Drying Beech in a Dehumidifier Kiln
Beech needs an aggressive drying schedule, similar to Oak or hard Maple. January 25, 2013
Question
I have a Nyle L-200. I looked at their schedule they sent with the kiln for beech, and they use the same schedule for beech as they do maple (category two). I put two sample beech boards in with my last soft maple charge and they all horribly checked throughout. The maple turned out ok though. I researched and found out if dried too slow beech will stain, too fast and it checks. Am I better off air drying first? I have a solar kiln, maybe this would work better, or is there a better kiln schedule for beech aside from the one Nyle recommends?
I have 400bd feet to dry in 4/4 6/4 and 8/4. The MC is pegging my Delmhorst, so it's over 30%. I am in northern OH, so the solar kiln/air drying will work slow for a while, but maybe this is what beech needs. Would spraying with a fungicide keep the stain from developing like it does for maple if it requires a slow drying schedule? I have some that I buy from sawmills.
Forum Responses
(Sawing and Drying Forum)
From Gene Wengert, forum technical advisor:
Beech and hard maple are very close, but beech is not close to soft maple.
From the original questioner:
Thank you for the response Gene. Nyle uses the same schedule (category two) for hard and soft maple. If I dry the beech alone, what duty cycle and temp would you set the kiln at? Would you try and air-dry it first?
From Gene Wengert, forum technical advisor:
If I had the kiln capacity and needed the whitest color, I would go for kiln drying from the moment after the lumber is sawn. I would use a red oak schedule, but be a bit more aggressive than red oak. “Drying Hardwood Lumber” has the specifics.
From the original questioner:
Thanks a lot Gene! I appreciate the advice. I am going to load the beech after this load is done. Everything is frozen right now, so we should be okay for a week or so.
From contributor K:
Not sure if you are intending to load the 4/4 with the 8/4 but the Nyle manual says to run 8/4 at 40% the schedule of any 4/4 lumber. I would watch out as you will wreck the 8/4 if you run it on the 4/4 time frame as far as I know. I've monkeyed up my share of 8/4 doing this kind of mixed load in Nyle 200 kiln with walnut. You have to dry according to the wettest and slowest piece in the kiln. Maybe this is already understood, but I didn't see any mention of it so I thought I might bring it up. How many days is that schedule usually? I'm finding my Nyle kiln takes a long time in to get the last couple MC % points, but may be due to my structure.
From Gene Wengert, forum technical advisor:
Slow drying at the end of a cycle is often the result of using temperatures under 160 F. The heat is required for fastest drying to low MC’s.
