Max Taylor
In Memoriam
What about vegetable dehumidifers, will they speed up the drying of small blanks? Anyone have any information on this? Preshate it.
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de-humidifiers
- Thread starter Max Taylor
- Start date
- Joined
- May 16, 2005
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You mean those dehydrators like the one in the garage drying next winter's leeks right now? Or do you mean the dehumidifier principle?
Since the water leaves at a rate determined by the relative humidity, you may find a dehumidifier handy if you live in a humid climate. As usual, if you dry too fast, you risk cracks. The vegetable dehydrators work on heat, which effectively lowers the relative humidity because warmer air can carry more absolute water. Better to have something regulated by a humidistat than just supplying random heat, I should think. Focus on the real problem not the indirect.
Frost-free refrigerators dehumidify themselves periodically too.
Since the water leaves at a rate determined by the relative humidity, you may find a dehumidifier handy if you live in a humid climate. As usual, if you dry too fast, you risk cracks. The vegetable dehydrators work on heat, which effectively lowers the relative humidity because warmer air can carry more absolute water. Better to have something regulated by a humidistat than just supplying random heat, I should think. Focus on the real problem not the indirect.
Frost-free refrigerators dehumidify themselves periodically too.
Patience
Speed up the drying, wreck the wood.
Turn more blanks and rough outs each day, put them away for 6 months, keep on turning. Pretty soon you won't care how long stuff takes to dry; you'll have pleanty of dry blanks to finish turn each day. You brought the old flatwood mind set of "finish-what-you-start-before-starting-something-new" to turning where it doesn't apply. Just keep turning stuff and hauling out the shavings; that precious blank won't be any less precious 6 months from now when you get around to it in the rotation, and you'll have a better chance of making something out of it if you just let it dry naturally.
Speed up the drying, wreck the wood.
Turn more blanks and rough outs each day, put them away for 6 months, keep on turning. Pretty soon you won't care how long stuff takes to dry; you'll have pleanty of dry blanks to finish turn each day. You brought the old flatwood mind set of "finish-what-you-start-before-starting-something-new" to turning where it doesn't apply. Just keep turning stuff and hauling out the shavings; that precious blank won't be any less precious 6 months from now when you get around to it in the rotation, and you'll have a better chance of making something out of it if you just let it dry naturally.
Mark Mandell said:Speed up the drying, wreck the wood.
Turn more blanks and rough outs each day, put them away for 6 months, keep on turning. Pretty soon you won't care how long stuff takes to dry; you'll have pleanty of dry blanks to finish turn each day. You brought the old flatwood mind set of "finish-what-you-start-before-starting-something-new" to turning where it doesn't apply. Just keep turning stuff and hauling out the shavings; that precious blank won't be any less precious 6 months from now when you get around to it in the rotation, and you'll have a better chance of making something out of it if you just let it dry naturally.
I agree with Mark, as a recovering flat woodworker it takes some time to get used to the idea of a shop full of unfinished "stuff." But once the idea sinks in that you don't lose as many blanks when they've been rough turned as you do when "I'm gonna turn these as soon as......." things begin improve considerably,
, been there.
Richard Baker
RIP
And for those days that it's pouring rain, freezin' a@@ cold outside, no motor racin' on teevee, some of those oldest rough outs on the shelf can help turn it into a beautiful day.