Benton Bakke

Greetings permies,

I'm curious if anyone has used an RMH to power the heating of a lumber kiln. Or if anyone has familiarity with a lumber kiln and would be willing to share insights that could be used to guide a concept, design, or operational procedure for powering one with a RMH, I would love to hear it. Experience with solar kilns would be great to hear about, too, because I'd make a solar/RMH hybrid kiln at the slightest encouragement.

I'm asking because I'm considering purchasing a small business that has a large (66" diameter) lumber mill. Current owner has a smaller kiln, but does most of his drying by air. There's plenty of space to put up a kiln, or a few kilns, on the property, but I have a deep desire to power it with small cut-offs from trees that don't have any lumber value.

Thoughts?

Thanks so much to everyone for the responses!
-The RO setup will take out half of the water, it's a primitive dial control to set the out flow rates equal ("clean" and "dirty," where I want the dirty). You can look it up under RO bucket. I might get fancy and put a drain pipe straight into a nearby manhole-sized drainage that predates me.
-Thomas, I'm curious where one gets good bricks for building for cheap. I saw 88 cents for a brick at Lowe's, which would add up awful quick.
-I was imagining a stainless pan on top basically covering the top of the barrel, with the tubes emptying into it. Also about the tubes, I was going to have them stand off about an inch from the sides of the barrel.

Some other slightly technical questions on foundations if any want to tackle it: Since the (block) base of the retaining wall cuts in close to the corner of the building, would it be okay to just kind of glob a lot of cement around the block in question and call it a good foundation? Also, I don't want to have a dirt floor, so how would I incorporate a wooden floor if I don't do a solid concrete floor? Do note that I marked off "pavers" around the feed area. These could go on top of the wood floor, I suppose, but I'd like to avoid trip hazards.

-Benton

Greetings to all! I'm pretty new on the forums, so redirect me if I'm not the first to try this or ask these questions.

I intend to build a sugar shack (for making maple syrup) with an RMH to do the boiling. I'm getting anxious now about getting it done before winter, but being on a layoff, I'm feeling optimistic about my chances (if the rain ever lets up). I primarily wanted to pop on here for questions about the foundation of the shack, but I know I have a good deal to learn about a good deal of topics, so feel free to hit me up with anything.

I've attached my floor plan for the shack, which will be about 10'x10' inside. Notes on the plan: RO is a reverse osmosis system in a 5 gallon bucket, which will be the first stop for the incoming sap. B1-3 are plastic 55 gallon drums that will rest on the bench and soak up some of the lowest quality warmth when heating. I intend to make a preheat pan out of stainless that will sit on the bench between the barrels and the bell. Here comes the innovation: I'm going to set up a little pump that will take from the preheat pan and pump it up 6 50' aluminum tubes (McMaster part number 5177K73) that will coil around the bell, leading up to the evaporator pan that sits on top of the bell. The tubing will serve as a heat shield, as it will cover most of the surface of the bell.

As far as the design of the shack, I assumed 4" thick walls and typical wood construction. With the moisture I'll be pumping out, I thought that earthen or cob type designs wouldn't be a great fit. Yes, I know that I'm planning to make the bench out of cob, but that's not what's supposed to let the humid out. I'll have panels/doors/windows to let in outside air and let out the steam. My biggest concern and question right now is foundation. This is tucked into a hillside, as you can see in the photos, but I live in Minnesota. How serious of a foundation am I talking, here? Continuous concrete with various depths (and what depths)? Separate foundation techniques for the building and RMH? Or can I make something easier/cheaper work that would survive the frost?

I've built a firewood shelf out of pallets next to where it will be that I'm rather proud of, which has 4 bays ~32" deep, a top shelf for kindling, a salvaged tin roof, and I'm planning on putting vented siding boards on it when I get the chance. And I put it on silo block from my neighbor's dad, which is roughly 9" thick and makes a great floor (unfortunately, there isn't much left for flooring or footings of the shack). I've got pics attached of this beaut, and the clay mound next to it that I will gobble up when making the heater mass.

-Benton

Chris,
I'm painfully aware of the evaporator design challenges, but it's instructive to mention for those new to sugaring. Year one, about 1.8 quarts of syrup from four taps on a turkey fryer pot over a crude open fire. Year two, 18 quarts from 40 taps over a rough rocket stove using the same pot plus a cheap preheat pot you'd use to make spaghetti. Both years took about eight full days of boiling. I'll post more about it in a separate thread, though.
-Benton

Hey, this is my first post! Has anyone ever seen someone do a maple syrup evaporator powered by an RMH? I'm ambitiously hoping to get one finished before winter in a sugar shack that also has yet to be built. I want to fit it in a 10'x10' shed, but I think going into more details would probably belong in a separate post.