Drying wood....

[mrcaptainbob]

It was suggested to me that I could 'dry' a piece of walnut in the oven for an hour at 120*'s. Would this work?

[Ianab]

Well it would be dry. Probably split and twisted to heck as well, but it would be dry.

Oven drying like that is used to accurately measure the moisture content of a sample of wood. You weight it, you bake it till it's bone dry, then you weigh it again. The difference is the amount of moisture that was in it.

The piece of wood you have will make good kindling, but not much else.

Ian

[beenthere]

It was suggested to me that I could 'dry' a piece of walnut in the oven for an hour at 120*'s. Would this work?

What is the purpose for drying the walnut? To get the MC as Ian mentioned? Or to ??

But the answer to the question is "yes, you can 'dry' a piece....in the oven". Remains the question will it be what you want it to be? 

[Den Socling]

120'F for one hour might drive off the "free" water if the piece isn't too big but it would not be dry. If you are drying to determine moisture content, you need more 212'F for 24 hours. That would leave the piece bone dry but, if it is more than a wafer in size, it will have the damage that Ian mentions.

[red oaks lumber]

totally agree with den..
my kiln runs at 135deg. walnut dry cycle is 21 days. based on 10,000 b.f.

[mrcaptainbob]

A neighbor is really good at making gun stocks. I have some fresh cut walnut. I wanted to slice a center chunk from one of those and give it to him. But I'd like for it to be more than the green it is and was thinking....how can I get it to a useable level....I guess I can't do it myself....

[beenthere]

mrcaptainbob
Big walnut gunstock companies (American Walnut, St. Jo , MO if I remember right) used to dry their very highly figured gunstock blanks in dry kilns under tight control for 7 months (right...7 months). Straight grain blanks was less time, but still took awhile at the thicknesses blanks were sawn.

There was a lot of research including freeze-drying in attempts to cut that drying time down. Not sure that it happened and it was before vacuum drying and dehumidification drying hit the scene.

[mrcaptainbob]

GEEES!!! I'll NEVER get the wife to give up her oven for 7 months!!! In fact, I'm pretty much not a fan of that either...he's a good friend and all, but not enough for me to give up the goodies that come from that oven!!!

[woodmills1]

I had a customer who wanted some 1 1/4 "maple "cookies"
I tried oven drying, 4 or 5, 30 min cycles in a 120 degree oven
never got down to 50%
then repeated 1 minute microwave cycles on high
almost burnt the outside, never dried much inside


then Kath comes home and says  "what in the world are you cooking"

we found another way to do what he wanted

http://www.sea-stones.com/

[SwampDonkey]

Kath comes home and says  "what in the world are you cooking"

we found another way to do what he wanted

Funny how game plans can be altered by the significant other half.

:D :D :D