Alcohol drying and/or microwave drying?

[Jerry Ingraham]

Can anyone post a link to articles on these two processes? Are they processes to speed up the drying time of green wood or to put the final drying touches to nearly-dry wood? Thanks.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Jerry, you can not post a link to another forum here, but there is a article on woodcentral about Alcohol drying. I don't know if they have a microwave drying link or not.

[Dennis Peacock]

Jerry,

Here is the basic process for alcohol drying:

1. Rough turn the bowl blank to a wall thickness of about 10% of the width of the bowl. I turn mine just a little "fatter" due to some woods really drying out of round.
2. Put the roughed out bowl in a 5 gal bucket with a tight fitting lid and pour in enough Denatured Alcohol to cover the rim of the bowl plus a little extra.
3. Let it soak for about 12 hours. I usually drop mine in one evening and remove it from the "bath" the next evening.
4. Remove the bowl from the "bath" and let air dry long enough for the rim of the bowl to allow masking tape to stick to it.
5. Use two sheets of newpaper and wrap the bowl blank in newspaper by taping the newspaper to the rim of the bowl. Do not tape to the inside of the bowl.
6. Turn the bowl upside down and place on something to where air can freely circulate to the inside of the bowl.
7. Allow the bowl to sit and dry for about 2 to 3 weeks. You can check it for dry by weighing it if you so choose. I just let mine dry for 21 days and then finish turn.
8. Unwrap the bowl and finish turn.

Hope this helps some.

[Barbara Gill]

I will e-mail you the link for alcohol drying. The wall thickness should be < the thickness used for air drying. Too thick a wall thickness can cause cracking.
While you are at Wood Central, look around there is a hugh amount of information there.

[Blake McCully]

Jerry,
I have been using the alchohol drying method for about 6 months and have had geat success. I don't do well with math, and as Dennis says, according to the insturctions, the wall thickness should be 10% of the width of the bowl, I rough turn it until it "looks" right. I dump it in the bath for a day. I don't tape the paper to the rim and I use brown butchers paper to wrap it to the rim. I trim the paper so that I can fold it over the rim, making sure it doesn't wrap around into the concavity, then use a large rubber band to hold the paper on the blank.

I weigh it every day and when I get two consecutive equal weights then I consider it stable. This usually takes between 5 and 8 days depending on the type of wood. Actually, I've only used two species, poplar and honey locust. The poplar seems to get stable around 5 days, while I have had honey locust blanks take as much as 9 days to become stable.

I suppose letting it dry as long as Dennis does would be ok, except I get anxious. Maybe I've just gotten luckey, but I've never lost any using my weigh-in procedure.

I'd like the like to the process as well Barbara, if you could PM me I'd appreciate it. I want to share my experiences with my club.

Have a great day.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Afternoon Jerry,

I've been microwaving pen blanks. (First- GET permission form LOYL! very important - the process won't work properly without it1)

Set the piece/ pieces on paper towels. Microwave for 2 minutes @ 20%. When done, check to see if it is warm to the touch (Careful! Might be HOT!), if so, let it cool and do again. Repeat as often as necessary, so that when you touch it, it is NOT warm. Then it is done. Rough turning should be the same as for Alcohol.

Bruce