Drying turning blanks?

[Bigdogpc]

OK guys I need an idea or two or three on a dryer for drying chunks that will ultimately be turned on the lathe.  If it were just for me they would dry before I ever got around to turning them but my son is doing them, so I need to speed things up a bit.  Right now there's a stack about 2 foot high x 6 foot long on the top of my wood rack in the shop.  It's not quite attic but it is warm up there.  Will this work or do I need to look at some kind of solar gizmo for out in the yard?  Space is limited and the better half is not too happy about another "thingie" in the yard...I am open for suggestions.  Thanks!

[Ianab]

Air drying in the top of the shed will work eventually, but it will be faster if you rig some fans to blow air over them.
Otherwise you can build a hot box with a small heater / light bulbs and fans. I've seen one made from an old fridge with vents cut in it.
A lot of turners rough turn the blanks while wet, then let them dry. Faster drying as the wood is thinner and less likely to crack. Then mount them on the lathe again and trim off any warp and finish them properly.

Of course you dont want to go drying too fast and ending up with checking etc.

Cheers

Ian

[sawwood]

As Ianab said and from what most of the turners i know they turn
green wood to rough shape. They then seal the blank and let them
dry some befor fineal turning. Some of the turners use a Ice Box to
dry there blanks. They use a light bulb to heat the inside and a small
fan to blow the hot air around the blanks. I will see if one of them will
take some photos for me and i will post them here.

Sawwood

[Daren]

I turn blanks green, It's much easier on tools, less dusty... I dry the turned pieces in an old microwave I bought a a garage sale. It takes some experimenting with the different species of wood, but I am not a patient guy, and cracking a couple was worth it. (I would turn something simple and nuke it to see how it worked out, then go a little fancier) Some people seal them with anchor seal for months or put them in 2 or 3 paper bags, or bury them in a pile of sawdust to dry slow. I can't wait that long, in 20 minutes after it is turned if it didn't warp too much, I give it a sanding and varnish. I could go more into detail about the micro if you want. I have dried chunks in the micro before turning to see what would happen, I just like turning green better. I wish I could figure out how to post pics. I have some cool stuff (not only to this thread, but the hippie...) I would like to show. I can't figure out how to get a jpeg changed to an accepted format on this new computer.

[Daren]

As a side note, turning blanks are a decent market for me. I enjoy turning so I saved decent chunks, then I figured out other turners didn't have access to all the wood I did. I started selling blanks for $1 a pound to keep it simple, not bad when you get a 6000lbs figured maple given to you, or when you are buying walnut or locust for $50 a ton. You don't have to have big prime logs to get great blanks. I was letting tons (literally tons) of waste from the mill go as fire wood. I have been wacking and stacking blanks from logs that would not make good lumber.

[Bigdogpc]

I knew I could count on the folks here!  Thanks for the answers!  I like the microwave idea best and will give it a shot.  Thanks again!

[Daren]

 I don't know if you are going to nuke before or after turning. If you are going to dry a turned green bowl, start slow.  If it is real thin (1/4"),1 minute in then 2 minutes out, repeat. If it thicker 2 in 5 out... You can't just put it in for 10 and leave it. Heat it good and take it out and let it steam the moisture out, you don't want to cook it.

[Daren]

With DanG's help I am tryin
g to upload a pic. Hey it worked! Thanks for the tip DanG. I am still having trouble getting the pics I want to post to upload (keep getting a too many pixel error) but I think I can figure that out.

[Daren]

DanG you created a monster now that I can post pics. Here are a curly maple bowl, and a sweet gum bowl with a bark base.

[Larry]

First I am not a wood turner...way to chicken to do the stuff you guys do.  I am a wood peddler...sawwood taught me how to saw bowl blanks couple of years ago.  Been selling some turning wood to a few guys and one has been telling me about alcohol drying bowls.  He told me how to do it...most of which I forgot.  Anywho, it is supposed to be the cats meow so I did a quick google and found a little info on the process.

http://www.gvwg.ca/docs/Newsletter2005/Mar2005.pdf         

The pdf takes a while to download on dialup so be-where.  It mentioned something about info on www.woodcentral.com   Tried a quick search there and came up with zilch.

Nice stuff Daren....do a search on forum members sawwood, Charlie, and Quartlow...they got some pretty cool pics here to...probally few others but forgot.

[Norm]

Very nice Daren.

[Minnesota_boy]

One problem with drying a turning blank before turning is cracking.  When you have a larger piece of wood, it is real hard to get it to dry as quickly in the center as the outside, making the outside shrink faster than the center which causes it to crack.  Once cracked, it's permanent.  Can't fit that genie back into the bottle.

[Texas Ranger]

Went to a woodworking show in Houston today.  Sat an listened to a pro bowl turner that makes a VERY good living selling ART bowls through galleries on east and left coast.

He turns green, then boils the bowls in water for one hour for each inch of bowl thickness, 1/2 hour for 1/2 inch, etc.

He then takes em and drains them under cloth for three days, turning bowl up, down and then up.

then in paper sack for up to 22 weeks.

Must work, he is making a living at it.  Said it cut his drying losses from up to 1/3 to less than 5%.

I bought the CD and DVD.  Gonna learn bowl turning.  Got lots of green wood around here.

[Daren]

Texas
Check out this guys site, http://www.woodturningart.com/, I have e-mailed back and forth with him a while. His work blows my mind. He is a part time turner, he has sold one piece for $5,000.

Daren