iDRY Vacuum Kilns

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newbie question regarding final days in a dh kiln

Started by canadianwoodworks, March 10, 2015, 12:18:40 PM

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canadianwoodworks

Hi,

I have my woodmizer dh4000 ( nyle l200 ) running now for about 3 weeks, my slabs all 12' long up 24'' to 28'' wide 9/4 read from 7% to 12% using a pin less Wagner moisture meter.

My question is this do i ever take the RH below 30%? My chamber right now will not even get to 30% rh cheap home depot meter says 22-25% and now have my kiln sensor working the same. My temps used have been 115-120-125 in that zone for almost the whole time.

Im putting in air dried lumber, I was setting my rh below 30% basically ran all the time I guess to go from 20-25% air dried, I should go slower I think?  There's not much info once your below 20% when drying that I can find to read. Also that the controller is set to rh instead on cycle time makes it more difficult or should it be easier?


Den Socling

There isn't a lot of info about drying under 20% because there aren't defects you can cause under 20% except maybe enhanced cupping and wet spots. When we build DH controllers, we always use a good humidity probe and you run the kiln according to RH. Much more accurate than a cycle timer but it doesn't make much difference if the compressor is always running anyway. But the compressor shuts off when it's not needed.

canadianwoodworks

Should I just set the controller to 0% rh to dry as fast as possible?

What would be the cause of excessive checking / cracked boards? Is this more to do with the initial end sealing and air drying conditions?


Den Socling

Air drying can be murder to your lumber if you don't take care. We always want wood put into our kilns fresh off the saw.

Edit: But that's costly when you are running a compressor.

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