think i might have damaged my load of QSRO, what do you think?

[Kelvin]

Howdy all,
Well i set my Nyle kiln at the conservative setting for my green QSRO load, and turned it on.  For some reason my life got hectic and i couldn't get around to oven drying my samples and getting things checked to see how my drying was going.  Well after 4 days i checked and the lumber samples were surface checked badly already and my samples were down to 30% MC from 61% start so i lost 29% in 4 days or roughly 7% per day instead of my target of 3%. 

Man my kiln must have been leaking the moisture out as it was at 90 degrees and 20%compressor cycle, which i thought was hardly anything.  I turned off the compressor when i discovered what was happening and now with the compressor off the samples are loosing 3% MC per day just through the leaky chamber.  though i checked the main stack and its nowhere near as dry as my samples.  I think they were more in direct wind area, so dried much faster.  I'm still very worried about surface checking in my main stack, i can't see much, but they say you can't see all the damage that might have occured until you get till final MC range and they open up.  I can't see the surfaces very well either, but i'll cross my fingers.

 My samples are now about 5 days older than when i stopped the compressor and read 20%MC.  I cut new samples however from some bigger pieces i had left over from the samples and they are reading 32% MC.  I end coated the sample pieces so i don't know why there is such a difference in the dry rate on the samples, but man this is not an easy thing to do with oak.  I really need this stuff to turn out as i don't have the time or the money to wreck 800 bd ft that i'm using for a project i promised and is waiting on me.  I guess i can't tell how dry the main stack really is, i hope the samples are out of whack and its not that dry really.  Sweating bullets!
KP

[Kansas]

Long as what your drying is 1" lumber, even with a leaky kiln you should be fine. 90 isn't that warm. I'm actually suprised you don't have water standing in the kiln. I would think the humidity of the kiln would be high.

[DR_Buck]

I use the Wood-Mizer controller (DH4000) on my Nyle and don't set compressor run time.   I just set RH and let it go.     

I think the most important thing you can do is get the chamber air tight.   If you can't control a stable RH you're headed for trouble.    I lost the bottom gasket off one of my doors and didn't realize it until I ran into a way to rapid drop in RH.   Luckily I found the issues before I damaged the 1800 bf load of Walnut.

[jim king]

Take a peice out and plane it.  It will either make ypu feel better or worse to know but at least you will know.

[OneWithWood]

Let me echo what DR said.

When you are finished with this charge take the time to totally seal your chamber.  You cannot control the variables in a leaky chamber well enough to assure quality.

How long did the stack sit from the time it came off the mill until you fired up the kiln?

[Kansas]

I just can't see damage at 90 degrees, set at 20% on the compressor.  The only way I could imagine is if you had a very high volume of air moving, coupled with not just a leaky kiln, but a well ventilated one. Not with 4/4 lumber.
Now, if its 8/4, thats a whole different story.

[Kelvin]

Howdy all,
Yeah, i was hoping i couldn't wreck the 4/4 but the samples have me worried.  Has anyone had oak dry at over 7% MC per day?  I wonder if its easier to wreck it from 60-40%MC or 40-30%MC?  The lumber is still over 30% MC so i don't think i will see the damage until its down to 7%.

[petefrombearswamp]

Hey Kelvin, Off the subject, but I have often wondered, where did you get that nice bullfrog?
pete