BBQ kiln drying.

[Bill Wyko]

I may have posted ths a few years ago, I don't remember. I'm trying it again with a couple wax covered blanks. Tomorrow it'll be 105 here, I place a couple blanks in the BBQ with the sun beating down on it. I have a temp gun at work I'll bring home to test the temp but it must get to 130 to 150 inside it. It should dry the wood pretty well. The wax is the other issue, I'm going to poke the wood with a sharp all or a nail. This will make small pin holes in the wood and give it a place to release moisture. I'll start with a few & add more if it seems like it's working w/o cracking. The moisture content of the 2 blanks maxed my meter ar 20% on the 16th, no change so far but the heat is on tomorrow. We will be in the 100's for at least a week or so. June we will see temp above 110 on occasion as well. You know what they say though, "It's a dry heat."........ Like rolling down the windows & putting your head in a blast furnace.:eek:

[Alan Trout]

Bill,

In Tucson I bet is gets a heck of a lot hotter. I have seen the thermometer in my smoker sitting in the sun over 150 degrees in the summer and Tucson get a bit hotter then here.

Good Luck

Alan

[Steve Schlumpf]

Looking forward to finding out the results of your test! Everything I have heard about drying wood is that it has to be at a slow rate to allow the moisture to escape the wood at the same rate. Seems to me that the moisture within the wood would get heated at the surface but not at the center and checking will occur.

Like I said - looking forward to your results!! Good luck!

[Bill Wyko]

Well it didn't work with the wax covered pieces. I think it contained the moisture too much and one of them started splitting. I'll try a piece w/o wax and see what happens. We never know until we try. BTW the BBQ got to 160 degrees. It was a pressure cooker yesterday and today is going to be the same, 105 or so. Maybe in thecooler months it might work.

[Pete Jordan]

Sounds a little hot to me. I try not to let my kiln get over 110 but I am not sure. Good Luck!

[Wally Dickerman]

Bill, sounds to me like a good way to get some cracked wood without even trying. If you do that with some of the eucalyptus that you shared with me, I can just about guarantee it.

Yeah, 105 yesterday and today is just a bit toasty for May. I don't have A/C in my shop so there's no turning in late afternoon.

[Tim Rinehart]

I've had mixed results with kiln drying...a bit of art and science both to it I suspect. I do mine with an old dishwasher with a couple bulbs inside, and I start slowly (40W) for a day or two, then add another 60W to bring temp up to about 110F or so. I let that go for a couple weeks and get decent results...but even then, some pieces split. I do increase odds of a rough HF making it by sealing (shellac or anchor seal) the outside so the primary drying is from the inside out, which reduces chance of splitting due to the outside drying faster.
I think the BBQ kiln is likely to to be too uncontrolled and too hot overall...but hey, experimentation may yield something workable! Good luck with it. One thing for sure...you ain't gonna have any bugs left alive when done!

[curtis rosche]

try covering the ends with some old paint, but leave the side un covered. maybe it will slow down the drying enough on the ends to keep it more even

[Tom Winship]

Bill, don't forget to take it out before Memorial Day cookout. And remember the Veteran's.