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Thread: Drying Wood - confused

  1. #16
    Fastest way to dry is radio frequency (microwave) drying. It was tried in the logging industry, but never caught on. Vacuum kilns work wonderfully for dimentional stock, it doesn't get nearly as hot, and the wood works like air dried wood (you rip a board on your table saw, and you get shavings, not dust). I did hear of one turner who was trying it, using a light bulb for a heat source, but never heard the results. Air drying isn't the fastest, but is fairly hastle free. One reason I turn to final thickness the first time is because I don't want to wait for months or a year to final turn.
    robo hippy

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Eau claire, Wisconsin
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    3,084

    Get tons of wood and rough out everything you can!

    Rick, My method is to turn as many things as you can and have them setting on every flat surface in the shop! I have not counted lately but I know there are over 300 bowls vessels etc in different stages of drying. I guess I have the advantage of owning a sawmill and have sawn lumber for 25 years, that has given me many tons of wood to work with! I just brought home a truck and 12'x5' trailer full of Cottonwood and it has tons of crotchwood to work on! So some I seal some I bag for a day or two or however long I forget about it, some I anchorseal, some I put shellac on and on and on. Time is the only thing that is best for drying wood to make it the best it can be. It you dry it to fast you risk the chance of case hardening the outside and the inside is damp and will change shape very fast when the wood is cut or re-cut. If you can build a little kiln out of an old freezer like has been posted on SMC to speed up things or make a small solar kiln that you have a thermostatically controlled fan in so when the heat gets to high it removes it. The solar kiln is good because at night the wood cools and the moisture still in the wood satabilizes and the wood relaxes a bit. Then the next day the sun warms it again and dry starts again. This seems to leave the wood easy to work and stable.

    So in the end if you want to turn it and finish in one day you will have to buy wood that is already dry or go Reeds way of turning it green to finsihed thickness and sand out when it is dry.

    Patience is really what it takes, good luck and don't give up!

    Jeff
    To turn or not to turn that is the question: ........Of course the answer is...........TURN ,TURN,TURN!!!!
    Anyone "Fool" can know, The important thing is to Understand................Albert Einstein
    To follow blindly, is to never become a leader............................................ .....Unknown

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Ft. Worth Tx.
    Posts
    689

    drying wood

    One method of drying that hasnt been discussed here is microwave drying. Not mamas microwave, get your own. I bought a practically new one at a Goodwill store for 20 bucks. You have to be good at multi-tasking. That is: several things going at one time. The microwaving method goes something like this: mice it for about 30 seconds, let cool. Repeat the process several times. You can be doing other things between heating in the microwave. The process is too complicated for this novice, but it is very effective, and shortens the time considerably.Yoiu might try a search and see what you come up with. I know I wasnt much specific help, but maybe you can find the process. Worth a try, I think. Max

  4. #19

    vacuum kiln?

    Lots of turners have vacuum pumps could you suck the water out of the bowl?

  5. #20
    Rick, I think what you might be confusing is drying time vs evenly drying. All the processes that seem to work are different ways of getting the moisture out of the wood evenly. It's the inconsistent drying, the surface drying out while the inner wood is still saturated, that causes the cracks. The dry wood at the surface shrinks while the wetter wood under the surface doesn't, causing the cracks. Now to throw in something else to confuse the issue, consider the time of year the wood is harvested. Early spring thru summer the tree is pumping water into the wood for new growth. Late fall and winter, the tree has pulled most of the water out of the wood (at least in the temperate climates). I've had much better luck preventing cracks with wood that was cut from Nov thru Feb.

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Richmond, VA
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    1,003
    Quote Originally Posted by Rick Prosser View Post
    Maybe I have a misconception about drying time.

    The kiln thing was most contradictory to my assumptions about slow moisture release, but I thought it was the fastest way to dry. Is it the fastest way?

    Still learning...
    Rick, this is a guess on my part, but I'm guessing the kiln functions in a manner similar to a sauna. Sit in a sauna and you will sweat and lose water weight, but the steam keeps you from drying out (and looking like beef jerky). I'm guessing this is, in part how the moisture is driven out, while keeping some equilibrium between the moisture content in the center and outside of the boards in a kiln. And yes, a kiln does speed up the drying process.

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