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Deluxestogie's Endoskeletal Wood Tobacco Kiln / Flue-cure chamber

Charly

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I think you should add at least one fan (I have 4 in my kiln) to ensure the air is well circulating, it helps the temperature and humidity to be the same everywhere in the kiln.
Even in well insulated kiln you can have condensation if your leaves are too close against the walls, let some place to allow the air to pass.
 

deluxestogie

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For a kiln the size of my kiln, you really need a fan. The least expensive fan for use in such a warm and humid environment is the kind designed as a bathroom exhaust fan. They come in "cheap" and "way over-priced". Mine cost about $15. Although I configured a speed control for my fan, I usually run it at full speed anyway, so you don't need that complication.

Bob
 

Valahnuk

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For a kiln the size of my kiln, you really need a fan. The least expensive fan for use in such a warm and humid environment is the kind designed as a bathroom exhaust fan. They come in "cheap" and "way over-priced". Mine cost about $15. Although I configured a speed control for my fan, I usually run it at full speed anyway, so you don't need that complication.

Bob

Well I do have a bathroom fan that I´m not using, but I´m not really sure how I would be able to mount it because I don´t have any frames inside the kiln like you do, it´s all styrofoam.

Do you think i just could attach it to some steel wires?
 

deluxestogie

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If you can place some reinforcing material (giant "fender" washers, or perhaps sheet metal) on both the inside and outside surfaces of bolt holes, that would allow you to mount it on a wall. Or you can place something similar on just the outer roof, and string the steel wire down to the fan.

Although my kiln fan usually is hooked onto the underside of my middle wire shelf, sometimes I have to remove that shelf. Then, I simply support the fan from two 17 gauge aluminum wires that hook onto the wire "shelf" near the top of the kiln. There is little vibration, and the fan is easily supported.

Bob
 

2Baccy

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Worked for me without a fan. Leaves touching the wall yellowed slightly slower then the rest. But that was 6 leaves.
 

deluxestogie

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Worked for me without a fan. Leaves touching the wall yellowed slightly slower then the rest. But that was 6 leaves.
I believe we're talking about different situations. Leaf goes into a kiln after it has cured. Your description sounds either like a flue-cure chamber or a curing chamber.

Bob
 

deluxestogie

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The terms that all of us throw around for various heated boxes are not very clear: fermentation, curing, kilning, flue-curing, yellowing. Part of the problem is that, depending on one's present intention, and the temp selected, the very same box may be used for any of these procedures. And the descriptions and names we use (as well as the chambers themselves) have evolved over the past decade.

Bob
 

Valahnuk

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If you can place some reinforcing material (giant "fender" washers, or perhaps sheet metal) on both the inside and outside surfaces of bolt holes, that would allow you to mount it on a wall. Or you can place something similar on just the outer roof, and string the steel wire down to the fan.

Although my kiln fan usually is hooked onto the underside of my middle wire shelf, sometimes I have to remove that shelf. Then, I simply support the fan from two 17 gauge aluminum wires that hook onto the wire "shelf" near the top of the kiln. There is little vibration, and the fan is easily supported.

Bob
Now i have a fan in the kiln!
Perhaps not the most professional installation, but it works.
 

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deluxestogie

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Just today, my digital kiln temp controller started reading low. Dropping to 120°F at times, which it never does. It is set to fluctuate between 123 and 128°F. Drat! Instead of purchasing sugar plums, I would have to replace the controller.

I recalled that the probe wire ran outside the top surface of the kiln (who ever looks at that?). So I untaped the wire, lifted the tiny probe up through the hole in the kiln roof, then cleaned it as best as I could with a paper towel and Windex. I re-inserted it and re-taped it.

Boom! Back to happy normal functioning. What is surprising is that the crud that accumulates on the probe looks like the same brown nicotine film that will condense on the glass of framed pictures exposed to tobacco smoke for years. Yet no tobacco burns (or even comes close to burning) inside the kiln. There is nothing in there but the stuff that enzymatically outgasses from the leaf. Whatever creates the aroma of kilning tobacco apparently also condenses on the kiln interior.

Bob
 

Cray Squirrel

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Fancy shmancy, looks good! How much leaf do you reckon it can hold to be kilned/flue cured?
More than you can grow snort.. hehehehe
Flue curing only takes a week so you can cure leaf as it ripens and is primed.'
For kilning, you can pack the leaf into plastic bags or sealed bins and get boatloads in there.
Simple more than fancy.. need a heat source... crock pot
Need a controller.... Inkbird or equivalent
Need a vent for removing moisture during wilting and stem drying stages..
Couple puter fans for air circulating.
Water proof fan for venting humid air like an old bathroom fan.
Oh and an insulated box that can take 160 degrees f for 24 hours.
Lots of good ideas in the forums under kilns.
EZ peazy...
 

Homegrowngoodnes

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Im fairly certain i have some 1 bys in the attic i could ise for something very similar but i think they are stained/varnished. If they are, do you think it would hurt?
 

deluxestogie

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I would not use stained and varnished wood inside the kiln (endoskeletal). You should look at @Knucklehead's exoskeletal kiln. The two kilns are similar, except for where the support structure is located. Another possibility is to build it entirely of 2" XPS foam, and just tape it together (and hinge it) with Tyvek tape--which is both temp resistant and waterproof--both inside and out. An all foam kiln could be rapidly taken down, by cutting the tape, then reassembling with new Tyvek tape.

Bob
 
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