Forest Products Utilization and Marketing

Hobbyists

In recent years we've received hundreds of requests for small-scale lumber dry kiln plans from woodworking hobbyists. People were looking for an inexpensive and simple kiln design that could cost-effectively dry as little as a few hundred board feet of lumber or as much as several thousand board feet of lumber each year.

There are many different kiln designs, including solar, dehumidification, direct or indirect fired, and vacuum kilns. For small operations, there is a large amount of information available on solar kiln design and operation. However, solar lumber kilns are not effective for large portions of the calendar year in northern climates (due to cold winter temperatures).

Our goal was to develop a small scale kiln that produced quality kiln-dried lumber, was functional throughout the year, was reasonably inexpensive to build, and was constructed with common building materials from the local lumber yard and hardware store. With these constraints in mind, we chose simple 2” x 6” construction to build the drying chamber and powered it with a common basement dehumidifier, electric heater, and four attic fans.

Download a free copy of Building Your Own Lumber Dry Kiln with Local Building Materials [PDF, 1MB].