Firing the kiln with carbon neutral green energy

About a year ago we started building a dry kiln for drying lumber. At the time I was using a neighbor's tobacco bulk barn for drying lumber. It worked very well, but it was also very expensive. Seeing that I have a seemingly endless supply of fuel, it was only natural to build a wood fired dry kiln for drying the lumber sawn on my Wood-Mizer portable sawmill. It worked better in the summer than it does now, because I have not insulated to large bi-fold door that is made of recycled sheet metal. In the summer I could dry the pine lumber in about 4 days. Now it takes about 6 days.

I fire the kiln with oak, poplar, and pine slabs. It has an eight inch flue pipe that runs down one side, across the end, and back down the other side before going out to the smoke stack. The walls of the kiln are made out of 6"x6" pine beams held together with all-thread rod. After we used it a few times, we had to go back and seal the cracks that opened up. The walls have stayed fairly tight since that.

According to a magazine that I read on the subject, using wood for heat is carbon neutral. I'm just not sure about that smoke and steam going out the stack.

Oh, another bit of lumber has just finished it's drying process and will be picked up by the customer in a couple of days. :)

Nails in trees, nails in logs, I do not like them, please

Dr. Seuss could have had fun with this one. Having to watch out for nails in logs that I'm sawing is a perennial problem. It seems that many people mistake trees for living fence posts, among other things that cause them to have nails anywhere from the surface to the center, (those poor little trees that had nails pounded into them :( ,)

Cedar and walnut are the most likely trees to have nails or other metal in them. Any tree that is made of wood, is also a likely candidate for having a nail in it. Cedar, because they make such good living fence posts and walnut, because they are just there and someone comes along with a nail and they need somewhere to put it.

Sometimes I have taken my portable sawmill to saw for someone who declared that there is no way that there can be any nails in any of their logs because of this or that, and zing, in the first log the blade will saw through a nail. Then he will look at me as if to say that it is my fault. I'm sympathetic, saw blades are expensive, (over $2000 in new blades and sharpening in 2008).

So, please keep this one thing in mind. If you have a nail, or other metal object that you feel must be put into wood, find a piece of wood that has already been converted into a board or a fence post, and then pound it in. You and your sawyer will be glad you did.

Slabs, slabs everywhere!

One of the occasional challenges of being a sawmill operator it what to do with the slabs. Today I combined that with what to do with 5 nephews. There was a nice slab pile of red oak, maple, and poplar that I had been saving, letting dry for a while, and saving for such a time.

I offered the youngsters a job of stacking firewood for me and they were very excited at the prospect of being paid to help me. With so many hands stacking the pieces of slabs at one time, the process went fairly quickly. Now, I have a clear spot to make a new slab pile and a nice stack of firewood for firing the kiln. But that is another story.