James wrote:

Dr. Deb wrote:


JimJames wrote:

Hi Group, I just finished rough turning a pine bowl blank that's
very green up until now I've mostly worked with dry wood. The blank
is very wet, we're talking water and pitch, down South they would
probably call it grease wood. I've heard of various of drying,
brown paper sack, add sawdust and microwave oven. I'm new to drying
so any help would be appreciated such as to the best method,
storage and such. It's winter here right now and we're having high
30's during the day and 20's at night right now. I'm doing practice
turnings on my new to me Jet 1236. I've been away from turning
awhile. Thanks, Jim

--

Jim, it depends on just how impatient you are. Of course considering
your temps, drying is going to be quite a bit slower for you (right
now IGoogle tells me it is 65 degrees outside - I keep telling my
brother there was a reason I retried to Alabama)

The brown paper bag works well, it just takes awhile (this is what I
usually do). If you are going that route, or the sawdust route, get
yourself a postal scale. Weight it when you put it in the bag (I
write the weight and date on the bowl) then weight it every couple of
months. When it starts losing weight slowly, weight it more often.
When it stops losing weight, its as dry as its going to get and ready
to finish turning.

As for the microwave (aaaawww, instant gratification :-0 ).
Turn it to nearly finished, nuke it (I run it on the defrost setting
for 7min 45sec (its an auto setting on that partucular microwave) and
keep hitting it, with short cool down periods, until you quit getting
steam. Put it on the lathe and do any last minute touch ups with the
tools, sand and finish.

Hope that helps.

Deb

Thanks, I'm also retired but in Idaho. I'll brown bag it and turn
another one out of another chunk of the same wood and try the microwave
method also. I'll visit one of the local thrift stores for a Microwave.
Jim

--

That tends to rescue you from the "little woman's ire." Somehow, they just
do not understand about us running our turning projects through "their"
microwave. lol

Really, you are doing exactly the right thing. You are checking out various
techniques and seeing which one you like the best.

Enjoy

Deb