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Your log sits for at least a couple of weeks in order to remove initial moisture content, minimize warp and wood tension.
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Your lumber is carefully stacked in the kiln with air circulation space between each layer.
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Heated air circulates above, below, and around each board and gradually dries your lumber to its optimum moisture content.
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Your lumber starts at 90 degrees and is gradually increased to 140 degrees Fahrenheit to kill insects, ants, and bugs as well as set resin for pine.
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Your lumber is heated for approximately 30 days per inch of thickness to reduce moisture content to around 6-8%.
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Our kiln cycles are typically 60 days as we generally have at least some two inch material inside.
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Your now fully dried lumber is ready for the next step (planing or whatever you have in store).
Bear Creek Hardwoods has two kilns. We started with a cargo container which we insulated with spray foam and hooked up to our boiler system for heat to convert to a kiln.
Milled Lumber Stacked in the Kiln and Ready to be Dried
![](https://bearcreekhardwoods.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/15941421_1878393805773837_1885447755717581770_n.jpg)
![](https://bearcreekhardwoods.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/img480-52.jpg)
![](https://bearcreekhardwoods.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/img480-53.jpg)
![](https://bearcreekhardwoods.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/IMG_1717-1024x765.jpg)
While this kiln worked well, we found it was too small for all the wood we wanted to dry. We designed a building exclusively as a kiln. It is 24 x30 foot x 18 feet tall building and again used spray foam and hooked to our boiler for heat.
Kiln starting to be filled