Building your own Dry Kiln: Drying Hardwood

Air drying and kiln drying wood is an art to many. Schedules vary with species and many of us look for more cost effective ways to dry lumber. This page will show you many practices we have used to effectively dry our wood and yield the most usable amount of custom sawn hardwoods as the end result.

There are more cost effective ways to dry your hardwoods when you do not need the larger capacity kilns. Drying wood is not rocket science and once you have an insulated box with the right equipment in place, you have yourself an affordable method for drying wood. My kiln is 14 feet long and 4 feet wide. It is in my woodshop and used as a work bench while drying the hardwoods contained in it. I built my kiln using a dehumidifier, digital controls to monitor temperature and humidity and 8 sheets of plywood. I did build an elaborate set-up becasue I needed it to blend in as a counter/bench and I didn't want anyone to know what was going on inside of it. I formicaed the surfaces and installed several sensors throughout. In the end, I was able to effectively dry lumber slowly while controlling the temp and humidity of the interior.

Dry Kiln: Material List and Tools Needed

Article Coming Soon...Building an economical dry kiln in your shop for drying smaller quantities of custom sawn hardwoods is not difficult. In fact, with a little time and basic knowledge of using power tools, you can build your own dry kiln in a weekend...Entire article to come soon!