for next year but I'm concerned about it growing mold and fungus. Has anyone had any trouble with that? Also what is the best way to go about it?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[DaveH]

I'm currently trying it on one of my holz hausen's. I propped some pallets up against the wood and wrapped it with shipping plastic wrap. My thinking is moisture will leave wood, cling to plastic and drip down. I will check in the summer to see if any fungus grew, but I left about a foot opening from the ground to let air work through. Some good articles have been posted on here showing how top covered wood with good sun and wind dry faster or just as well. I did this for more curiosity I guess. It's my 17/18 wood so if it doesnt work, I'm not stuck with bad wood. I also put a flexible gutter pipe off the top, bending off the pile, thinking that if warm, moist air rises and collects it has somewhere to collect.

 

[Applesister]

The moisture will leave the wood because that is what it does and possibly grow fungus, and most likely mold. But it will eventually dry up and die off. The wood will cook inside the plastic. Greenhouses get unbearably hot in the summers.
It's a great idea, I would do it in a heart beat, but Im cheap, and won't buy plastic, and I'm lazy.
It's just easier to stack and leave it for a couple years.

 

[Babaganoosh]

I did it this summer and it works. I had a probe thermometer inside and it got as hot as 165.

As a bonus the shrink wrap keeps rainwater and leaves off the wood which also helps to dry the wood out.

I might do some experiments and test pieces and all that but I also might not. I know it works because I did it. If I do it and the wood still isn't ready I'll just let it sit another season.

I dried maple from fresh cut to 20% avg moisture content in 5 months. Your mileage and conditions may vary.

 

[warno]

Those are the answers I was wanting. I have 2 huge pieces of clear plastic I dumpster dived to get from work. How big of piles can I wrap up and get reasonable results?

 

[Applesister]

How big is the plastic?

 

[Poindexter]

I have seen them up here, at least one operation is fitting about 1/3 of a cord on a pallet, four columns of 16" splits each stacked criss-cross, with a little bit of hip roof looking framing at the top made of a few more splits.

Then wrapped starting at the pallet with a 4-6" hole at the top in the middle. I couldn't tell if there was a layer of floor plastic between the pallet and cord wood. The wood I could see looked great to burn.

Its gotta be kind of expensive, there has to be a forklift at the yard to load pallets of seasoned on the delivery truck, and they can only be delivered to folks that have a forklift, or someone would have to be renting a drywall delivery truck. Plus the cost of all the single use shrink wrap.

40 minutes at 140df will kill all micro-organisms, leaving behind only organic debris. It's the low and slow pasteurization regime used by mead makers; kills off all the bugs but makes the smallest possible change to the flavor profile of the honey that is about to be fermented.

I don't know how deep into each split that heat would have to penetrate to keep mold and fungus and mildew from coming out of dormancy when the split cools back off. I think some of the trees I have processed had circulatory systems loaded with mildew spores, but on most of them it seems to be a surface contamination issue.

 

[warno]

How big is the plastic?

Both are about 25 feet X 20 feet. Ones alittle bigger then the other.

 

[spirilis]

Has anyone posted pics of their diy setups? I have an unknown (but large for my standards, must be at least 2 cords) amount of wood to process and I do dread waiting 2-3yrs to start burning it... think I would be game for doing an experiment here with dead standing and some live oak/hickory (not sure which these are but one of those).

I got scrounged pallets to put them on, and stacking criss crossed with shrink wrap totally sounds like a fun day project once I have some split.

 

[Firefighter938]

Has anyone posted pics of their diy setups? I have an unknown (but large for my standards, must be at least 2 cords) amount of wood to process and I do dread waiting 2-3yrs to start burning it... think I would be game for doing an experiment here with dead standing and some live oak/hickory (not sure which these are but one of those).

I got scrounged pallets to put them on, and stacking criss crossed with shrink wrap totally sounds like a fun day project once I have some split.

IMHO, several woods don't need 2-3yrs time to dry. Ash, walnut, cherry, hackberry, and soft maple come to mind. 9-18 months is plenty of time for these woods.

 

[spirilis]

IMHO, several woods don't need 2-3yrs time to dry. Ash, walnut, cherry, hackberry, and soft maple come to mind. 9-18 months is plenty of time for these woods.

Yeah but my understanding is oak & hickory are the annoying ones that do. It's basically all my dad's property has so it's what I have to work with...

 

[Paulywalnut]

Yeah but my understanding is oak & hickory are the annoying ones that do. It's basically all my dad's property has so it's what I have to work with...

I'd love that dilemma.