Fire in the oven

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Joebobber

Joebobber

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So I bought a little ponderosa pine burl and cut it up. I took 1 blank and turned a slimline right away out of some small leftovers. The rest went into the oven to dry out so I could stabalize them. I was turning a few pens when my wife came in and said it was really smoky. I hadn't noticed because I was in the "zone". She looked over where the oven is and screamed as flames were quite visible. I ended up turning 1 of the burnt ones to see how they would look. We figure the temperature control malfunctioned, as it had only been maybe 15 minutes at 150 degrees.
 

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Happy to know everyone is safe.
An alternative, but slower method is drying blanks in a food dehydrator. Many years ago I was allowed to cut some limb wood from a surviving mature American Chestnut that was felled for a building addition. The trunk was going to be used for some furniture in the new building. My old and slow dehydrator did a very satisfactory job. The only thing other than turning on the dehydrator was to rotate the blanks 1/4 turn each day in the drying process. Also used the same process with some beautiful green spalted apple that I was given. The results were well worth the wait.
 
I've used the food dehydrator method also. It will get you down to about 3% MC (based on my measurements). Less risk of the roasted effect, but I think that added a nice design element in your case
 
Joebobber said:
So I bought a little ponderosa pine burl and cut it up. I took 1 blank and turned a slimline right away out of some small leftovers. The rest went into the oven to dry out so I could stabalize them. I was turning a few pens when my wife came in and said it was really smoky. I hadn't noticed because I was in the "zone". She looked over where the oven is and screamed as flames were quite visible. I ended up turning 1 of the burnt ones to see how they would look. We figure the temperature control malfunctioned, as it had only been maybe 15 minutes at 150 degrees.
Click to expand...
So, tell me Joe, who put out the fire?????? Bet you owe the missus a new stove!!!! 😆
 
Thermally processed wood is a product being made and sold for its bug proof and weather resistant properties. From what I can tell they are only using a few species of wood. No reason other species couldnt be done this way, you just found a diy way that needs a lot of refinement to avoid the flames.
 
I don't use the oven... too far from the shop and don't have a dehydrator ... I have an old Montgomery Wards microwave in my shop that I use to dry wood.... I now just run 3 minute cycles, let the wood cool between cycles and repeat until I reach the moisture content I want....
I can put a 12 inch bowl by about 6 inches high in the MW.

I did put some pen blanks in it when I first got it and forgot they were there and they caught fire, from the inside out.... made a mess in the MW and the wood smoke was enough to be kinda choking.... that's when I learned to reduce the cycles to 3 minutes.

Would not recommend using the kitchen microwave.... Mama might not approve.
 
Heat to a certain temp is the way to "cook" sap to prevent it from dripping or weeping from pine boards. I forget what temp is needed but it seems like 120° for a short while.

Heat is a good way to get a different and good tone color on different woods; It kills bugs in the wood; And when heated or fired to black on the outside, it becomes a termite repellent!
 
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