Dave Mount
12-14-2020, 6:21 PM
This isn't about turning per se, but because most of the expertise in microwave drying seems to come from turners, I'm hoping the moderators leave the question here.
In a hurry to apply some knife scales to a knife blank for a Christmas present. Recently acquired some bocote, and it seems aesthetically like the perfect wood, but it is not dry. Doesn't seem sopping wet, but I turned a small sphere from it (see, there's some turning content!) and when I brought the sphere into the house, it checked (we're well into wood heating season here in northern MN, low RH in the house).
I did a bunch of searching on microwave drying and while there's a lot of discussion about it, there's a lot of conflicting advice (e.g., barely warm the wood vs. wood will be too hot to touch when it comes out of the microwave, bag vs. don't bag).
This will be two pieces of wood, 3/8" thick, about 1.25" by 5". My microwave goes clear down to 10% power, and it's a real 10% (constant low power, instead of 5 seconds on full and 45 seconds off, as our previous microwave was). It seems clear I only want to use 10 or 20% power. Anybody care to offer suggestions on how much to warm them? I'm thinking in terms of temperature rather than time -- I have an IR gun so I should be able to monitor temp fairly well and since it's the mass of the pieces that matters (I presume) I'm thinking temp is the better measure than time. I also know that I may have to experiment, but the bocote is pricey stuff, I'm not anxious to waste it unnecessarily.
Thanks for any pointers.
Best,
Dave
In a hurry to apply some knife scales to a knife blank for a Christmas present. Recently acquired some bocote, and it seems aesthetically like the perfect wood, but it is not dry. Doesn't seem sopping wet, but I turned a small sphere from it (see, there's some turning content!) and when I brought the sphere into the house, it checked (we're well into wood heating season here in northern MN, low RH in the house).
I did a bunch of searching on microwave drying and while there's a lot of discussion about it, there's a lot of conflicting advice (e.g., barely warm the wood vs. wood will be too hot to touch when it comes out of the microwave, bag vs. don't bag).
This will be two pieces of wood, 3/8" thick, about 1.25" by 5". My microwave goes clear down to 10% power, and it's a real 10% (constant low power, instead of 5 seconds on full and 45 seconds off, as our previous microwave was). It seems clear I only want to use 10 or 20% power. Anybody care to offer suggestions on how much to warm them? I'm thinking in terms of temperature rather than time -- I have an IR gun so I should be able to monitor temp fairly well and since it's the mass of the pieces that matters (I presume) I'm thinking temp is the better measure than time. I also know that I may have to experiment, but the bocote is pricey stuff, I'm not anxious to waste it unnecessarily.
Thanks for any pointers.
Best,
Dave