Where do you store roughed out bowls to dry?

[Dave Schell]

I got a nice load of maple yesterday and am planning a roughing out blitz this weekend (18 bowls). I wondering where the best place is to store the bowls while they dry. My choices are a 1) hay barn - very uninsulated but relatively dry - but probably close to the same humidity as the outside air or 2) climate controlled basement (a/c and heat). Note: I plan to seal the rough outs with anchorseal before storing.

I know the barn is a pretty safe bet, but the bowls would likely dry faster in the basement, but is that to low of humidity - will they dry too fast?

So, where do you dry your bowls?

[ROY DICK]

I store mine where there is good air circulation. Some stiker, some put them on wire racks,some just chunck them on a flat surface and flip them over.
I do the last one and flip everyday or so.

Roy

[Tony De Masi]

Dave, I dry mine in a climate controlled basement as is available to you. However, I don't use the anchorseal post rough out. I use the DNA method and aside from one small piece of apple I've never had in issue with the dry product.

Tony

[Steve Bistritz]

+1 on the DNA

[Dennis Ford]

I store mine in my workshop on a high shelf. Sometimes I just wrap them in brown paper and sometimes I coat them in anchorseal. The shop is not climate controlled (I do live in a humid area). The blanks that are wrapped in paper dry faster than the coated blanks but once enough blanks are accumulated that does not matter. Either of your options should be fine for blanks that are coated with anchorseal.

[Dave Schell]

Tony, I've never tried the DNA method, although I am familiar with it. How long do you soak each one for and then how long do you allow them to dry before final turning? Thanks

[neil mackay]

I use several methods depending on the timber. DNA ,water soaking, water and soap mix soaking. But then the final stage is in cardboard boxes, several rough outs together and monitor the process

[Bernie Weishapl]

When I use anchorseal I put mine in a climate control area of the shop on the floor not more than 2 ft high. I talked with Mike Mahoney about this after watching his DVD and he said he found that was the best way to store them. He said it is cooler nearer the floor and keep them away from a lot of air movement not more than 2 ft off the floor. So far I have about 20 or so bowls and no cracks.

[Mike Peace]

I double bag them and put them on a shelf in the garage for at least three months. We have fairly high humidity here so I figured they would dry more gradually than in my AC controlled basement. I have had pretty good results with limited cracking.

[Dan Forman]

I will be building a rack featuring coated wire shelves from one of the Borgs, which will be in the basement. This will no doubt soon be filled, so I might have to find room for several more of them, maybe moving them upstairs when it's time to unwrap.

I have tried several drying techniques with inconsistent results. DNA has yielded a relatively high percentage of cracked bowls, though I followed the directions here. The latest is from Earnie Conover's book, where he suggests simply wrapping the the roughout in a few layers of newspaper or brown paper from a grocery bag and storing it for about three weeks, then unwrapping and letting it dry the rest of the way before finish turning it. This could take up to two or three months, depending on the humidity of the storage area and size of bowl. Apparently the greatest risk of cracking is in the first few weeks when the rate of moisture loss is highest. This method uses no DNA or Anchor Seal. He says to get it wrapped pronto, without spending too much time admiring your work before hand. I'll report on the success of this method in time, I currently have about 4 or 5 bowls that have been drying for about a week, and no checks so far.

Dan

[Jeff Nicol]

Dave, I am not the guy to model your roughed out bowl storage design after! I am running out of shelves and flat surfaces to put them so they are everywhere! Some are sealed some are not, some are in bags for additional color manipulation, but they are taking over my shop! I really need to get busy and finish some, but roughing them out is the most fun! Here are some pics. My shop has 2 floors and 2 rooms so up the stairs to the mess in the upper floor and into the back room on top of the old freezer and everywhere inbetween!

Jeff

[Chris Haas]

+1 on needing to start finishing bowls, thats the worst part.

[Tony De Masi]

Dave, I will let the rough outs sit at least 24 hours in the DNA bath. However sometimes I will push that out further either based on the type of wood, fruit woods in particular, or just plain forgetfullness. I recently ended up soaking some walnut for three weeks becuase I was so preoccupied with taking care of my wife who recently broke her ankle and needed a bit of care.

Tony

[Nathan Hawkes]

Like some others have said, I'm running out of room for more bowls.....
I have a few shelves that are full of bowls to be sanded, and several boxes full of roughed bowls that are ready to be re-turned. If I soak a bowl in DNA, it goes in for about 24 hours, sometimes more if I forget and leave it in. I then put it in a brown paper bag, then wrap again with another bag, for a couple days, then remove a bag, wait a couple, then air. If the bowl is more than 3/8" thick, I wait a little longer. In my location, relative humidity is moderate to high, depending on the time of year. Bowls grow mildew rapidly if I don't open the bags pretty rapidly, even after the DNA soak. If bowls are rough turned, I leave them in the bag for a month or more, then air dry for about the same, then they go in a loose open box for who knows how long....

[Frank Kobilsek]

Dave,

To answer your question directly - everywhere. Like Jeff I have rough out on the floor, in the rafters, in boxes, on shelves etc etc. Mostly in unheated pole barn but some in garage that is heated in winter. I DNA & wrap in newspaper, OR I Anchorseal, OR I just wrap in newspaper. Regardless of drying method, consistent wall thickness is the best indicator of success in drying bowls.

Your hay barn sounds like a great enviroment. Store them open side down so the raccoons don't use your rough outs as a porta-potty.

Frank

[Reed Gray]

I will start out with the bowls on the floor, as said before, it is cooler, and the concrete does hold some moisture, unless it was poured on top of a vapor barrior. After a day or three, I will move them up to wire racks, and stack them like in the dish washer, or like on a dish rack so air flows freely. They are at equilibrium in about 10 days (no, I don't weigh them or date them, I just feel them). I do green turn to final thickness, 1/2 to 1/4 inch. The one thing that has done the most to keep drying bowls from cracking for me was a trick I picked up from the DNA soaking, and that is to wrap the outside of the bowl with a couple of layers of newspaper, secure it to the rim. I use a couple of wraps of the 6 inch wide plastic stretch film that you wrap around boxes on pallets, or you can tape it. Do stretch the film out, and have about 1 inch or so over the rim, and the other 5 inches or so on the outside of the bowl. Then cut out the paper on the inside of the bowl. Theory here is that the inside dries faster than the outside, and this draws the outside inwards so that the bowl is actually drying in a compression mode. I don't like to use the shavings from the turning as some times it leaves unsightly spots on the bowls. I had problems with paper bagging. Madrone is the most difficult wood I have found to dry. Single or double bagging had as much as 50% failure rate, even when stacked together on the floor. Just the plastic film around the rim gets me almost 100% success, even with knots in the wood. Do round over the edges on the rim as a sharp edge will dry unevenly, and can start cracks.
robo hippy

[Mark Burge]

Dave: I tried to find a link to the post that Leo made a while back about drying in paperbags, but I couldn't find it. Leo please correct me if I misrepresent you, but I understood him to say that the paper bags create a mini-kiln around the bowl to control the drying rate. That is what you want anywhere you put the roughouts. Seems to me that the humidity is the key, so the barn would be more humid and the drying would be slower than in the basement. We are talking North Carolina, right?

[Wally Dickerman]

My method for drying rough outs is very simple. With most wood I simply wax the outside with Johnson's past wax. very liberally. maybe even 2 coats. I put the date on it. It then goes on a shelf in my shop. It'll be dry in 6 months.

If a I have a wet wood that tends to crack such as fruit woods, I brown paper bag it for a month or 2 then it goes on the shelf.

I don't finish turn wet wood so I don't use the laundry soap soak. I'm not in a hurry so I've never done the DNA soak.

I've had great success with my method over the years. I live in hot dry Arizona so unprotected wood cracks very readily.

Right now I have at least 75 roughouts in various stages of drying in my shop where I have no A/C. None are cracked.

Wally

[Tom Giacomo]

I've had good luck with just putting them in a brown paper bag then storing them in my garage for 3 or 4 months.

[Dave Schell]

Thanks for all of the input and suggestions. It seems like there is a wide variety of ways to dry bowls and most of them seem to work pretty well! I would say the predominant methods are to either soak in DNA or wrap in a brown bag. No one reported any method that is a guaranteed failure.

Of the 14 that responded, 3 said they dry them in a climate controlled space, 7 said they dried them in an unclimate controlled garage, shop, or barn, and 4 indicated how they treat the bowls for drying, but didn't say where they actually store them to dry.

I didn't get as much done this weekend as I had hoped. Other farm work prevailed. I did finish chainsawing up all 9 logs (these were big - about 20" in diameter on average). So I have about 22 large bowl and platter blanks hiding under a big pile of shavings waiting to be rough turned.

Sorry for no pics - it's dark out now here in the carolinas, but will try to get some this week.

[curtis rosche]

i have my roughed out bowls in my shop/garage. they are sitting under a pile of shavings either in a plastic tub, or the giant cardboard box that i have under my lathe bench.