Drying wood with Damprid ???

[sullyscroller]

Just wondering if Damprid could speed the drying of wood . Maybe build a wood box to store wood in with stickers between each board and then have damprid inside of box ? anyone ever try this ? Friend of mine wants to speed the drying time for turning bowls. Also what is the best way to prevent logs outside from splitting .Logs are 1-2' round and 2-3' long. Thanks all

 

sully

Edited January 11, 2017 by sullyscroller

[hawkeye10]

Just wondering if Damprid could speed the drying of wood . Maybe build a wood box to store wood in with stickers between each board and then have damprid inside of box ? anyone ever try this ? Friend of mine wants to speed the drying time for turning bowls. Also what is the best way to prevent logs outside from splitting .Logs are 1-2' round and 2-3' long. Thanks all

 

sully

Ron I don't know for sure because I haven't tried it nor have I ever read anything about it. I have used products like this in my gun safe to take moisture out of the safe. These products are good for using in small confined spaces like safes and closets in your house. To dry wood you need air movement around the wood. That is the reason for stickers. With the air movement a product like Damprid would have no effect IMO. To address the logs splitting I would cover them up so the sun and rain would not get to them but let the air move around them. I am not a turner but I know there must be several good forums on the net that cater to turners and you should find a lot of information about your questions.

[stoney]

Are you talking about the ends of the logs splitting sully?   Painting the ends of logs helps prevent them from drying to quickly.  

Edited January 11, 2017 by stoney

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Anchorseal for the logs or just latex paint a few coats to seal the ends. Will not stop it completely. That is impossible. It will also trap moisture in so when needed they still need to be dried. As far a drying faster. Do a google search but many turners will do an alcohol bath. Denatured alcohol and store the blank for 24 hours and the water will be absorbed. Then cover in paper bags and let dry for a week. Some people have old toaster ovens that they set on low and cycle a heating pattern for 24 hours. Many ways of doing it. a lot depends on the density of the wood and moisture content. Many turners will turn a bowl rough round and then let it air dry. What that does it takes much of the material off. But the bowl will warp some and this is fixed when final shaping. Again a turners forum or google will help you. 

[MTCowpoke22]

A tip I picked up on drying turning blanks is to cover them in sawdust. It helps suck the moisture out of it. One guy who's turned a lot of bowls also puts them into the collection bag on his dust collector. He claims the sawdust along with the swirling air from the vacuum really works well. Just a couple of suggestions.

[sullyscroller]

thanks all the sawdust and alcohol we knew about just trying to find a faster way to do it

 

sully

[CharleyL]

I once dried a few small bowl blanks (one at a time) using a large old, but still working microwave.

 

Set it on low power and let it run for a few hours at a time, but check it often. Also expect this to require a bit of a learning curve and don't do your best blanks first. You don't want the wood hot enough to make steam. Just elevated in temperature, like about 140 deg F. Check on it frequently until you figure out how long it takes at your power settings for a given size of blank to get it dry. A pin type moisture meter is necessary. The microwave dries the wood from the inside out, so when the meter says it's about 6-8% near the outside, it's quite likely that way all the way through. 

 

Charley

[Lucky2]

Sully, as far as I know, there's no way to really speed up drying blanks of the size your talking about. The fastest method is the alcohol bath, but you already know about it. You should coat the ends with Anchorseal, or some other concoction that seals the wood. Some people use latex paint, others use wax and some people just use stretchy wrap. Don't store the blanks where air can't get to them, it can cause the blanks to mold and it prevents the blanks from drying. Does your buddy know how to cut and prepare the blanks, so that they dry properly and split as little as possible? If you check out the turners forum on the Sawmill Creek site, you might get a better answer as it's all turners. They would be able to tell you if there's any faster way to dry the wood, and anything else you need to know about turning. I found what makes a small difference, at least it seems to for me. I like to store my blanks standing on their ends, I may be wrong, but, I think that doing so, makes it a lot easier for the blank to lose its water. It only makes sense that this would speed up the drying process, that's the way the water flows naturally in the tree. 

Len 

[amazingkevin]

Just wondering if Damprid could speed the drying of wood . Maybe build a wood box to store wood in with stickers between each board and then have damprid inside of box ? anyone ever try this ? Friend of mine wants to speed the drying time for turning bowls. Also what is the best way to prevent logs outside from splitting .Logs are 1-2' round and 2-3' long. Thanks all

 

sully

Hang in there buddy lots of members have valuable info for you on this subject.