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I have some nice pieces of perfectly round walnut, cherry and cedar that are about 5 inches in diameter. I was slicing some cookies and would like to use them for coasters. What is the best way to prevent cracking while they are drying? My search on the site says pentacryl, microwave, boil, etc do i want to use these processes for the thin small pieces as well?
A vacuum kiln is supposed to dry from the inside out. I see some you tubers use a pressure cooker to make a vacuum kiln. I have experimented with using vacuum little. I hope to get back to that project this winter.
SIL made a lot of cookie coasters one Christmas. He had the good fortune to come across some long log sections that had dried very slowly and thoroughly before they were sliced thin.
I used to mass produce coasters about 3-4" diameter by 1/4" thick from ash and sumac, and sometimes cherry. If you're trying to keep the bark on you're more likely to have a problem, but if that is not a concern you should be fine just to set them on a rack so there is air flow to both sides and flip them over daily. It won't take more than a week to get completely dry if they're that thin. If they're thicker they're much more likely to crack. Ash and sumac kept their bark 80% of the time, cherry and maple not so much. I don't know if the larger diameter would be a problem or not.
Microwave them, it's fast, effective and kills anything inside.
One way to success is to cut the slice at an angle. You get an oval coaster that doesn't crack so easily. Check out those plaques that Hobby Lobby sells, most are angle cut.
I've done oval coasters as Richard suggested and they did not crack.