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Thread: How to Dry Small Pieces of Mulberry

  1. #1

    How to Dry Small Pieces of Mulberry

    Hi,

    We had to remove a small mulberry tree. I saved part of the trunk, root, and crown. It was dead or nearly dead but not rotten. I had to let the logs sit for two months before I could do anything. Some radial cracks had begun to show by the time that I could slice it up on my BS into 1" thick boards. Most of the boards are 6-7" wide. Some are only 7" long and some are 2'.

    My question is how to continue to dry these. IMO wood used to make cylindrical turning blanks needs to be dryer than EMC. I am thinking of drying shorter boards in the oven or in the microwave. At what MC should I do that and at what temperature and duration? I am thinking of letting the longer boards sit outdoors through the winter before I use them.

    Some boards measure about 10% MC and some are >25%. These feel cool to the touch (not really wet). There has been no liquid present when I sawed them up or when I turned three small vessels from this wood. The vessels have not moved much in the week since I turned them.

    I intend to use most of the boards to make staved turning blanks, so the pieces I cut from them will be less than 2" wide. I trimmed up the root ball and crown and I am awaiting inspiration as to what to make with them. The 24" boards are stickered and stacked outdoors in Colorado. The 7" long pieces are sitting on my workbench until I can decide how to dry them.

    I am an experienced woodworker but a complete novice when it comes to freshly harvested wood. Any advice will be welcome.

    Doug

  2. #2
    Sticker the boards with 3/4" x 3/4" stickers. Put some weight on top of the stack. Put stack outside under cover and let them air dry for about 4 months. A garage is OK, too, or a shed with open sides. There has to be air flow, so if in a garage, place a box fan parallel to the stack to keep the air moving to move the water vaopr out from between the layers of wood. After about 4 months, bring them inside a climate controlled space and re-sticker. Like in your house in an area where the stack is not in the way. After about a month or two inside, the boards will be as dry as they will get, about 8 to 9.5% here in Georgia.

  3. #3
    Danny,

    Thank you. I was wondering at what MC point I could put small pieces in my kitchen oven and what temp to use for how long.

    Doug

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
    Posts
    12,298
    Doug,

    I've dried a bunch of mulberry for woodturning but not boards on my sawmill. I don't do staved turnings (at least not yet) so I can't comment on the requirements there.

    When drying turning blanks, usually from 1" square up to about 4" square I just wax the ends and stack so air can circulate. After about a year the smaller pieces are well dry. (My shop has heat and air - I run it "moderately" so the EMC usually gets to around 10%.) I usually put the larger pieces loosely into tubs at this point an let them dry longer. Some I'm using now is over 10 years old.

    An example of my stacking:
    drying_IMG_5757.jpg

    If air drying boards I would definitely sticker and weight them significantly. Some of my mulberry blanks did warp.

    I think you can microwave dry at any time if you go slowly, even with a lot of moisture. A standing dead tree may have already drained much of the free water. I've read that some sawmills will stand wet lumber on end for a few days to drain out some moisture before stickering and when I've done this some boards would drip a lot of water!

    Another option for drying is a freezer kiln made with an old freezer and an incandescent light bulb. A friend told me last night he had good success using his. Seems like short boards the size you mention would stack nicely in an old chest freezer.

    JKJ


    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Hepler View Post
    Hi,

    We had to remove a small mulberry tree. I saved part of the trunk, root, and crown. It was dead or nearly dead but not rotten. I had to let the logs sit for two months before I could do anything. Some radial cracks had begun to show by the time that I could slice it up on my BS into 1" thick boards. Most of the boards are 6-7" wide. Some are only 7" long and some are 2'.

    My question is how to continue to dry these. IMO wood used to make cylindrical turning blanks needs to be dryer than EMC. I am thinking of drying shorter boards in the oven or in the microwave. At what MC should I do that and at what temperature and duration? I am thinking of letting the longer boards sit outdoors through the winter before I use them.

    Some boards measure about 10% MC and some are >25%. These feel cool to the touch (not really wet). There has been no liquid present when I sawed them up or when I turned three small vessels from this wood. The vessels have not moved much in the week since I turned them.

    I intend to use most of the boards to make staved turning blanks, so the pieces I cut from them will be less than 2" wide. I trimmed up the root ball and crown and I am awaiting inspiration as to what to make with them. The 24" boards are stickered and stacked outdoors in Colorado. The 7" long pieces are sitting on my workbench until I can decide how to dry them.

    I am an experienced woodworker but a complete novice when it comes to freshly harvested wood. Any advice will be welcome.

    Doug

  5. #5
    Thanks, John. I am going to experiment with speeding up the drying process with some of the smaller pieces.

    Hijacking my own thread: I have made many staved vessels (mainly mugs, vases, and bowls) but all of them from KD wood. My one foray into making segments with air dried wood was a lamp that I made with a nice piece of live oak that I rescued from a pile of firewood. It was OK until we moved from Florida to Colorado. The segmented ring that served as the lamp base came apart. I attributed that to wood shrinkage. That's why I assume that segments and staves should be made with wood that is slightly dryer than EMC.

    All the best

    Doug

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
    Posts
    12,298
    I see you are in Golden, CO. I used to drive through there on the way to Grand Junction and Carbondale for some work projects. If I still did that I'd want to come to your staved turning class! I haven't tried staved or segmented but I'd like to some day. I have a huge amount of wood.

    I wonder if drying the wood a little more would help that much, I don't know. I'd think the expansion would create as much stress as the contraction if you moved to a more humid environment. Seems like the best defense would be to have the wood the same EMC as the average the target conditioned space (hard to predict) and seal as well as possible. The potential wood movement is one thing that has made me cautious about segmented work. Maybe someone who has been doing that for a long time will comment.

    JKJ

    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Hepler View Post
    Thanks, John. I am going to experiment with speeding up the drying process with some of the smaller pieces.

    Hijacking my own thread: I have made many staved vessels (mainly mugs, vases, and bowls) but all of them from KD wood. My one foray into making segments with air dried wood was a lamp that I made with a nice piece of live oak that I rescued from a pile of firewood. It was OK until we moved from Florida to Colorado. The segmented ring that served as the lamp base came apart. I attributed that to wood shrinkage. That's why I assume that segments and staves should be made with wood that is slightly dryer than EMC.

    All the best

    Doug

  7. #7
    John,

    I heated a 1" thick piece in my microwave, a total of 3 minutes on high. After a minute the surface was about 160 (hot, but I could hold on to it) After another two minutes it was more like 180 (too hot to hold) and was showing liquid watery sap. So, I suppose that is the extracellular water that I read about. I'd better let it air dry for some months. The pieces are all now stickered and stacked.

    If you like to turn, I would encourage you to give segmented turning a whirl. (pun intended). The range of possible designs is really much broader than turning solid blocks. I much prefer making exact bevel and miter angles to hogging out wood and then throwing the shavings away. Out of all the segmented and staved objects I have made, only the one I mentioned has ever had any joint failure. I agree about using wood that is at EMC My conjecture that mild expansion is less of a threat than mild contraction is not based on much evidence.

    If I can be of any use to you, let me know.

    Doug

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