So much for this drying technique

[Scott Hackler]

I have been using the no chemical paper bag method and someone meantioned or I read somewhere about putting the fresh shavings in the bag around the bowls. Well I did this and after a few weeks I wanted to open the bags and check on the movement of my turnings and to my shock...MOLD spots! Yeah, I was kinda upset. Not so much on the elm pieces, but the hackberry being spotted really upset me.

I chucked my favorite hackberry turning and turned it true, again. It wasnt off that much. Well the surface mold spots are pretty much gone but now the wood has green streaking in it like it is now spalted. I wiped it down with mineral spirits just to kill anything on it and placed it back in the bag.. without shavings!

:(

[jim carter]

i have the mold problem with sandblasted manzanita in the winter because of moisture in the air. soak in a mixture of 50-50 of bleach and water. soak for 10 minutes

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Did you stack the bags atop one another? They need to have air that can circulate around, or you will get mold. That was one of the things he mentioned in his article. That's why he puts them on a wire shelf.
What's wrong with a little spalting? Some here on this forum go out of their way to get wood to spalt. OH! Now you know how!

[Steve Frederick]

When I place wood in a paper bag, I open the bag a bit after a few days.
I think that the slight air movement helps to prevent mold, but doesn't seem to cause/accelerate checking. YMMV

[Burt Alcantara]

John Jordan recommends putting rough-outs on a shelf away from all moving air and light. SmartFlix has his DVD "John Jordan on Woodturning: The AAestheetics & Properties of Wood."

I've got 2 large boxes of rough-outs sitting in a corner in my dark basement, with more to come.

While I do get a lot of white mold, none has been a problem. If anything, we get a mold that likes dry wood and actually accentuates whatever figure is in the wood.

Burt

[Ron McKinley]

Here's a technique I got from Reed Gray who lives in the humid northwest. I live in the desert and it sure works for me. Haven't had a crack in the six bowls I've tried it with and warping is minimal. After wrapping I put it in a paper bag, fold over the top but don't seal it. After six weeks it's ready to finish turn........Ron

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee24/desertwoodturner/P9210044web.jpg

[Jim Underwood]

I just use newspapers or paper bags, and stack them loosely on a shelf. I once stuffed several newspaper wrapped roughouts in a box and got some mold, but it didn't amount ot much. I just turned it away. I don't pack 'em tightly together anymore.

Probably depends on the wood type, and the amount of moisture in the wood, and how much you pack together.

[Dean Matthews]

talked about a million times here but I am going to throw it out again anyway. =)

http://ronkent.com/techniques.php

go to the last technique on the page... "The Soap Solution" I have done this on several pieces and have been amazed at the results.

[Reed Gray]

Scott,
For one thing, Hackberry will spalt very quickly. Put it in a bag with wet shavings for a couple of weeks, and you are providing an excellent incubator for spalting. The idea with the bags is that they breathe and the excess moisture will move out through the paper. The shavings can hold a lot of moisture in with the wood for a longer time. Those that use plastic bags to 'dry' their bowls in, with no shavings, will turn the bag inside out every day or two at the most to get rid of the excess moisture. You could try dry shavings which would absorb most of the moisture, and change them out after a few days. Others use anchorseal which greatly slows down the drying process, and don't wrap.

I wish I could claim to be the person who thought up the idea of wrapping the outside of a bowl like shown in Ron's picture. I didn't. I think credit goes to the guy who started the DNA soaking process (Dave Smith?). I experimented a lot with different methods of drying, and after a lot of bowls, and even a measured and timed test, came to the conclusion that the soaks did nothing to the wood with the exception that the soap soak makes the wood easier to sand out. I haven't tested it on thick turned bowls. My bowls are thin turned to final thickness, and allowed to dry and warp. The only different thing with the soaks was that the DNA turners would wrap the outside of the bowl with paper and secure it to the rim with tape, or as I now do with plastic stretch film. The inside was left open. The theory is that the bowl now dries faster on the inside than on the outside, and this pulls the outside inwards, doing a compression thing on the bowl. Since I started wrapping the outsides, my success rate is almost 100%. Do round over the edges of the rim, and make sure the rim is covered. Sharp edges on the rim will dry faster, and tend to start cracks, and we all know that once a crack starts, it gets bigger. I wrap only the rim on smaller bowls with the plastic (6 inch), and this works, and I wrap green hollowform pieces as well. I have wrapped only the rim on some bigger bowls, and this seems to work as well, but on woods that are more difficult to dry, I use the paper.

robo hippy