Drying bowls

Re: Drying bowls

Chuck Ludwigsen

>If you've rough turned them to about 1" thick per 10" of diameter, then putting them in a bag is air-drying and it will take up to a year for them to fully dry. Believe it or not, slower drying is better.

There are quicker drying methods that may have varying degrees of success depending on how accurately you follow them. And there are a number of folks here that can guide you in those techniques.

Chuck

Re: Drying bowls

Shawn - in ID

>I wouldn't expect any change in a week, as Chuck said. But, things to be mindful of: make sure your moisture meter is working properly and know what its margin of error is. My protocol is to rough turn green wood to ~3/4-1" for 8-10" bowls, then coat them in anchorseal. Wait ~5 months, then turn them round again (turning off most of the wax), maybe a light coat of thinned tung oil, and let stand for another 4-5 months. Then finish it up. For the fastest route I've been lucky with roughing as above, coating with tung oil, then finish turning ~3 months later with many coats of tung oil - some warping a year out but not too much. Good luck.

Re: Drying bowls

Brad Vietje

>I'd say impatient, which is how we all were when we started turning green bowls !

Depending on where you live, you might see a huge difference in drying rates during different seasons. Here in Vermont, we've had a pretty humid and cool summer, so drying has been slower than usual. Thats actually good if you want to avoid cracks. You can also put the bowls in a sealed plastic bag, and turn the bag inside out each day. The moisture will bead up on the inside of the bag, and then evaporate when the bag is inverted. This will allow you to see and feel the moisture coming out of the wood.

If you hurry the process, you'll usually get cracks, and feel like you had wasted your time. I usually rough a bowl and dry it for 6 months or so, and generally, the longer the better. The trick is to rough out a few bowls each week, Or a few each day !) and date them, so you aren't waiting for that one bowl to dry. Intersperse bowl rough-outs with bowls turned to completion in one go -- turn them real thin, wet sand with water or mineral oil, and let them dry a few days up to a few weeks or so before hand-sanding the raised grain, and applying your finish. These will not be round, as the wood will shrink, and create an oval bowl. Some people even apply polymerizing oil finishes to green wood, which also helpd slow the drying, and reduces cracking. Once you start looking, you can find green wood, usually for free, in larger quantity than you can keep up with.

I'd suggest "Turning Green Wood" by Michael O'Donnell -- very good source for all the basics.

Safe Spinning,

Brad Vietje

Thetford, VT

Re: Drying bowls

Richard Allen

>Hi J B

The moisture metters I have seen are not designed to read wet wood. The are designed to read the moisture content of dry or almost dry wood. 30% is the highest I have seen a moisture meeter read and fresh cut wood has a LOT more moisture than that.

To detect the change in WET wood you can use weigh the wood.

The paper bag drying is a good way to go. A paper bag in a plastic bag also works well. In that method you turn the plastic bag inside out each day and replace the wet paper bag each day until the paper bag isn't wet. Then every couple days, then every few days and by the time you are replacing the paper bag once a week you can ditch the plastic bag.

Good luck