Building a small solar kiln for under £150

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I built this solar kiln over the past few days to dry some lovely elm and cherry slabs. for 2 amazing future projects coming later in the year.
This solar kiln design is based on my own strange requirements and the slap dash attitude I take with these sort of projects (drawn on the back of a packet). All the materials used in this project are easily available and cheep. the storage inside is about 2.6 m long, 600mm wide and 350mm high. This design is perfect for cheep, fast and high quality wood drying. I installed a small 12v solar panel and 2 small fans to help circulate the air inside the kiln. as the sun heats the kiln causing the wood to dry and in the evening the wood cools down and rests allowing higher quality material to be produced. this process should hopefully take 6 - 8 weeks to be completed but because this is Scotland and its cold and wet I think may b a little longer.

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15 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 26

@dpodsful Месяц назад

I like the Star Wars undies 😄

@nailedinscotland Месяц назад

Aww thanks, I'm trying to get enough people interested in this so I can launch my OF career and retire. I keep putting on my sexiest cloths lol.

@janisplavinskis7177 Год назад

Next time make the top cover openable- like a lid of a large chest - that will make loading MUCH easier!

@nailedinscotland Год назад

Hi thanks for the comment. I did originally think about that as your right it would make loading easier but for unloading would need to take everything out to get at the bottom piece also for monitoring moisture content and just checking the material I decided it would be better from the front as this would allow me more access

@jeffbriggs7120 Год назад

I like it that would work for me thank you for the video 😊😊

@nailedinscotland Год назад

Ace man let me know if you give it a go

@diymanbelfast2897 Год назад

Good Job and some great ideas, thanks for sharing.

@nailedinscotland Год назад

Thanks man

@calmac643 4 месяца назад

Alright mate, fellow Scotsman in the north west here. Im nearly done making my own kiln, not based on really anything I've seen, but, think it will work. My question really is just a bit of expansion on something someone else asked. When you said you had timber in it for 7 months and it hit 5%, was it green when you put it in? What was the %? I plan to use it for firewood and timber for projects. Do you think its possible to over insulate it? The internals are split into two is that right? Like a heat collector then the timber separately and fans to circulate the air? Thats what id have thought, do you think it'd also work as just an open single chamber? My biggest concern really is not getting the temperature up inside ivo lack of sun, but you said you didn't have any issues. Anything you can send me in terms of advice would be amazing man. I've got this far with a bit of RU-vid and common sense, but, good to hear how others in the country have done things. Cheers

@nailedinscotland 4 месяца назад

Aright loon. So the timber went in green think it had been milled a week before it went in. So at the time I was using a pin moisture meter so that % was at the surface so it was probably a lot higher in the centre. I don't think you can overisulate as you want as much heat as possible you just need to get the humidity out. Yea my one was just a single chamber just had a few fans to keep the air moving. We live in Scotland so Sun is a rare commodity here I was lucky at my old place cause where I had mine it got direct sun most of the day. That's the main thing you need the sun try find the lightest part of your garden. In the end i had one of my fans stuck to a vent trying to pull the moisture out, also got a digital thermometer and humidity thing just to track it. Hope all this makes sense anything else u want to know just let me know will try to help.

@poolhalljunkie2013 Год назад

Hey man. Nice work... it's been a year now. How is the kiln working out for you? I'm considering building something similar but just a little bigger

@nailedinscotland Год назад

well so were almost at 2 years and it worked great for the first year got a few slabs dried out perfectly. then we had a massive storm and a tree landed on it completely destroying beyond repair. got plans to make a 2.0 at some point almost the same but on steroids

@tonyalways7174 Год назад

@@nailedinscotland . That was some storm but hopefully it was a once in a lifetime. I’m thinking of using clear Onduline on mine because that’s pretty tough stuff so that might work for v2.0. 👍🏻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@psisky Год назад

That's exactly the shape and size I'm after. I don't want to connect any fans or solar panels though. Do you know the best place to put ventilation so that the air inside will move by itself?

@nailedinscotland Год назад

Been thinking about this for the last day and without fans will be difficult to get the air to move right. but maybe some vents on the floor and some as high up as you can get it. Might force some movement. tbh I think you will just end up with little to none tho. If you try it let me know would be interesting little experiment.

@twomany 3 года назад

Nice video, how were you able to vent the air inside the kiln or air exchange able to happen because the seams were loose?

@nailedinscotland 3 года назад

Hi man so I forgot to show it in the video still trying to remember to film things. I put to holes in the back to allow air to circulate also 2 fans inside to keep it moving. The seams appear loose but because of the insulation they are very tight opening it is a night mare hope this helps

@Sambo16 3 года назад

Thanks for the video! How did the wood turn out?

@nailedinscotland 3 года назад

It actually went better than I thought 7 weeks got it all down to 5% moisture. In that time we've had lots of snow and rain

@Sambo16 3 года назад

@@nailedinscotland That's great! I've been looking for a smaller build for a solar kiln just to get started. That's when I came across yours and was hopeful. Now I just need to convince the wifey to let me put it in our backyard! Thanks for the video and the reply!

@nailedinscotland 3 года назад

@@Sambo16 I can help u with the wife as well. What I find best it to build it when they are at work don't say a word and when the finally notice just say that's been they're for ages done it a few times

@Sambo16 3 года назад

@@nailedinscotland sounds like a good plan. I'll start the build tomorrow haha

@adamthewoodworker2571 2 года назад

Hey, just found your video and I appreciate you laying everything all out. One question I had is, is your setup more about direct sunlight hitting the kiln, or more about the overall outside temperature?

@nailedinscotland 2 года назад

Hey man. Yea your trying to get as much sunlight in as possible the angle I go on about helps get maximum amount of sun light and the insulation and black paint just help keep the heat in, IV found mine about 15c above outside temp but believe it's been hotter

@adamthewoodworker2571 2 года назад

@@nailedinscotland ok I see. And then, with this method, have you ever found a desire to add ijna dehumidifier to aid/speed up the process? Or would it not really be worth it?

@nailedinscotland 2 года назад

@@adamthewoodworker2571 i will be honest i never thought of that, i think that might speed it up a little as i have seen condensation on the top