Replies

1. 
   Dale | Feb 02, 2003 09:06pm | #1

   Eric,

   I'm afraid a kitchen oven would be to hard on the green wood.  Might try a small solar kiln, something like a "hot bed" for starting seeds for gardening.  Might do a search on a solar kiln and modify from there.  BTW if you are using "limb wood" you will have a high degree of reaction wood.  The wood will fuzz, warp as in longitudinal curling, as in a Fritos' corn chip, crack and other nasty things.

   Good luck,

   Dale

   
   

   ---

   Edited 2/2/2003 2:02:57 PM ET by Dale

1. 
   fdampier5 | Feb 03, 2003 07:48am | #4

   turn your pens green, then dry them.. much easier, faster and will dry in a room in four or five days..

    to reduce warpage, wrap them with brown paper bags use a little scotch tape to hold the bag on (don't wrap them with a rubber band)   when the bag feels dry to the touch you re just about as dry as it needs to be.. 

2. 
   UncleDunc | Feb 03, 2003 01:36am | #2

   This is just speculation, because I haven't tried it, but if I understood what I read in Bruce Hoadley's book Understanding Wood, if you drill the blanks first, they will dry faster. You might have to clamp them while drying to keep them straight enough to use. You said you're not concerned with checking, but drilling with pith out should also reduce major checking.

   For pieces that size, I think even 180F is more than you need. You might want to look into food dehydrators. There are lots of plans out there on the net if you don't want to buy a commercial one. A plywood box, a light bulb or two and a surplus muffin fan and you'd be good to go.

   The way to tell they're dry is when they quit losing weight.

1. 
   PaulReuter | Feb 03, 2003 07:33am | #3

   I believe the 180 F temperature is in response to my post in ceramic kiln drying.  I may be wrong, but I get the feeling from your posts that you're new at the process of drying wood.  The 180 temp I mentioned was pulled out of my hat mainly to empathise that wood drying is well below the temperature of boiling water,far below the potential of a kiln.  I am not experienced in drying wood  but I have done a fair bit of reading about it, hence the lack of specific information on what WILL work.  I have operated a kiln, so from my reading, I know what WON'T work.

   The questions you are asking suggest that you have not done your research on proper methods of successfully drying wood.  It is a bit of an art as well as a science but there are good methods that will give you a greater liklelyhood of success.  It will be worth it to try to find them.  There is too much information to try to give it to you on this site.

   I hope my words have not offended you.  I wuold much rather see you have success then be discouraged by a series of wood drying failures.  For what it's worth, with the size of pieces you are talking about, I have read some accounts of using the microwave to successfully dry wood.  HOWEVER, that being said, there are still some caveats.  I believe the information you need are in back issues of FWW.  Check the index in FWW home site & if you can't find the issues anywhere else, let me know & I'm sure we can work something out.

   Paul

3. 
   jgaiennie | Feb 03, 2003 05:44pm | #5

   Eric,

   I'm no expert at wood drying, but had a conversation with an accomplished bowl turner just recently about the multiple boxes of sawdust method that is a generally accepted drying practice in that trade.  He said he didn't do that.  That he had developed another method of drying such that he could turn a green bowl, dry it, and finish it all in one day.  He turns his bowls green, uses a propane torch to dry them and then finishes turning them without ever taking them off the lathe.  You may give it a whirl (yeah, I know) and see how it turns out (it just doesn't end, does it?) for you.

   jdg