Nyle L200

[OneWithWood]

Much like Oakiemac and DR I prefer to go from the mill directly to the kiln.  It really cuts down on degrade.  Less degrade = mo money so I am comfortable with the economics of it all.  My kiln
(DH4000) comes up to temp without any external heat and I can hit 160°F without a problem.  A good tight chamber helps a lot. 

[Den Socling]

I agree 100% that it is better to go from the saw directly into the kiln. Air drying leaves too much out of control. But some guys with drying sheds and shade cloth can minimize degrade and save money on their electric bill. In another situation, something like 8/4 red oak might require air drying to minimize degrade in the kiln. Sirianni Hardwoods, in New York, air drys huge amounts of heavy red and white oak before it is loaded into conventional kilns but the air drying can take a year. That's a long time to tie up money in inventory but they are good at air drying. They are located in a valley with a steady breeze and they have sheds pointed perpendicular to the breeze and with shade cloth. BTW I never air dry before loading my vacuum kilns.

ahhh if only we all had predryers. Right now, for example, I have multiple monster ice cubes sitting outside. 

[ahlkey]

It is nice to hear that some of you have not seen it necessary to pre-warm the chamber with a diiferent heating source than what comes with the Nyle L200. The chamber that I put together was made with 2 X 6 's for the walls, floor, and ceiling. It used pink stryrofoam between the studs and then 1 inch of Celotex Thermax for the interior face covered with two layers of 6 mil polyethylene. I also sprayed high temperature foam wherever I found any gaps.  The flooring is 3/4 plywood with everything else 1/2 inch. It sits on a concrete slab that I put in and overall I believe the chamber is very tight but I have yet to start it up.  The dimensions is 18 X 12 X 8 which I believe should hold close to 4,000 board feet. I was just following the directions from Nyle about pre-heating but if it not necessary in many cases that is great.   Thanks for all your advise as it is as always really appreciated.

[ARKANSAWYER]

Ahlkey  You will only get about 2,500 bdft in a box that size.  Also I would not put more then 1800 bdft of green wood in at one time and try to keep your stacks to 4 ft wide.  The kiln will dry small loads to fast some times and large loads not fast enough.   Green wood will make it a steam sona and you will get sticker stain.  Most of my loads are around 1600 to 2000 bdft and my  chamber is a bit larger then yours.

[ahlkey]

I thought if I loaded two 8 ft stacks lengthwise (16 ft) I would be ok in the 18 ft length chamber.  Then use 8 ft of the chambers width leaving 4 ft to spare on the sides.  I would stack at 6 feet high as I need to leave room for the fans.  In this example if I calculated the thickness (inches) X  width (inches) X length (ft) divided by 12 I get 9,216 bd feet if it was solid wood.  Then I thought if I cut everything down by almost 60% assuming the size of the stickers, etc.. I thought I could get 4,000 board feet for the chamber?  I agree I will likely not load it like this often but thought since the L-200 is listed as capable of 4,000 board ft I would set it up that way just in case.   I agree with green lumber it is best to load it light but I do plan to do some seasonal air drying first in most cases to reduce the drying times.  Appreciate all feedback as I am new at this and learning daily.

[DR_Buck]

8' stack width is to wide.   You'll have trouble getting enough air pushed across that much surface area.  Especially if you're only using the two Nyle fans.   Even with added fans you might have trouble.   I stack 4' wide and can go up to about 5' in height.   

My biggest problem in loading the kiln is random or mixed lengths.  When you have different lengths of lumber you loose a lot of kiln space.   My kiln chamber is 19'x8'x7.5' and I'm lucky to get 1800 bf in at a time.   The only way I can get close to the 2200 bf it should hold is if I have all 9' long lumber.