Heat Source For Boiling

Hey, all -

I have quite a lot of cherry stacked up from a windfall earlier this summer, and the plan is to rough turn, boil, and paper bag over the winter months. I'll probably tackle this with several marathon turn/boil/bag Saturdays, rather than just one here and one there.

There's potential for 18 inch diameter bowls, so my boiling 'pot' will be fairly large. What do you use as a heat source for larger-scale boiling? I have propane set-up (from a turkey fryer), and I have looked at several rocket stove builds that I could try, although the bigger ones tend to involve paying a welder and/or machinist - if the time and materials of a large enough rocket stove gets near $100, that would buy a lot of hours of propane without the extra hassle. Thoughts/suggestions?

55 gallon drum over a wood fire. Can't get much cheaper?

Depending on the size of the pieces I use a Turkey Cooker from Walmart. If the pieces are really big you could get a 50 gal drum cut down to a suitable depth. I tried this with the cooker heater and it worked fine but I don't do too much that large. One thing to keep in mind is once the water is heated it is good to have a number of rough outs to boil. In the old days when I did a lot of this I would rough turn all day or for days and continually have pieces to boil.

Your turkey cooker should work fine. I've been using a jet burner (propane) I got at Sam's Club several years ago along with a very large (26") diameter stock pot I got at an auction for a song and a dance. When I rough out madrone or even maple, I get the pot going and start roughing and coring. Throw them in as they come off the lathe. Pull off the earlier ones as I need room and stack them rims down on sticker boards to surface dry. Seems to work just fine.
Some use a wood fire, at the time I lived in the 'burbs and the neighbors frowned on a nice fire roaring in the middle of my driveway...HOA rules, go figure.

I believe Dale Larson (former head of AAW and turner of lots of Madrone) uses a galvanized horse trough and 2 big propane burners. Getting a 55 gallon drum up to boil would be difficult because of the height and small bottom surface area. No idea about the turkey fryers.

robo hippy

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Originally Posted by Reed Gray

Getting a 55 gallon drum up to boil would be difficult because of the height and small bottom surface area. No idea about the turkey fryers.

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Turn that puppy sideways and take a slice off of the new "top"... a foot-wide slice would still allow for some thick blanks, and plenty of surface area underneath.

Good idea, but one other draw back to the standard 55 gallon drum. Since it is not galvanized, you will get metal stains in the wood. The 55 gallon drum does make for an interesting science experiment though. Put it on a bon fire and get it really hot. Put the plug in it, and tighten that sucker up. As it cools, it eventually reaches a point where it kind of implodes. Makes lots of noise.

robo hippy

Thanks, all. 55 gal drums are easy for me to come by, and I can trim it down to a useable height. Didn't know if anyone had a really killer plan for a larger rocket stove...I'll go with propane unless I find such plans.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reed Gray

Good idea, but one other draw back to the standard 55 gallon drum. Since it is not galvanized, you will get metal stains in the wood... robo hippy

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Would it be possible to paint the inside of the drum with a high-temperature tolerant paint such as the stuff used on engines, to avoid metal stains?

Other than for wood like madrone that has internal stress, why not just Anchorseal the outside and rim of the rough outs and let them dry. Works fine for me. I have yet to have one crack. Lot quicker and cheaper. I have done several cherry rough outs this way, as well as maple and walnut.

John, I don't know if madrone has internal stress, well, any more than any other tree, but the water content is WAY higher than most other woods, so when drying, it will warp way beyond the 10% rule of keeping wall thickness to about 10% of the diameter of the bowl. I believe sycamore is similar. Boiling and steaming does tend to muddle the colors together, and it does stabilize the woods. Just too much time and trouble for me. A steam room might be easier to do than the boiling pot. I have no idea about time needed to steam them down. Probably longer than boiling, which generally is 1 hour per inch of thickness. When Dale boils his madrone, he does let it cool back down to air temp in the water before removing.

robo hippy