drying out

[crazylegs]

This may be a stupid idea but could you dry blanks in a sealed container with a dehumidify. The sort of thin you put in caravans with the water absorbing crystals? I have a fairly damp garage as my work shop an am looking for ways to help with this.

[fuzzyturns]

Yes, you can, but your mileage will vary. The crystals have a limit of how much water they can absorb, and often the process is a little on the fast side, putting stress on the wood and resulting in cracks.

[bernuk1]

This may be a stupid idea but could you dry blanks in a sealed container with a dehumidify. The sort of thin you put in caravans with the water absorbing crystals? I have a fairly damp garage as my work shop an am looking for ways to help with this.

Firstly,I can't answer your question  but,out of interest,what do you call a 'fairly damp' garage ?
I also use my garage and I just took a reading off a roof joist which has been there around 30yrs,and got a reading of 16%.  However some large spalted beech blanks which arrived with 23% MC are now reading 14% only 3ft away from the joist that read 16%.
Have you had any problems with splitting ? The only problem I've had was when I brought a 12" x 4" x 4" blank that I was going to make a candlestick out of into the lounge and left it there for 2 days-it split so got made into pen blanks and I used another blank for the candlestick.

Regards,
Mike.

[bernuk1]

Yes, you can, but your mileage will vary. The crystals have a limit of how much water they can absorb, and often the process is a little on the fast side, putting stress on the wood and resulting in cracks.

A sealed container was mentioned,would the size of that have a bearing on the process ? Not that I can imagine a sealed container large enough for the blanks I've accumulated lately.

Mike.

[crazylegs]

just starting out on this journey so I only have a limited stock. My garage gets condensation on any cold metal surface. A spalted bowl I made from a small log that had been in there for a couple of years split after 2 days indoors. I was miffed. I am trying to get a good dry stock to stop this. I am going to use large plastic storage containers and see what happens.
I am getting a moisture meter so will know if it makes any difference.

[seventhdevil]

your garage has a higher moisture content than your house so no amount of time having it drying in there will help it if you then take it in your house.

i suggest you find a way to dry your garage out more or find i drier place to store your timber.

[Eddie Perkins]

The rule of thumb for drying green timber is one year per inch so it is unlikely that the log you used was 'dry'.

My approach is to rough turn green wood to a thickness of around 10% of the bowl diameter (so for a 10 inch blank the bowl is turned to around 1 inch thick), wrap it in newspaper and secure with masking tape then put the blanks onto cardboard boxes and set aside.  this helps the blank to dry at an even rate.  On the 1 inch per year rule the blank could be ready to finish in 6 months as the wood is drying from both inside and outside, but I usually leave them for longer, or until I need them. 

I check the dryness with a moister meter (£9.95 from Lidl) and its usually below 15% which should be OK.  The other way is to weigh the blank and once it stops loosing weight it is as dry as it will get.

Moisture level is related to the environment in any case, if the wood is at 10% and the relative humidity level in your garage is higher the wood will take up moisture until is in equilibrium with the  conditions in the garage.

Also bear in mind you are drying the sap moisture out of the wood not the relative moisture content which will vary with the relative humidity.  If you keep the wood in  a large plastic storage container the relative humidity in the containers is likely to remain the same as the wood and it probably wont dry.

[GBF]

This may be a stupid idea but could you dry blanks in a sealed container with a dehumidify. The sort of thin you put in caravans with the water absorbing crystals? I have a fairly damp garage as my work shop an am looking for ways to help with this.

Basically when you say about drying wood in a sealed container you are trying to kiln dry wood .
There is a lot more to kiln drying than taking out moisture with a dehumidifier kiln drying is a combination of dehumidifying heating and fans for air movement.
It is quite a complicated business that is why kiln dried wood seems expensive it also takes quite a long time

Regards George 

[Tim Pettigrew]

I have been doing some experimental work on this approach which might be relevant to this thread. Results to date can be viewed HERE

Tim