What about spindle blanks?????

[Jim Colombo]

Allot is said and written about drying and curing bowl blanks but I haven't seen anything concerning the same thing about spindle blanks. Do we need to rough turn spindle stuff like we do bowls? Or do we just let the spindle blanks sit till they reach equilibrium and hope they don't crack/warp/or whatever?

[Gary Max]

For spindles I like Kiln dried wood.

[Roger Chandler]

+1 to what Gary said..........if the spindle is a table leg or something else, then kiln dried is the way to go.............a much more stable proposition where you do not have to worry about twist in the grain so much.

[Bernie Weishapl]

For all spindle work I do the same and use kiln dried wood.

[Jim Colombo]

My question wasn't what you use or prefer. I would like to know how to handle green spindle blanks.

[David E Keller]

I don't have a lot of experience drying spindle blanks, but I generally coat the end grain and last inch or two on either end of the blank with anchor seal... So far, so good. I don't know that there is a great deal of benefit to roughing them out.

[Jack Mincey]

I air dry a lot of spindle stock for my high school students. I usually cut the log blanks in half using a chain saw so that I will have a flat surface to cut them the rest of the way on a bandsaw. It is best to leave the wood as long as one can handle. After they are cut into the size I want I dip the ends into anchorseal and stack them up like you are building a log cabin but not notching the corners. 1" stock tends to dry in around 6 months and two inch stock dries in around a year unless I put them in the attic storage of my home shop. It dries the stock much quicker. The end will crack on some pieces but if you are able to cut longer blanks the bad ends can be cut off.
Good Luck,
Jack

[John Hart]

I cut green spindles kinda fat and microwave them. 45 seconds...let'em cool.....about 4 times per day....maybe 5. Done in a few days.....then final turn.

[Michelle Rich]

when I split them out from logs, i use a sealant on the ends and stack them in an airy place until they are semi dry..then I choose which ones will make a good chair. I leave the uprights a tad wet, and my horizontals i dry in a box i have with 2 lightbulbs.
You did not tell us what you intend to do with them, so it's hard to answer your question very well. For table legs that will hold detail, air dry for awhile and then keep track of moisute content. 6-12 is good

[philip labre]

The only time I dried spindle blanks were for peppermill. I rounded them when they were wet, sealed the ends and put them in the freezer with a light bulb. None of them cracked, but I cut the wood off stumps that were cut 2 years earlier. Just walked through the woods and cut a block off any curly stumps I found.

[Jim Colombo]

Michelle;
I'm planning to use them in some segmented bowls but the question is generic. BTW I appreciate all the help you've given me in learning to do segmenting. Your bio in "Woodturning Design" is as interesting as your wonderful work.

[Michelle Rich]

Ok , segmented bowls will give you trouble. Folks swear one needs to have kiln dried for that. Wood movement with air dried will be a big hurdle..Do you have an attic you can access? i would use it as a last resort(dry normally in stacks that have air all around each piece until you think they are dry then put in attic)) to dry & only for a short time..it will get VERY hot there..Slower than microwaving, but one could make longer sticks this way. I worry you will get heat checking. Drying wood is an art as much as a technical exercize. Give it a whirl & make sure it is very dry. Hopefully you live in a good climate that does not change drastically around the calendar year.
Thanks for the acknowlegement of WD..it was rather fun!

[Royce Meritt]

I've had pretty good luck using the denatured alcohol drying method for fairly small "spindle blanks". If they are no more than about 1 1/2" square I've thrown them into the alcohol tub. Let 'em soak a while (usually until I remember they're in there). Take 'em out of the alcohol. Seal them up in a brown paper sack and come back in a couple weeks and they've been good to go. Lost a few to cracking but not too bad.

[John Hart]

What we need to do is create a post-graduate super-deluxe kiln-building tutorial thread. Fact is, you could build a fully functional, humidity and temperature controlled wood kiln for under $100 (depending on how well you scrounge) I know lot's of folks convert old refrigerators for this purpose.....But I've been talking to some kiln owners and checking out some small dehumidifiers....and ya know....This just might be a fun ticket to ride ;)

[Reed Gray]

For segmented pieces, you probably should cut slabs, like lumber, seal the ends, and put them some where high in the shop for a year or two. Solar kilns work fine, and are faster than air drying. Since wood never totally dries, cut pieces to rough size, and let then 'adjust' for a few days before you use them. They will be at the same moisture content as other woods in the shop.\

If I want round spindle pieces, I rough turn, round over the ends, seal and forget about them for a few years.

robo hippy

[Jim Colombo]

Thanks for all the input. Since I live in Arizona, air drying should go pretty quickly, don't you think? I like the idea of a homemade kiln.

[Reid Strand]

For spindles, I like to take a section of log a bit longer than I want, split it in half to relieve some of the radial tension, and let it dry. There's always some checking by the time its dry, but for most woods, there is plenty of area to bandsaw out spindle sections.

Except apple wood. Evil, evil apple wood.

[Scott T Smith]

What we need to do is create a post-graduate super-deluxe kiln-building tutorial thread. Fact is, you could build a fully functional, humidity and temperature controlled wood kiln for under $100 (depending on how well you scrounge) I know lot's of folks convert old refrigerators for this purpose.....But I've been talking to some kiln owners and checking out some small dehumidifiers....and ya know....This just might be a fun ticket to ride ;)


Interesting concept. I'll chime in with the comment that the most important thing is not the kiln or equipment.

The most important thing in drying is to know how much moisture content (MC%) that you can safely remove each day. This amount varies depending upon the species, thickness, and existing MC% of the wood being dried. If you exceed this rate, odds are that you will either damage the wood severely, or experience a reduced yield due to degradation. Drying too slowly can also create problems, but usually not as severe as drying too quickly. Charts are available that list the various species, thicknesses and targeted drying rates.

The second most important thing is to be able to accurately manage the amount of daily MC% reduction. Moisture meters are generally not accurate above the fiber saturation point of wood (which is around 33%, give or take). You can get around this by calculating the amount of moisture in the wood, and the cubic footage of your kiln, and determine how much that you need to run a HVAC compressor to remove a given amount of moisture. Keep in mind that the number will vary depending upon the amount of wood in the kiln (and species/thickness).

The third thing to keep in mind is that mild-temperature drying (around 90 degrees F) is much more forgiving than high temperature drying.

There are charts available that list the drying rate based upon the RH% inside the kiln and temperature.

Drying wood successfully is not always about speeding up the process. In fact, for some species during the first 1/3 of the drying cycle you may need to slow the natural drying rate down; not speed it up.

Some species are extremely forgiving to dry. Cedar and southern yellow pine fall into this category - it's pretty difficult to damage them. Others are much more finicky.

One nice thing about air drying in the winter is that it is pretty difficult to damage the wood, as long as it's covered. For most folks that want to air dry, if you can mill your wood in the fall and allow it to air dry during the winter, odds are that you will be fairly successful. If you live in a location that experiences extreme cold, then mill either in very early fall or very early spring.

Solar kilns are a great option, but they too need to be appropriately sized for the species/thickness/quantity of wood being dried. If you put 300 bd ft of 8/4 oak boards in a solar kiln designed to dry 1200 bd ft of 4/4 oak, odds are that you will dry the 8/4 too quickly and damage it. You might still be able to use the kiln, but you'll need to be able to reduce the size of the solar collector to reduce the MC% removal, until the boards are below 25%. One problem is managing the amount of moisture that is absorbed and retained in the air inside the kiln.

Thinking out loud - one potential may be to use a dehumidifier coupled with an old refrigerator and control the amount of moisture that it removes each day by regulating how much water the dehumidifier can store before shutting itself off.

Continuing to think out loud... a cubic foot of green white oak oak (60%MC) weighs about 63 lbs, or 5.25 lbs per bd ft. At 20% MC, the same cubic foot of wood weighs 47 lbs, or 3.91 lbs per bd ft. Thus, in reducing the MC% of 1 bd ft of oak by 40 points, 1.34 lbs of water are removed, which equals .1605 gallons, or 2.57 liquid oz.

So, for a board foot of oak, each 1% of MC reduction per day equals .06425 liquid oz. of water removal. Since the maximum safe daily drying rate of 4/4 oak is around 3.7%, that equals a little over a quarter of an .oz of water per bd ft per day to be removed from green down to 35% or so. If your oak is 8/4, then your targeted drying rate is 1.5%, or about 1/10th of a liquid oz per day per bd ft.

If you're drying walnut, then you can bump the safe daily drying rate up to 7% for 4/4 walnut, etc.

Hopefully I have not missed any of my calculations, but you get the point.

[Dan Forman]

Thanks for all the input. Since I live in Arizona, air drying should go pretty quickly, don't you think? I like the idea of a homemade kiln.

Isn't that what they call a backyard in Aridzona?

Dan