>I'm soaking my first rough turned pecan bowls in DNA today. If I understand it correctly 2 hours or so should be enough. Then do they go directly into paperbags or do I wait for a small amount of air drying?
Also, I heat my Shopudio (garage) with a propane bottle mounted heater. How flammable is this stuff? Currently I have it sitting outside the garage in 40 degree temp. Is it safe to bring in while soaking if I keep it a reasonable distance from my heat source?
>Dave suggests that you let them dry out upside down for about an hour then wrap them in brown craft paper.
I've been tossing them into a brown paper sack for a couple of hours, then wrapping them in a few layers of newsprint for about a week. I let them sit for another week unwrapped before turning
>You said -- "Also, I heat my Shopudio (garage) with a propane bottle mounted heater. How flammable is this stuff? Currently I have it sitting outside the garage in 40 degree temp. Is it safe to bring in while soaking if I keep it a reasonable distance from my heat source?"
The flashpoint of ethanol (denatured alcohol, DNA) is about 50 F. That means that is the temperature at which it typically generates enough vapors to ignite or "flash". If you have a high enough vapor concentration (typically above 2-3% locally) it will "flash".
If you have enough ventilation to keep the vapor accumulation down to a "reasonable" level, it shouldn't be a problem. Remember however, that ethanol vapors are heavier than air, and they will "pool" in low-lying areas without sufficient ventilation. If your bucket is closed, the vapors will be contained, so that won't be a problem.
>Thanks. I chose the safe route. I let them all soak outside while I was working in and heating the garage. I can't find the lid for the bucket (former chlorine container for the pool so I got nervous about any of that residue).
>It is much less safe than two gallons of whiskey! Whiskey you can drink, DNA you can't. :).
But to go back to it being as safe as whiskey - I am afraid it isn't so. Whiskey is 45-50% ethanol and 55-50% water. The water helps keep the ethanol in the liquid phase (solution) as opposed to the vapor phase. The higher the ethanol content, the more ethanol vapor is produced above the surface of the liquid. You would have to heat whiskey (like brandy for the "flaming" in restaurants) to get it to release enough ethanol vapor to "flash".
