Building My Solar Dry Kiln
Written by on January 14, 2017
FOUNDATION
I began by cutting the lumber I needed for the kiln on my Norwood Lumbermate 2000. I took a picture of some of it:
I had a trailer hitch attachment which came with my bandsaw mill, and I decided to use it also for the dry kiln. I wanted to be able to move the kiln to a different location later. It simply attaches with a removable pin. In order to adapt it to the kiln, I had to have a piece of metal made to attach it with. My buddy Wayne welded the new piece for me to use. You’ll get the idea of where it goes in a bit:
After finding a nice sunny spot in my yard that faces south, I began by laying out the support beams. I lapped them for support so that when lifted, the whole thing would come up at one time and not fall apart when moving. Here’s a few pictures showing the beginning of the base:
You can see the notches where the beams lapped. The 2 long sides were made of 2 layers of beams that lapped in the middle. I bolted them together for added strength. The blocks were used to level them up, and, since I planned on moving it, were not uniform. I didn’t need to worry about that. I just needed something to support the base. Here’s a little more progress:
I bolted on the trailer axle I had left over from another build:
And finally, I had the base beam system completed. I sprayed on some black paint for a little protection:
You can also see the metal bracket from earlier set into the beams. This allows the hitch to be removed.