Commercial kiln chambers vs building your own

[Curlywoods]

  I am considering buying a smaller commercial kiln chamber(2000/BF capacity) vs building one.  What do you all think are some of the negatives?  Cost is the obvious one, but will a premade chamber ever pay for itself? This would be a DH kiln, most likely a Nyles unit.

   I have been approached by an exotic wood importer located in Dallas and he has also asked me to consider installing a small high quality kiln to dry his incoming lumber.  I have been discussing a plan where I would take over his North American distribution of these woods, but they would have to be kiln dried.   He has been importing mainly burls from Laos and Cambodia for about three years now and he recently started importing some of the figured and unique woods from this region.  I have been buying these burls from him and have developed a good relationship.  The quantities of lumber will be small enough that a 2000/BF kiln would satisfy the current levels, as these are expensive woods and the volume of sales are not large typically (200-500 BF shipments to other dealers).   

  Can a small commercial kiln chamber like this pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time?  Can I expect a good long life with proper care vs something that I build myself from wood? 

[Brad_S.]

Mike,
I don't know if any of my rambling will help you, but here goes.

I have a Koetter Kiln made of aluminum sip panels. I just set it up, plugged it in and away I went.

I had my Nyle in an old freezer in a complex I own, but a tenant needed more space, so I gave him that space and planned on building a chamber. It's been 5 months now and I just haven't had time to build one. Mean while, I'm losing income I could have been making from the kiln.

I'm very tempted to buy a chamber as well. In my case anyhow, it comes down to a time vs. money issue. (Unfortunately, I don't have enough of either at the moment, so there it sits.) I suspect it's the same for you. If you have time to build, I feel it's a better value, but if it gets you running quicker, I think a prefab unit would recover it's cost in a reasonable amount of time as opposed to waiting around until you get to construction.

My two uninformed cents.

[Frank_Pender]

I built my own from a refer trailer and have used it for 8 plust years without a problem.  It has run straight for the last 11 months with no more than 3 or 4 days down time.   I clear about a grand a month, with an investment of $5,000, including the Taylor furnace, heat exchanger, Ebac 800 and a little insolation and wireing. 8) 8) 8)

   ;D all the way to the bank!

[oakiemac]

I bought a 48 foot shipping container. It sits on the ground so height is not an issue. It cost me around $1900 with cartage. I was in the same boat. I didn't have the time to build it myself.
The down side of reefers and containers is that you have to hand load them or build cart system. I have almost completed my cart system after a year of hand loading 3000bf. My son is going to more happy then me when we finally get the carts up and running. ;D

Those prefabs from Koetters and others can also be a good deal because they were designed as kilns and should have adequate insulation.

[Curlywoods]

So who are some of the manufacturers of smaller kiln chambers (3000 BF/or less)?  I know of Northland and Koetter, but are there others???  Time is my biggest enemy. 

[Brad_S.]

Nyle literature states that they can provide a chamber. Don, care to elaborate?

[Don_Lewis]

Nyle can supply chambers but rarely do because of the expense. Truck bodies and containers are popular but make sure you only use reefers.

You can insulate a apace better than any prefab chamber so that is a good reason to build your own, as well as the lower cost. You can usually hire a local carpenter  and insulator for less than paying factory overhead and workers far away for this size chamber