While some of us learned how to make sourdough bread or became Wordle aficionados during the COVID-19 pandemic, Brenon Plourde and his family built a solar kiln. The construction of the kiln was recently featured in a lengthy spread in Fine Woodworking magazine, which Brenon describes as “like being in Rolling Stone.”
Fine Woodworking is the most popular woodworking publication worldwide, with a whopping combined total of 977,000 followers across its social media platforms – over 200,000 more than its nearest competitor, Popular Woodworking. With an average print circulation of 130,000, Fine Woodworking caters to an audience of woodworking enthusiasts who often have decades of experience and a dedicated shop space.
Brenon has been woodworking all his life, starting as a child in his grandfather’s shop in Windsor. While Brenon took a few classes many years ago, he considers himself mostly self-taught. Now, he crafts pieces ranging from charcuterie boards to signs to chess sets to furniture, still using tools and instruments owned by his grandfather or great-grandfather. Since retiring about 20 years ago, Brenon has expanded his online presence through social media accounts (@a91customs) set up by his kids. What was originally intended to become an online portfolio of Brenon’s work quickly exploded to include nearly 40,000 followers.
As for the solar kiln, Brenon has wanted to build one for more than 10 years. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down, Brenon’s wife and two sons were suddenly home, and Brenon figured it was the perfect time to undertake a family project.
Brenon’s solar kiln is inspired by a design from Virginia Tech published in the late 1970s. Whereas many kilns for drying wood use oil, the solar kiln design was a method for “lumber yards to dry wood without using any fossil fuels,” Brenon notes. Built in a weekend and using $2,500 of material, the Plourde’s solar kiln can achieve a 50- to 60-degree temperature difference from the outside.
With a 45-degree roof of clear corrugated plastic facing south, the solar kiln resembles a salt-box house. Two repurposed car radiator fans powered by solar panels circulate the hot air inside the kiln, achieving drying within five weeks, even in the winter. The hardest woods to dry, including red oak, can drop to 7.5 percent moisture content in the kiln with relatively little human intervention. Compared to a commercial kiln, the wood “dries a lot gentler,” in the solar kiln, Brenon notes, as the drying process follows the natural progress of sunlight throughout the day.
When Brenon posted the solar kiln on his social media, he was soon contacted by an illustrator from Fine Woodworking who was interested in the workings of the kiln. Eventually, even the editors came to see the kiln and offered Brenon space in an upcoming issue. “Not only am I a published author now, but I’m a published photographer,” Brenon jokes. His article, Build Yourself a Solar Kiln was published in the May/June issue of Fine Woodworking magazine and is available online at www.finewoodworking.com