Drying wood before stabilization question

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I am getting into stabilizing and have been getting my setup completed. I am mainly using TurnTex.com for learning the process and will be using cactus juice. My concern comes with leaving wood in an oven for 24 hours to dry them before stabilizing. Is there not much safety concern regarding running a toaster oven for that long? Do most do this outside as a safety precaution?

I have a small lab oven in my basement workshop that I was planning on using rather than a toaster oven. Would it work to dry them all day (14 hours), bag them up at night, and then dry them again the next day? I do have concerns about having an oven going all night in my basement.

Thanks!
 
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Do what makes you comfortable. Stopping and bagging won't matter as long as they are well sealed. I run mine constantly with a temp controller.
 
I use a lab oven, was cheap since I found it locally on the auction site. Found toaster oven continued to rise in temperature for a few minutes after the coils switched off—about 150 f. Even a PID controller didn't stop. Burned a small batch of buckeye burl and tossed the toaster oven. Lab oven takes a while to heat up, but stays within a few degrees at the set temp. Will never own another toaster oven for any use!!
 
Thanks all! I just wanted to make sure that pulling them out and needing to heat them back up again wasn't going to make the process not work as well. I will weigh them to make sure. My lab oven is very accurate to a tenth of a degree but leaving any oven going all night indoors while sleeping is not something that I feel I am comfortable doing.
 
Understand that. Curios about which lab oven you have. Mine is actually a vacuum oven, but I only pull the vacuum while it's warming—brings the "boiling point " down a LOT!
Earl
 
It is an Across International forced air convection oven. It is basically brand new and I got it through Craigslist when I was looking for a toaster oven. I got it from a lab that was liquidating equipment and it cost about the same price as a big toaster oven.

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I purchased an "Oven Tamer" from Curtis at Turntex and it works like a charm. Keeps my toaster oven within 1º to 2º of my chosen temp. I'm not sure if he still offers them or not. It also has a function that will automatically shut down the oven should an over-temp situation occur. It comes pre-set at 260º for the shutdown function but you can choose another temp if you like. It's built with mostly American parts and is solid as a rock. I sleep well fairly well if I have to run my toaster oven all night. Just my .02¢
 
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I use a convection toaster oven for mine and keep an electronic thermometer stuck in it with an alarm set to beep when it goes out of range (most recently a Fluke 87 multimeter with thermocouple attachment, but in the past I used a kitchen thermometer with a corded probe, like this one - right up until the cord crapped out and I discovered it would be more expensive to replace it than to buy a new one). That only works because my shop and bedroom are adjoining, though.

Turntex doesn't seem to carry the Oven Tamers anymore (or at least it's been a long time since I've seen one listed there), but I've seen the BTC211 on Amazon recommended in the past as a similar (but cheaper) alternative.
 
If you're concerned about leaving the oven on all night (and I would be also) can you set the oven up in a backyard area on a non-flammable surface? I use a convection/toaster oven and if I am not in the shop and just steps away from it, it's on the concrete driveway 10 to 20 feet away from anything flammable.
 
I run a cheap toaster oven on our front (concrete) porch, and bag up the wood in a thick plastic zip-lock bag before going to bed, then putting the wood back in the oven after heating it back up the next day. Seems to work ok. I made the mistake early on of not drying the blanks, because "They felt dry, and lightweight". I was wrong. The dye/resin would not penetrate deeply or uniformly. Once I started drying, that problem completely disappeared.
 
My son bought a food dehydrator so he could make his own jerky. Turns out that it is way more pain than gain, according to him. So, I inherited the device.

It's great for drying wood. Has a timer that can be set up to 19.5 hours and max temperature to 158 degrees. Depending on the wetness of the wood I might have to run pieces through three or four cycles. Using it now to dry some freshly cut mulberry.

I weigh the wood, run in dehydrator and then re-weigh. When there is no more drop in weight I can then move to the lathe!!! Works great and is safe.
 

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henry1164 said:
It's great for drying wood. Has a timer that can be set up to 19.5 hours and max temperature to 158 degrees. Depending on the wetness of the wood I might have to run pieces through three or four cycles. Using it now to dry some freshly cut mulberry.

I weigh the wood, run in dehydrator and then re-weigh. When there is no more drop in weight I can then move to the lathe!!! Works great and is safe.
Click to expand...

But... how does it taste?
 
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