General Category > General Discussion
Drying round blanks
Bryan Milham:
Yes - if you leave them in sealed plastic bags for a couple of weeks - you'll find them full of rot when you open them.
They need taking out and the bag turning daily at the start to let the moisture evaporate/dry from the (now) outside of the bag.
You can slow down a little on the bag turning after a couple of weeks to a month when the moisture content is not so apparent.
If you can't manage to turn them daily fill the bag with the shavings as well but keep the turning blank away from the plastic. Then when you can get to them tip out and re pack. The additional shaving will slow the process down but give you the time you need to get back to them.
When they seem to equalise in weight, then you can leave the top of the bag slight open to let a little more air in for a few days, then open a little more and finally fully open.
Again give them a week (at least) like that before taking and leaving them outside the bag.
Lastly, don't be too disappointed if you still loose one or two - it happens.
Nige7:
Thanks Dr4g0nfly, ill check them daily :)
Nigel
Tim Pettigrew:
Hello Nigel
These are the results of drying a Catillac Pear rough turned bowl blank (turned green) 164 mm (about 6½") diameter. The tree had been felled about 5 months beforehand. The weight loss of around 35%-40% is about average for Pear and other fruitwoods although this obviously depends to some extent on the time of year the tree was felled.
Image one shows the readings and the second shows a graph of date against weight/weight loss.
Hope this is of some interest.
Tim
woodturningpat:
Are paper bags not better than plastic to keep the blanks in? I have had reasonable results rough turning, putting the blank in paper bag (old cat litter or carrier bag) with shavings putting it in shed and then just forgetting about it!. On the question of drying Beech the saw mill guy who comes to our club says that Beech is notorious for splitting when drying.
woodndesign:
Hi WTP, welcome to the forum, you say about old cat litter bag, I wonder as to if there made of a damp proof paper in order to keep the litter dry, it's whole idea (the litter) is to absorb water, which it would do through ordinary paper bags and you'd get a damp mess.
The mill guy should know or is it down to a size, something in a large form, maybe in a thick board, will be interest to see more about that.
Cheers David
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