Kevin Stanbary
09-16-2010, 11:43 AM
I have some recently cut black locust. Tree was taken down in late July, I got 5 decent sized logs that day, sealed the ends of logs with some old polyurethane just because it's what I had at the time (I've since acquired a big bucket of Anchorseal.) 2 weeks ago I found some time and cut it all into slabs and a few bowl blanks and properly sealed the lot.
Long story somewhat shorter, I decided I had a need for some spindle blanks from the stuff and was pondering a way to get it dry. I've been using DNA for bowl blanks with a fair amount of success and I was reading about boiling methods and I had an idea...
I cut three 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" x 14" blanks and dropped them in DNA to soak. I think they ended up being in for 4 days.
I pulled them out on my way into work one morning, taking them along. Once I got to the office I stacked them with stickers in the environmental chamber we have for temperature testing electronics. Set the chamber to 115 degrees C (239 degrees F) and left them there for about 4 1/2 hours.
When I opened the chamber I was greeted by some *very* humid hot air and a lot of condensation. The blanks themselves, once they had cooled enough to touch had some cracking and checking at the ends down to about 1/2" in.
Took them home, cut off the cracked stock and sealed the ends. They sat for a week or so before I got back to them but after cutting through the blanks, they appear to be completely dry all the way through and there's been no more cracks developing since. Unfortunately I don't have a moisture meter, so I'm not sure how dry they really are. Put one of the blanks between centers and turned it round and was getting chips and dust instead of curls.
I think I'll be experimenting more with this, but at this point I'm wondering if I got lucky with the minimal cracking I got or if I'm on to something here... Unfortunately, I'm guessing not may people have access to a chamber like this and I don't think I'd try it in a normal oven - not enough control of the temperature.
Anyway I thought I'd share and see what you all thought of it... As I play more, I'll be sure to share my experiences.
Long story somewhat shorter, I decided I had a need for some spindle blanks from the stuff and was pondering a way to get it dry. I've been using DNA for bowl blanks with a fair amount of success and I was reading about boiling methods and I had an idea...
I cut three 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" x 14" blanks and dropped them in DNA to soak. I think they ended up being in for 4 days.
I pulled them out on my way into work one morning, taking them along. Once I got to the office I stacked them with stickers in the environmental chamber we have for temperature testing electronics. Set the chamber to 115 degrees C (239 degrees F) and left them there for about 4 1/2 hours.
When I opened the chamber I was greeted by some *very* humid hot air and a lot of condensation. The blanks themselves, once they had cooled enough to touch had some cracking and checking at the ends down to about 1/2" in.
Took them home, cut off the cracked stock and sealed the ends. They sat for a week or so before I got back to them but after cutting through the blanks, they appear to be completely dry all the way through and there's been no more cracks developing since. Unfortunately I don't have a moisture meter, so I'm not sure how dry they really are. Put one of the blanks between centers and turned it round and was getting chips and dust instead of curls.
I think I'll be experimenting more with this, but at this point I'm wondering if I got lucky with the minimal cracking I got or if I'm on to something here... Unfortunately, I'm guessing not may people have access to a chamber like this and I don't think I'd try it in a normal oven - not enough control of the temperature.
Anyway I thought I'd share and see what you all thought of it... As I play more, I'll be sure to share my experiences.