Oven

[george morris]

Has anyone ever used a low temperature oven for drying wet turnings? I picked up one today and going to give it a try!! G

 

[Jim Keenan]

Geroge,
I purchased a cheap smoker at Lowes and replace the heater for a 40 watt lightbulb. Seems to work just fine.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Not the heat, but the humidity. Can't emphasize that enough. Putting the piece in a heated box is just another version of tossing it on the floor unless you exert some control. So you'll worry less about the heat and more about the rate of ventilation if you're looking for success.

Another minor problem is that you can over dry things, because it's Relative Humidity which determines equilibrium moisture content.

 

[Tom Hamilton]

I've wondered about using an Oven too

I thought about using an oven too.

So Michael - What I gather you're saying is that:

1) You need to have air moving through the oven(incoming and outgoing vents, maybe with an outgoing fan), not just heat. Would a convection oven be good for that?
2) If it's 57 percent humidity (normal summer day in WI) where your "drying oven" is, you won't get below 57 percent MC in the wood.

Thanks

Tom

 

[DOCworks]

I would be very careful with wood in the oven, unless your single, some woods can be rather pungent order and if it's spalted..well. I cooked some PVC hose for my lathe tool handles while my wife was out visiting the girls on the west coast which was a good thing! Now that I've figured out what the right temp is I can do it while she's at home.😉

 

[MichaelMouse]

2) If it's 57 percent humidity (normal summer day in WI) where your "drying oven" is, you won't get below 57 percent MC in the wood.

Yes, you could. In the winter, in WI, when it's 70% RH outside, it's lower in your heated (even if drafty) home, correct? If the rate of ventilation is slow enough to allow the temperature to rise, the RH inside will be lower than outside.

You would have to keep ventilation to a minimum - RH high - during the early stages of drying so that the outside endgrain doesn't open up, gradually decreasing until there was no difference between in and outside. If you're going to force things, you have to do it carefully. Which is why most of us just toss it where things are higher that required to begin the drying process. May cost me a couple of weeks, but the one(s) I moved to make room can be turned while that's happening.

 

[hughie]

I have a friend in Texas who uses an old fridge with a small light bulb. He found at certain times of the year the ambient humidity of his locale to be very low and was causing problem within in the dry fridge and got around the problem in the fridge by placing a small bowl of water to bring the humidity up.

 

[Timothy Rowe]

Just throw it on a shelf and let it dry. If it cracks it was just a practice piece and will make great firewood. Not every piece of wood has something in it.:cool2:

If a piece cracks I just say "I guess there was not supposed to be something everlasting in that log,. But that is just me, I have a lot of room so I probably have 4 or 500 pieces sitting around drying, or cracking.

My mentor taught me from the start "don't get attached to a piece until its finished". Just practice your cuts on other green wood. It's all about practice ,practice, practice