# Drying bowl blank ?'s



## Lodensam2004 (Oct 16, 2011)

Gents,

I am curious to know what the most successful method of drying bowl blanks might be? I am fortunately able to obtain quite a bit of timber seeing how I live in a heavily wooded part of north Georgia, and I would like to be able to use this opportunity to supply myself with bowl blanks for present turnings and hopefully far future turnings as well. 
The way I have been drying mine thus far is by cutting the blank down to its biggest possible diameter on the bandsaw, then from there I apply anchor seal around the circumference of newly exposed outer edges and maybe a half inch thick ring of anchor seal on the top of the blank around the edge. Then the blank goes onto the shelf in the corner until some lucky day I walk up to it and say...you look dry enough...

Is there a better method guys? My way doesn't always dry the wood without checking and cracking, but it gets me through SLOWLY but surely. Any ideas for a faster turn around?

Anyways many more questions for many more forums later. 
Sam


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## RusDemka (Jun 9, 2012)

Did u try the search function on this forum, I think this comes up a lot...

Got wood? Turn it.....


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

You can make things faster (in in my opinion, more fun) by turning the bowl in two stages -- first rough turn it while it's still green, then let it dry, then finish turn it.

During rough turning, aim for walls of uniform thickness about 10% of the bowl diameter. In my case, since my lathe has a maximum swing of 12", I usually make the walls less than an inch thick.

Then I put them into a brown paper grocery bag, marking the outside with wood type, diameter, date rough-turned and the weight. I usually throw some of the pile of shavings in there too, but there's no real need to do that.

Every other week, check the weight of the bowl and record it on the bag. Eventually it will stabilize -- when it stops losing weight, it has stopped losing water.

Then you can turn it again to final size. Quite often the rim will have distorted and the tenon to grab with the chuck will need to be squared up again before it sits safely in the chuck. Good reason to make the tenon a little over-sized to begin with, and to leave sufficient meat on the walls to ensure that there is enough to turn the oval into a circle.


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

It's hard to dry bowl blanks without them cracking. I cover them completely with parrafin wax and they last longer but they aren't dry. What this does is keep them more or less wet until you can rough turn them or turn them to completion and let them warp. 
The best thing you can do is join one of the clubs in the area and learn more from people who live in your climate about how they do it. There is an excellent club in Elijay and one in Dalton as well as some down toward Atlanta. Also a good one in Chattanooga if that's closer to you as well as one near Franklin, NC.


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## WillemJM (Aug 18, 2011)

I also wet turn, which is a lot easier. I use a little spray bottle and keep the end grain wet while I'm turning, to make sure it does not crack. After rough turning about 8% wall thickness measured to bowl diameter, I use Anchor seal to coat only the end grain areas, both sides, then put it in a double grocery paper bag. From 35-40% moisture content, for a 10" dia bowl I normally lose a cup of water in the first week, by weighing and I weigh every week until there is no more change, then do final turning. Very important to have the same wall thickness in all areas of the bowl as already mentioned.

Also important to clean and lube your lather after turning wet.


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## NCPaladin (Aug 7, 2010)

I do it the way Duncsuss does. Turn twice, the first time down to about 1” wall thickness depending on the size of the blank.


For storage_ before_ the first turn, I leave the log section 3-4” longer than the diameter to allow for cracks (I do cut them to remove the pith). I only coat the end grain and not the entire section. The longer length allows the wood to crack some as they almost all do. If you cut round to start with any cracking lessens the diameter. For me the wood is free so it is a lot less cost/trouble than coating the entire piece.


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## Lodensam2004 (Oct 16, 2011)

I have used this method and the hang up I have about it is that the warping most always ruins the piece for the re-turning. You have to take so much more away/off from the piece. I guess what I was hoping for was a solution to dry the chunk blank and save the process of having to double turn the piece. There has got to be a better way out there. I'm sure all turners could agree. 
Thank you for all your responses, maybe I need to start asking about backyard kilns or solar dryers. I am determined to find a way.


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## robert421960 (Dec 9, 2010)

let them dry then turn them is fine too.these guys were just saying their preference i think.
i have turned some both ways
green is so much easier but yes it will warp
coat the endgrain on blanks and let them dry then turn them if you like
either way works good:yes:


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## PSDkevin (Dec 18, 2010)

Has anyone had any luck using pentacryl. I have a buddy that swears by it. He says you have to follow the directions religiously. I have not used it so I am only going on what he says.


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## smokeymountianbowls (Aug 3, 2012)

You can build a homemade kiln fairly cheap with just a 100 watt light bulb as the heating source


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## Lodensam2004 (Oct 16, 2011)

smokymountianbowls said:


> You can build a homemade kiln fairly cheap with just a 100 watt light bulb as the heating source


Do tell..


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## duncsuss (Aug 21, 2009)

Lodensam2004 said:


> ... the hang up I have about it is that the warping most always ruins the piece for the re-turning.


I'm not sure what you mean by this.

Leaving the wall 10% of diameter has always left me with enough room to cut a perfect bowl wall out of the fat oval wall that is left after drying & warping.

Just turn away the warpage on the outside and the inside and nobody would even know it was turned twice (as opposed to turned directly to a finished bowl from a dry solid block.)



> You have to take so much more away/off from the piece.


Do you mean that the finished bowl is a smaller diameter than you could have achieved by drying the blank first and turning it in a single shot?

If so, I think you are wrong. Whether the middle of the bowl is present or absent, drying a block of wood will result in the same amount of shrinkage.

The final diameter available to us as turners is the same whether it shrinks first (dry then turn) or after we've removed the corners and some of the middle (rough turn, dry, finish turn).

Still, it's your wood, of course, you can turn it however you want (but please do it safely :thumbsup

Have fun!


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## oldmacnut (Dec 27, 2010)

I really do not like turning green wood, it's a little more of a pain, then again I am new and the lathe I have, and chisels scream replace me, and I will, but for now segmenting kiln dried is a much more enjoyable turning experience.


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## WillemJM (Aug 18, 2011)

oldmacnut said:


> I really do not like turning green wood, it's a little more of a pain, then again I am new and the lathe I have, and chisels scream replace me, and I will, but for now segmenting kiln dried is a much more enjoyable turning experience.


Other than cleaning the lathe and lubrication to prevent rust, I can't think of any disadvantages. It takes forever to dry a solid wood blank, compared to a rough turned bowl, turning is a lot easier, less dust and shavings curl off nice and long. If you lurk on ebay, there are some pretty figured blanks and sometims you can get a real bargain, but they are all waxed and will stay wet.


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## NCPaladin (Aug 7, 2010)

I think most turners turn twice due to the time to dry. As a general rule-of-thumb it takes about a year for each inch of thickness. So a four inch thick blank could take 3-4 years. Rough turning green greatly reduces this down to 6 months to 1 year.
I don’t know but I would think drying whole would be more prone to cracking. I am assuming rough turning would release some of the stress in the wood but maybe not.

There are plans on the web for solar kilns. I looked up some of them a few weeks ago because I am soon to have about six windows and patio doors to use for something.
This may be a good project before I list them on freecycle.


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## rrbrown (Feb 15, 2009)

smokymountianbowls said:


> You can build a homemade kiln fairly cheap with just a 100 watt light bulb as the heating source


That only works until your 100 watt bulb stash runs out. They are not made any longer. Only 60 watt and less I believe or it might only be up to 40 watt. 

Maybe two of the lower watt bulbs.


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## PhilipCollier (Jan 2, 2012)

I know they still sell 300 watt heat lamp bulbs ( looks like a security light bulb for a motion detector setup outside.) We had to use them once in our shop at work. Dont know what it would do to the wood though. I would have to say be careful if you try to use those.

PCollier -the forever rookie-


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