(Tongue planted firmly in cheek)
Now Fred, you do realize that true 'scientfic method' would involve using 1"
cubes for the test as opposed to something that will actually be turned or
has been turned? The size makes it so much easier to measure distortion and
actual weight loss or gain. Besides, as so many of us use 1" cubes in our
work, the results will be applicable to a much wider range of possibilities.
What good is possibly gained by using an actual turned object?
Further, a true 'scientfic method' would involve taking measurements of the
surrounding environment (tempertarure, change in temperature, rate of change
in tempertature, relative humidity (as well as any changes thay may occur),
air flow, etc...) The measurements could then be input into a stats package
(SAS, Statistica, Stata, SPSS, S-Plus) and regressions run to determine the
coefficients (not paramters here as we are dealing only with samples and not
populations.) With the time data (discrete measurements over equally spaced
periods) included (rate of change in temp, humidity, air flow of
environment) we are now blessed with the possibility of using time series
procedures whereby we can determine if our model is more of an MA (Moving
Average) or an AR (Auto Regressive) or, perhaps, an ARIMA (AutoRegrssive
Integrated Moving Average). We may of course wish to subject our (not too
patient by now readers) to ARCH, CATS, and GARCH modeling procedures. But
we will leave such discussions for a more opportune time & place.
If we wish to include the actual species of wood in our experiment, we can
then run ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) or MANOVA (Multiple Analysis of
Variance) models and check for any statistically significant differences
either within or between groups which in turn will help us in determining
which species of wood, if any, is more susceptible to our alcohol-based
drying method. As with a true 'scientific method' we would want to include
measurements at various times so as to enable the employment of, at a
minumum tw-way AMOVA or MANOVA modeling techniques. Of course with the
inclusion of categorical data (wood species) and ANOVA modeling, the results
will not be quite as robust as the regression analysis.
I am sure there are other 'scientific methods' that can be gainfully
employed with the end result of sucking all of the joy, happiness, sense of
accomplishment, and just plain fun out of woodturning, but being just a
simple statistician I will leave them to others to outline. Such sucking
seems to be the sine qua non of some on this group.
(Tongue removed from cheek)

Thanks for the info. It works for you. If it works for others so much the
better.


"Fred Holder" wrote in message
...
It looks like the Group has slowed down a bit so thought I would post my
latest
test results of the Alcohol Drying of Wet Wood technique. There may be
some who
feel this is a farce, but in the past I've had excellent results with it.
My
latest test was on a piece of wet walnut tree root that was about 5 inches
in
diameter. Because of its size, I turned an endgrain vase out of it. The
rough
turned wall thickess was about 5/8". I soaked it in alcohol that we've
used
several times before for 24 hours. I removed it from the alcohol and let
it dry
off for a short while and then wrapped it in brown grocery sack on the
outside
and top rim, leaving the inside open and upright. I weighed it as soon as
it was
wrapped, here are the results:

At time of wrapping 5-4-06 Weight was 450 grams
The next morning 5-5-06 Weight was 400 grams
5-6-06 365 grams
5-7-06 320 grams
5-8-06 310 grams
5-9-06 265 grams
5-11-06 240 grams
5-13-06 200 grams
5-14-06 190 grams
5-15-06 190 grams

After weighing today, I final turned it. The foot was still round so that
I
could use the chuck tenon originally used to turn the piece. There were no
cracks or checks. The piece has lost 58 percent of its original weight in
ten
days setting in my shop. It was out of round by less that 1/16 inch. The
wood
was very dry when turned.

I have no previous experience with walnut tree root, but these results fit
nicely with other tests that we've made. I've never known a soaking wet
piece of
turned wood to dry completely in 10 days without some sort of help. I hope
this
information will be of use to some of the people on this newsgroup. It
will not
help the non-believers who will not give it a try or who have claimed to
try it
and found it not to work. For the rest of you, I recommend you give it a
try on
your next wet turned piece. We used Methel Alcohol, so don't drink the
stuff!!

Fred Holder
http://www.fholder.com


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