Silica Gel for Drying Bowls

Re: Silica Gel for Drying Bowls

Mike Schwing from Md.

>Colonel, I'd say experiment with it but it seems contrary to what we usually are trying to do - slow down the drying process, not make it happen faster. I can hear the wood cracking in my imagination just at the sight of that silica!

Give it a shot, let us know.

Re: Silica Gel for Drying Bowls

e

>my flower-drying friends use the 'pearls' kitty litter (100% silica).

therefore, i've taken small green bowls and emersed them in a bucket of pearls. however since the silica absorbs the moisture and then holds the water, it was ineffective within hours and needed to be dried. this method proved to be very costly in time and kitty litter.

e

Re: Good Morning, Sir......

Jesper, Denmark

>The short answer is: Forget it!

The longer explanation is this: Silica gel is and adsorbent. Note the "a" in adsorbent. It has a large internal pore surface, where there can sit many molecules together - including water. When the water is driven off by heat, it has capacity for more.

If you add the activated silicagel to your brown bag, it will attract moisture from outside the bag as well as the inside, reach an equilibrium with the moisture in the air around the wood, and then you just have more solid material in the bag.

The bag is there to slow down the drying, so that the blank does not dry too fast in some places and crack. The silicagel does not change this.

Silicagel is used for dehumidification commercially, with some sort of continuous reactivation of the gel. Those little bag og gel packed with cameras and the like are largely useless, as the packing materials are not an effective barrier to ingress of moisture from the surrounding air.

I could go on, but you get the drift.....

PS. Your favorite pipe shop is still there.

Re: Silica Gel for Drying Bowls

Russ

>Don't know about using Silica-Gel, but the old way of packing the bowl in wet sawdust still works. When the sawdust is dry, so is the bowl. It helps to have a sawmill close by.

Packing the wet bowl in a tub of grain also works well. Wheat is a good size, and it can be spread out and dried again. If it sprouts, they are good on a salad.

Re: Silica Gel for Drying Bowls

Andrew Hilton

>Yes, it does work. I've done it several times by packing some wood in various desiccants ("A substance, such as calcium oxide or silica gel, that has a high affinity for water and is used as a drying agent").

Unfortunately, most of the time that's not what you're really wanting though. There are some good reasons to increase the drying rate but that's not likely what you're really after in this case, is it? It'd be really nice to increase the drying rate without the resulting problems (cracking being the usual one) associated with it but that doesn't happen very often.

Another common alternative to silica (but it still has the same problems of drying too quickly in most cases) is to just wrap your bowl in a diaper. Yep.

Pibe Dan

George@Colonel's Workshop-Havertown PA

>Howdy Jesper,

Yes, that could only be at 13 Vestergade, Copenhagan K, Denmark. Each pipe they sold is a work of art. I treasure those in my collection which bear the Pipe Dan logo. I'll get one of them out tonight and do Monday Nite Football properly. Thanks for the memories.

George

A DIAPER?

George@Colonel's Workshop-Havertown PA

>Good Evening Andrew,

Are you serious? We got rid of them when they were used, one by one. My youngest kid is almost 20, and I don't believe he can or would want to spare his! Anyway, he is away at college.

George

Re: A DIAPER?

Andrew Hilton

>Absolutely serious. But do try to use the fresh ones.

What is a diaper anyway? It absorbs and traps moisture away from what it's up against. It does it quite well too! Well, as long as you're not in a movie theater and wearing a good suit! Then they never work as they should.

But, as I said to the original poster.... it does such a good job that it's not likely that that is what he is wanting in his situation.