Drying time????

[Band Saw Box]

Hello everyone
Back in November or December I cut section of a branch from our Crepe Myrtle. It about 6" long and an 1" in diameter. I want to try turning a pen from it but I'm not sure how lonit I should let it set before I try. It been in our garage on a shelf thst has opening. Thanks in advanced for the help.

 

[stonepecker]

Weight it ......mark it down......put into microwave ( we put them inside a ziploc bag with a paper towel ) run for a minute .......weight it........when the weight is almost no change.....it should be dry enough. Bigger blanks we run for as long as 5 minutes.

That is what I have been taught to do if I am in a hurry and can't wait.

 

[Band Saw Box]

Thanks Wayne I may give that a try, I not in a hurry though so I may let it dry for a while more.

 

[Monty]

When I want to dry my blanks to 0% MC for stabilizing or Alumilite embedding, I do it similar to Wayne except I place the blanks wrapped in a paper towel in the MW for 30 second cycles with 30-60 seconds in between.

 

[stonepecker]

I forgot to say that the microwave we use is and older one. We use the 'low' setting to do the 'force drying' as slow as possible.
We also wipe out the plastic bags and change paper towels often. The way we run things is ....one minute in the microwave.....at least 2 minutes resting before removing and weighing again. By the time we have removed the towels and weight the blanks again, a good 5-7 minutes have passed. We do one bowl balnk or 6 pen blanks at a time. This is not something to rush. To fast and like a hot dog, something will split.

 

[BayouPenturner]

The blank May crack, I have turned a couple of bottle stoppers from this kind of wood and both eventually developed a crack.

good luck

 

[KenV]

Weigh -- Wait -- Weight again

repeat until the weight is stable

Use the same scales each time as the lower cost electronic ones tend to have a "bias".

 

[Band Saw Box]

Thanks for the help. I dried the blank this after noon. It took 5 times 30 sec each time to get it to a stable weight. It started out at 35.08 grams and end up at 34.66 grsms the last two times. Now is ready to go I have it drilled and tubed.