Boiled Turning Blanks-Drying Time

[Jim King]

This is the results to date of the boiling documentation. As you can see the blanks were all boiled on Aug 11 and were supersaturated with water. Starting Aug 12 we started air drying them in the shop in the shade and took the moisture reading everyday until Aug 20. We at that time "thought" they were about as low as they would go for some time in the shade but today we tested each again and in the last 10 days the drop again was significant. Now averaging about 13% Moisture content this morning we put them in the drykiln and in 8 days when this batch comes out the bowls should be down to less than 5%. Basicaly in one month from fresh cut to 5%.

The next thing we will try is making a kiln out of an old refrigerator as many have done and see if we can duplicate the large klins speed for the final phase. This we hope will turn out to be a sure thing process that any turner can make.

[Brett Baldwin]

I really like your ingenuity paired with a great practical side.
I'm curious as to why the drastic drop on the third day of drying. I would have thought losing 70% of its water within a day would do some bad things to the wood.

[Jim King]

Brett; The reason for the drastic drop is that any moisture content over 40% on our meter reads 100% and gives that initial false impression when super saturated. All we know for sure is that they came out of the water over 40% MC and sometime that third day reached about 30. From then on we have very good control.

[Richard Madison]

Some may need suggestions on how to conveniently boil a 12"-16" piece for several hours. Lacking a big propane-fired deep fat fryer, how to do it? The kiln-dry part is easy in parts of Texas and elsewhere in the summer. Just lay it on some sticks in the driveway and cover with black plastic for a few days.

[Gary DeWitt]

I'm thinking about doing it on my propane powered BBQ, possibly using one of those 5 gallon or so mini garbage cans, if I can find one. I plan to take off the grill and set the can on the "flavor bars" of the BBQ. Should boil the hell out of the roughouts. Also, these cans come with a lid. As long as I put a small hole for steam escape, the lid should help the water come to a boil faster, with less fuel.
Can anyone think of a better vessel, or a reason why this would or would not work?

[Jim King]

We just use a big and now very ugly cooking pot in the BBQ pit. Take a look at our process.
http://www.exoticwoodworld.com/index.php?c=static&sc=process