Curing/drying Wood

[thujalures]

I make top-water lures out of white cedar:Thuja occidentalis:aka arborvitae. It is the wood of my choice-by far! All lath work. I harvest the wood in stems approx. 3 feet long by anywhere from 3-6 inches in diameter. I have been cutting each stem into 6 inch pieces and letting them dry out in the elements or above by furnace. Splitting of the wood during the drying process has not been a problem for me thus far. My question: Is there a way to dry out these 6 inch pieces in a more productive/ quicker way without relying on Mother Nature:maybe an oven/what temp/how long/dehydrator? Any ideas would help. Thanks!

[Vodkaman]

I make top-water lures out of white cedar:Thuja occidentalis:aka arborvitae. It is the wood of my choice-by far! All lath work. I harvest the wood in stems approx. 3 feet long by anywhere from 3-6 inches in diameter. I have been cutting each stem into 6 inch pieces and letting them dry out in the elements or above by furnace. Splitting of the wood during the drying process has not been a problem for me thus far. My question: Is there a way to dry out these 6 inch pieces in a more productive/ quicker way without relying on Mother Nature:maybe an oven/what temp/how long/dehydrator? Any ideas would help. Thanks!

Drying timber is more about airflow than heat. The heat source (50W bulb) is more to enable the air to absorb or hold more moisture.

Here is a schematic drawing of a drying box that I use for drying PoP molds

The air is forced around by an axial fan (computer type, very cheap). The air flows past the bulb, picking up heat, and back to the fan. Above the fan is low pressure, so fresh air is drawn in through the inlet hole. Below the fan is high pressure, so moist air is pushed out, through the exhaust hole. Thus the air is continually replaced with dry air.

With this dryer, you are not heating the wood, the temperature will be only a few degrees above ambient. The drying time will be only a couple of days or less. You could raise the bulb wattage for faster results, I use 3x100W bulbs in my PoP dryer with two fans, with no problems. But for wood drying, slow is better.

This method is proven by me, I have dried wet wood in my PoP dryer, reducing the bulb wattage to 1x100W bulb.

The size of the box is not important and only depends on how much wood you need to dry at once, obviously more wood will take longer. Rest the wood on dowel pins, so the air can circulate all around. the gap or clearance around the wood should be at least 1" but not much more, for best results. If the gap is too great, the air slows down and so does the drying rate.

Let me know if you want more information and pics.

Dave

[hazmail]

Neat little set-up Dave and cheap to build too-

Thugalures - The fans to use are small computer fans, 12V and cost about $3 on FlaeBay and move minimal amounts of air, my computer runs 24/7 and is 7 years old with original fan.

Another way may be to try micro waving it, wood turners have been playing around with this process for a while now, have a search here:

http://www.woodworkforums.com/.

Never tried it myself though!!

Pete

[diemai]

@ thujalures

I've read about drying freshly cut wood pieces in a microwave on http://slingshotforum.com/ ,....... some guys there utilize the method to quick dry freshly cut branch forks for building slingshots .

The particular brief instructions are here(post #12) :

http://slingshotforum.com/topic/4062-from-a-far-away-country/

good luck , diemai