DNA question - Where does the water go?

[Mike Minto]

I'm new to using DNA to chase the water from rough green turnings, and just wondered - where does the water the DNA is supposed to displace go? In my sealed bucket, does it dilute the DNA, thereby lessening the effectiveness of the DNA? Does it remain as water vapor in the container which then escapes the next time the container is opened? Does anyone know? Thanks for any info, Mike

[Nathan Hawkes]

I could be way off here, but I read recently on SC that not much water actually goes "out" of the green wood, but rather, DNA goes "in", and forms some sort of compound with the water, allowing the water to evaporate quickly with the alcohol. I can't rememeber the name of the type of compound it forms. Memory shelf is full....

[Richard Madison]

Not a compound. Water and ethanol are miscible, which means that they simply mix together uniformly throughout a given volume. Not a tech explanation, but maybe you understand. So some of the water from the wood ends up in your bucket of DNA, and some of the ethanol ends up in your wood. Presumably when the work is removed from the bucket, the water/ethanol mixture in the wood will evaporate more quickly than would just the water that was originally there. Hope that makes sense.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Richard,

That's exactly the way I understand it to work.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Hi Mike
I don't know Mike why this is so with turned wood, seems with wine and whiskey barrels the water alcohol mixture just stays where it is, good thing to,...I think :p

Read somewhere that Weyerhaeuser did some testing, but they still are using costly heating to kilndry their wood, I wonder why :rolleyes:

[Nathan Hawkes]

I looked back at the post; the mixture I couldn't remember is called an azeotrope. It isn't a compound by technical terms, but its a mixture formed between two liquids that can't be separated except by distillation. However this works, its helping me dry bowls a heck of a lot faster than ever before.....