Shopsmith Forums

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DT aka Agent Orange is a POS
Liar Liar his wonky comb over is on fire

I used to dry wood in an old school bus (seats removed). I would lower all of the windows an inch. The windows had those little awnings over them to keep rain out. That allowed just enough ventilation to get the moisture out of the bus in a breeze and still kept the temps up well during a sunny day even in mild weather.
You can also solar dry wood by putting down some plastic on the ground to keep soil moisture down away from the wood. Then you put supports under the wood to allow ventilation and keep the wood straight. Next just sticker the stack up and idg a perimeter ditch to drain water away. Then you build a ploy sheeting "pup tent" over it not letting the plastic touch the wood. The sun will cook the moisture out and it will collect on the plastic walls/roof and run down to the ditch. Very cheap and will do a decent job fairly quickly.

I have had one very much like the American Woodworker one and have used it to dry many locally scrounged hardwoods. They work amazingly well and I get to make things out of species no one else has access to. Do be careful to balance the collector area with the amount of wood you are drying. Mine handles about 200 fbm. The first time I used it I only had about 125 fbm and I had a little overdrying occur. All you have to do is cover some of the collector area. The trick is to balance so that the moisture is being evaporated from the surface at the same rate that is is migrating to the surface from inside. Sounds technical I know but trial and error will soon have you confident enough to dry anything.

This table is made from Arbutus that came from a huge trunk of a forked tree by my shop. When I built the shop one trunk had to go. Now it lives in our front hall.

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Drying your own wood can be very satisfying.

Good Luck

Paul M

That is a magnificent table. Great work!

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http://owic.oregonstate.edu/solarkiln/plans.htmI'll try to snap a photo before I head out tomorrow (to AZ) but mine is a lot like the Am woodworkers one you show. Mine is really cheap..scrap wood and plastic sheet. The only things I bought were the two fans (mine has two box fans) and a timer. I think I mostly followed this http://owic.oregonstate.edu/solarkiln/plans.htm but there are lots of good ideas out there and I looked at a lot of them.

Paul M

I looked up the American Woodworks solar kiln plan; I think I will build a smaller version this summer to dry limbs for walking sticks and canes.

http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/pro ... -kiln.aspx

Absolutely beautiful table, Paul! Eye popping beauty!! Thanks for showing us!

Paul,
That is a work of art, excellent woodworking.

Beautiful ,beautiful table!! I hope one day I can make something so wonderful