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Drying small pieces of wood?

John Torchick

John Torchick

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Well, the buying urge hit SWMBO and she bought a new toaster oven to go with her new countertops. I started to toss the old one but got the idea of using it to dry wood for turning. Heat settings start at 150 deg. There are lower temps but not marked. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!!
 
I would be a bit leery of running a toaster oven unattended with combustible material in or near it. The oven filament, at whatever temperature it is set for will alternate between red hot and off to maintain the desired average temperature. If any stray chips or dust get close to the filament, there is a possibility of fire. A light bulb would be a safer heat source IMHO.
 
John, I don't think that toaster oven will give the results your hoping for. The heating elements are very close to the racks and even if you could get the temp down to 70-80, it will probably dry small blanks too fast (dry heat). A wood kiln drys with a combination of low heat and moisture. Moisture being the key.

I have successfully dried pen blanks and small slabs (future pen blanks) by soaking them overnight in denatured alcohol and air dry out of the direct path of moving air. That method has worked for me with an almost 99% success rate on pen blanks and 1" thick small slabs.
 
Thanks. It goes into the trash next week.
The oven filament, at whatever temperature it is set for will alternate between red hot and off to maintain the desired average temperature.
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I'm aware of that. I don't leave things like that unattended.
 
John Torchick said:
Well, the buying urge hit SWMBO and she bought a new toaster oven to go with her new countertops. I started to toss the old one but got the idea of using it to dry wood for turning. Heat settings start at 150 deg. There are lower temps but not marked. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!!
Click to expand...

Curtis Seebeck recommends using a toaster oven for curing already dry wood that has been vacuum treated with Cactus Juice stabilizer. His process is intended for things like pen and bottle stopper blanks. He also, recommends getting a good oven thermometer, because the numbers on the dial of a toaster oven are generally very inaccurate. It is not a good idea to just stick green wood into the oven because it will most likely crack like crazy. I have used microwave drying and there are many variations. If I can dig up the process that I use, I will post it here.

In general green wood should be dried very slowly and woodturners do various thing to slow down the rate of drying to even slower than natural drying. At the same time it seems that woodturners want to speed up the slowing down -- kind of like having a microwave crock pot.
 
Steve Worcester said:
Get enough wood stocked up to let it air dry. An inch/year is a good start. I am not a fan of force drying wood.
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I am inclined to agree with you on this, Steve.......

Figured wood doesn't respond well to quickly removing the moisture content. There are always stresses introduced, no matter what method of seasoning is used, but giving the wood some time to adjust naturally seems like the best plan to me. I'll have to admit that I've not tried all the different ways of seasoning wood quickly, with the exception of trying a microwave, but one thing seems to be inherent with all of them......unpredictability. Of course, you could say the same for air drying wood over time, but I do believe that it's the most predictable method available to us......with the possible exception of plain woods, straight grain, and using a kiln.

ooc
 
John, if you think you may want to do some casting of PR in your future you may want to save the toaster over for some post-cure of the PR blanks. It is used quite frequently for that purpose. I use one and also as has been noted if you might stabilize someday you would want your toaster over for that too.
Tim.
 
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