Maple Rough-out drying time

[Chris Studley]

I have some maple that I roughed out last weekend. The maple was very wet/green (not from sitting outside, just the moisture contained in the tree)

I followed the 10% rule(thanks SMC) regarding rough thickness.

The bowl is about 8-8.5" OD w/ about 3/4"-7/8" wall thickness. (10%-ish)

I don't have any anchor seal so it is in a paper bag with the shavings from the rough out. It is in my basement but in an area of the basement where the furnace kicking on/off heating the house/HW, keeps the humidity down and fairly stable, same goes for temp.

Any rough estimate on a timeframe to allow this to dry? At some point should I remove it from the bag/shavings? are the shavings even needed? Is periodically taking it out to look at going be a problem?

Is there a formula similar(or as simple as) the 10% rule?

The piece in question is from a 3 way crotch area of a larger limb. You could see the figuring even through very rough tool marks and I'm very excited to get to it.

I can be a patient as I need to be, I would hate for this to crack, but I don't really want to wait any longer than needed.

Any suggestions or helpful hints are appreciated as always.:)

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Chris,
Don't rush it. It should be OK in paper but change the bag every few days to avoid mold. You actually don't want an overly dry area for a while. Let it dry slowly at first then remove the bag after a few months. In NH, you might still need a year. Keep weighing it. When it stops losing weight it's ready. Of course, if it gains weight, it might be related to me.:) Meanwhile, turn more rough outs. I'll bet there are members here with a couple hundred drying all the time.
faust

[Dale Miner]

Take it (bag and all) out of the house and put it in your garage or other unheated area out of the weather for a few weeks. Then bring it in the house in the bag without the shavings and put it on the floor of your basement for a few weeks. After the few weeks that way, take it out of the bag and set it on the floor of your basement for a few weeks, and after that, set it up off the floor until the end of June. Should be ready to turn to final thickness unless you have an unusually wet spring and early summer. You could leave it in an unheated area until June if wanted. Bringing it in speeds the process without increasing the rist of cracking much after the first few weeks or so of being in the unheated area. A heated area usually has a lower relative humidity that unheated, and the rate of drying in winter indoors can be to fast in the first few weeks.

Even with the above, some pieces crack, and branch wood is more prone than trunk wood.

[Nate Davey]

Go to Harbor Freight, buy a digital scale for $15 and weigh it. I think it took 3 months for my 14" maple bowl to stop losing weight. I bagged mine, BTW

[Dan Forman]

What I do is to put the roughout in a paper bag (no shavings) and seal with tape. Write the date on the bag, set it on a rack just above the basement floor for about three or four weeks. An area away from the furnace and drafts would be good. The bowl will lose the most water during this time period, after that the loss is more gradual. So after the three or four weeks, you can take it out of the bag, and replace it on the rack. It will continue to dry, but won't move much more than it already has. It should be ready to finish in another couple of months.

I have had pretty good luck with this system, though recently had a few walnut roughouts crack, mostly in the sapwood. I lost 3 out of 9, thankfully the larger bowls were intact. Prior to that I had very few mishaps. The safest method is to coat the whole thing with Anchor Seal, and let dry for about at least 6 months to a year. Others will say to AS the endgrain, bag, and let sit for six months.

Dan

[Thomas Canfield]

The rule of thunb for air drying is 1 year per inch of thickness, but using a scale will let you know when the weight loss approaches zero. I find that some method must be used to slow down the drying such as Anchor Seal or bagging. I used plastic bags and shavings recently to spalt some Hackberry, turning the bag inside out every 2 days. There really was a lot of moisture formed on the inside surface of the bag the first half dozen changes or so.

[Chris Studley]

Thanks All...

[Scott Hackler]

FYI, Chris. a cheap somewhat effective replacement for anchor seal is latex paint. You can also melt down a candle with a little mineral spirits and coat the end grain with that. End grain sealed and left in a cooler place (not bagged) it would likely be dry in 6-7 months. The complete piece coated in Anchorseal or the latex paint...1 year. Dna soak and paper wrapped.....4-6 weeks.*

*my personal experience in Kansas

[William Bachtel]

Crotch pieces are hard to dry if you go to fast, cracks will happy, anchorseal is the way to go, I wood get some soon.

[Gene Hintze]

I check my rough outs daily for the first several weeks for cracking. Any cracks I hit them with some thin CA to seal them. After two to three weeks of this any cracks that were going to happen have happened (at least in my experience). I use a moisture meter and feel comfortable with finish turning when the reading reaches 10% or lower.

[Chris Studley]

Checked things last night, damn near as wet as when I put it in the bag. I suspect the shavings have a lot to do with that. I didn't really have time to futz with it, so back in it went as I'm sure that it is not drying anywhere near the rate where cracking would be an issue. I will look into the methods given here and get things set up better this w/e.

@ scott: the DNA bath would need to be a good size, few gallons I'm sure. Which invites a few ?'s

- How long do you soak?
- I assume you re-use the DNA? how many times?
- what kind of container? (I'm thinking with a 12" swing, I can get away w/ 5 gallon bucket w/ lid)
- where do you store this container? (flammability and children having access come to mind)
- Can a paper bag be considers "wrapped in paper"