small board milling and drying?

[imagineero]

Hi all,
I vaguely bounced this idea around a few months ago and would like to hear any advice about small board drying. I do tree removals as a full time job and sometimes we do get very interesting looking timber, unfortunately 100% of it gets put through a chipper. There isn't really any opportunity to mill it; clients want it all gone same day, and realistically I have no means of transporting or moving big logs, or any place to store the timber (or a need for it for that matter!).

What I would like to do though is make some breadboards, or some small shelves, tiny tables, that kind of thing. The finished board size would be about 3' long at most, about 2~3" thick and as wide as the tree is, usually somewhere around 2~3'. When we do trees that are too big to fit through the chipper we rip the logs down to whatever size needed so they will fit, so it's no big deal to ripe a few boards if I get something nice. The boards would easily be able to fit in the truck and I could take a few each time.

Can I dry boards like this? I have space to build a small (probably solar?) kiln. It only needs to be small enough to take my small boards. I'd be pretty happy with a 50% success rate. Any and all advice welcome.

Thanks,
Shaun

 

[betterbuilt]

I'd say go for it. What do you have to lose. I know a lot of arborists that turn crotches and spalted pieces in to cutting boards. I like to lean some of my odd shaped pieces because they don't stack very well. I think they dry pretty well in an upright position. Personally I wouldn't kiln dry slabs unless your doing it to kill bugs, to keep bugs out of it, or you need it right away.

 

[willbarryrec]

Do it man!

That sounds like a awesome way to utilize some wood and keep it from getting chipped.

You might want to try painting/sealing the ends of the slabs to even out the drying speed.

I would think a simple 4x4x4 box with a solar collector on top and a small fan to exhaust the wet air would work just fine..Try (if you havn't all ready) googling solar kilns...there are a lot of plans/ideas out there.

Good luck and post up some pictures when you get going!

 

[820wards]

Hi all,
I vaguely bounced this idea around a few months ago and would like to hear any advice about small board drying. I do tree removals as a full time job and sometimes we do get very interesting looking timber, unfortunately 100% of it gets put through a chipper.

Shaun,

If you can get odd woods that you can later use, do it. I got a tree from a neighbor down the street that was spalted throughout the log. I did a test piece with finish, no stain and it turned out beautiful. So get that wood at enjoy!

jerry-

Here is when we cut it and you can see it isn't a large piece of wood.