using old refrigerator to dry turning wood blanks

[Philip Kinsey]

can you share your experience in converting a refrigerator to dry to dry domestic wood turning blanks.

[John K Jordan]

can you share your experience in converting a refrigerator to dry to dry domestic wood turning blanks.


www.cindydrozda.com/handouts_Pdfs/handouts/demo handouts/drying_kiln.pdf

Also, search Google for freezer kiln.

[Don Frank]

I use an old dishwasher for the same purpose. It's already vented no no need to cut any additional holes. I am not using a fan as i had bad luck with that. Removed the motor from the bottom and ended up with a 5-6" hole in the bottom. Dropped in an aluminum light hood into the opening with a 60 w. bulb. I laid a piece of barn tin over that to disperse the heat from the bulb more evenly.
I anchor seal the back side on 10% bowls and load the dishwasher full all at the same time. (this is important) I will rough turn bowls and place them in the freezer until I have enough to fill the cabinet. Pull them from the freezer, allow to thaw, anchor seal and place inside.
I have a probe thermometer going thru the door so I can monitor the temperature. In the winter it's at 80-85 degrees. I don't open the door for at least two weeks. Do a quick check for moisture and put back in for another week or two. Can usually dry them in 30 days or less. I want to experiment with changing out the bulb to a 75 w or possibly 100 watt to increase the temperature inside the cabinet after they are most of the way dry or down in the 13-14 % range. That is typically where they will be after two weeks.
This has worked really well for me so far.

[Doug Herzberg]

I've had a lot of trouble with light bulbs burning out and the blanks freezing in my unheated shop, mainly because I don't get out there every day to check. I have plans to substitute a dishwasher heating element, but just haven't gotten around to it. I have a thermostat wired in already and plan to add a computer cooling fan controlled by a humidistat. What kind of trouble did you have with the fan, Don?

[david privett]

I know that this is apples and oranges but I made a beer fermenter out of a old working fridge . In my case it is in the unheated basement and if I do a ale the need to be done around 60 degrees F. so I bought two controllers off ebay these 10 amp digital temp controllers. They can control a heat or cool function. so one I wired to the fridge (removing the existing thermostat) for cooling and one to a small fan forced space heater for the heat function. So if you would vent the fridge a small fan forced space heater at the bottom and holes near the top should get you started. Just make sure you operate the heater in the low setting as the controllers are only good for 10 amps. I have had good luck with this for 5 years no problems at all . I have wort working now.

[Don Frank]

Doug,
I found that air movement inside was not needed. The purpose of loading if full was to get the humidity high inside to slow down the initial drying of the blanks. The same concept of keeping them in paper bags initially. By not opening the cabinet for the first two weeks the humidity could gradually vent out as the blanks became dryer and this reduced the cracking factor. Usually I don't open it for three - four weeks. By then they are usually ready to pull out.
Cabinet # 2 is actually an upright clothes dryer (for hanging clothes to reduce wrinkles). I had never seen one of these before but a friend was going to sell the thing on Craigslist so I got it off of him. It has built in temperature and fan controls but the cabinet is not insulated. When I put stuff in this cabinet with the air movement things dried too quickly and I got a lot of failures. This could have been because I didn't have enough inventory turned to load it full.
I'm going to experiment by putting things into the dishwasher cabinet until they get down to 13-14% and then try the dryer cabinet to finish them off. It will require some trial and error but I'll find out if a bowl develops any problems from the moving air after they are mostly dry.
Search youtube for dishwasher kiln. It's not the best video but it's where I got the idea and basic information to start. I just loaded the cabinet with a batch of bowl, most of them oak that were 25-30% moisture. I'll try to report back in several weeks on how they do.

[Bob Bouis]

If you don't have a fridge you could build a cabinet out of foam insulation sheets. They are not that expensive.

[JohnC Lucas]

Having a senior moment and can't remember the guys name in North Carolina who uses several dish washers to dry his work. He has different light bulbs in each one or swaps the bulbs out. He starts out with a low wattage bulb and then increases the wattage as they get dryer. don't remember much about how he determines when to change or any other details. It's been too long ago. As far as light bulbs. I use 100 what lights in an insulated cabinet to keep all of my paints and chemicals at 55 degrees or higher. Used to have trouble with them freezing in my old shop. the problem I have is the bulbs burn out really quickly. I have a thermostat in the top of the cabinet so the lamp only comes on when the temp gets below 55 degrees. I am considering using some sort of heating element instead of the light. Might even put a light dimmer in series if the wattage is too high. As you might guess finding incandescent lamps is getting harder. I'm thinking something like this. http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/192196766837

[Bob Bouis]

You can still get rough service incandescents. They last longer because they have a much heavier filament. The only "downside" is that they put out more heat and less light than regular bulbs.

[Bob Bouis]

Oh, yeah, you can also get ceramic heating elements that fit into standard light bulb sockets. They're usually sold as reptile lamps.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017RCQ4JO/

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I built one from an old free upright freezer. Follow Cindy's suggestions, drilled holes. No fan.
My only $0.02 is to not use the ceramic light bulb holder. About 6 bucks, need a pancake J box, 4 bucks, wire, few bucks unless you have scraps laying around, a plug 3 bucks, wire nuts, an in line switch is optional. I picked up a cheapo clamp on light from the Orange store for 5 bucks. Oh, with the clamp on light you can put the light in upside down and not have to make a shield for it.
I picked up a battery indoor/outdoor temp/humidity monitor 29 bucks from Amazon. Accurite. It works fine. That lets me know if the bulb is working. No need to open to check and let all our humid air in the freezer.
I do have trouble with lights burning out, but since we don't freeze out here, I just start over. 3 wattage series 43, 53 & 72 or something, gets the freezer to about 120. Good enough to kill bugs here. May need higher wattage in the cooler climes. 1 week each seems to do it. BUT I don't dry a LOT of wood in there.
It works for me...... And yes, finding an incandescent bulb is getting tougher.... LOL

[Dennis Peacock]

Ok, so I've been out of the "loop" on turning and drying for a while now. This is really interesting to me IF this doesn't require the typical DNA Soak, wrap, and dry type deal. Is this a way to dry without losing a roughed out bowl to cracking or splitting? I used to wrap and put in a brown paper sack but I was losing too many roughed out bowls to keep doing it. That's why I went with and wrote the article in the archives for the DNA soak and dry method...I lost ZERO roughed out bowls with the DNA soak method.....educate me here. :)

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I lost ZERO roughed out bowls with the DNA soak method.....educate me here. :)

If I lost zero bowls with any method, I'd use it, and not switch........ Have not tried DNA soak. Too costly for me I think. Living out in the middle of the Pacific has it's problems.

The reason I use the fridge kiln is to dry the bowl quicker than waiting around a year waiting. Bowls still crack. I don't prep them at all.
Nothing dries fast here....... a roughed out bowl stayed at 20% moisture for a month. I needed to finish turning it by the end of the year (9 months away). Figured I wasn't going to make it letting it dry normally. So, I looked for a cheap kiln, ran into Cindy's article. As mentioned, 3 weeks to dry. Perhaps a combination of DNA and the fridge kiln could produce some very desirable results. If you can find a free fridge/freezer, it's not a lot of money invested.

[Brice Rogers]

I use light bulbs in a food dryer and then when I got hooked on woodturning, I changed it to a varnish dryer. The bulbs seem to burn out prematurely. Perhaps it is the higher ambient heat inside or the orientation of the bulbs (base down). But when I need new bulbs I have been successful picking them up at the local dollar store. I don't remember if they were $1 each or $1 for a pair.

BTW, thanks for the comments on the reptile and egg heaters.

[Clint Bach]

My first reply seems to be lost somewhere.

Two light bulb sockets wired it series with two of the same wattage bulbs works for me. That makes half the voltage to each bulb. And half the wattage of one bulb. I've been running one like this for more than fifteen years continuously. No burned out bulbs and zero issues.

Try it you'll like it.

Clint

[Doug Herzberg]

Doug,
I found that air movement inside was not needed. The purpose of loading if full was to get the humidity high inside to slow down the initial drying of the blanks. The same concept of keeping them in paper bags initially. By not opening the cabinet for the first two weeks the humidity could gradually vent out as the blanks became dryer and this reduced the cracking factor. Usually I don't open it for three - four weeks. By then they are usually ready to pull out.
Cabinet # 2 is actually an upright clothes dryer (for hanging clothes to reduce wrinkles). I had never seen one of these before but a friend was going to sell the thing on Craigslist so I got it off of him. It has built in temperature and fan controls but the cabinet is not insulated. When I put stuff in this cabinet with the air movement things dried too quickly and I got a lot of failures. This could have been because I didn't have enough inventory turned to load it full.
I'm going to experiment by putting things into the dishwasher cabinet until they get down to 13-14% and then try the dryer cabinet to finish them off. It will require some trial and error but I'll find out if a bowl develops any problems from the moving air after they are mostly dry.
Search youtube for dishwasher kiln. It's not the best video but it's where I got the idea and basic information to start. I just loaded the cabinet with a batch of bowl, most of them oak that were 25-30% moisture. I'll try to report back in several weeks on how they do.

Thanks for the reply, Don. I was growing mold on a couple batches, which is what led me to buy the humidistat. I just haven't gotten around to hooking things up. Life intervened.

[Doug Herzberg]

Oh, yeah, you can also get ceramic heating elements that fit into standard light bulb sockets. They're usually sold as reptile lamps.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017RCQ4JO/

That's a lot easier than a dishwasher element. Thanks.

[Tony De Masi]

I run two old upright freezers for drying rough outs. Incandescent 150w bulb plus fan. I use this dimmer switch, link below, which allows me to change the output of the bulb without opening the door of the freezer. I run for seven days on each setting thus resulting in a 28 day cycle. I am able to reach temps of 138* which is sufficient to eradicate any little critters that survived the rough out.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012AWTHE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1