Now what do I do... LOL

[oldgriz]

Managed to score some absolutely gorgeous spalted beech pen blanks... the only problem is that the moisture content is close to 25%... they are wax coated... how do you recommend drying them so that I can stop the spalting action and turn them...
On some black locust that I cut locally I dried them in the oven at 250 degrees with the door slightly open and that worked.. but they were not coated... do you think that this will work with these blanks..

 

[dkulze]

Blowtorch. Takes care of the wax and drying the blank at the same time.

Except when the wax soaks in and the blank ignites.

Kinda like a Tiki torch.

Cool.

dietrich

(does spalting show up in charcoal?)

 

[john lucas]

Hey I like that idea. I have all these logs sitting in ends in backyard covered with wax. I could light them all and it would look like the set of Survivor.

 

[dkulze]

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAaHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oooooooowwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyooooooooooooowwwwwwwwaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yah, man, cool. Yah can eat da bugs dat crawl out. Den give youself a new 2436 as the prize!

Dietrich

 

[Andrew]

Managed to score some absolutely gorgeous spalted beech pen blanks... the only problem is that the moisture content is close to 25%... they are wax coated... how do you recommend drying them so that I can stop the spalting action and turn them...
On some black locust that I cut locally I dried them in the oven at 250 degrees with the door slightly open and that worked.. but they were not coated... do you think that this will work with these blanks..

Are they completely wax coated or just the endgrain? I'm assuming only endgrain since you said what the MC was and you had to take the reading somewhere where it wasn't coated (again, I'm assuming you didn't take a reading of the wax!). You can try a couple of things...

- If it's just the endgrain that's coated, you can microwave it gently or just bake it like you did your black locust. The wax will melt but not much more if you take it easy. It'll take just a bit longer compared to no wax on the endgrain but these are just pen blanks. It's not that much longer.

- If you have it coated everywhere,

a) you can still microwave or bake it but you'll want to scrape as much wax off it as possible first and keep doing that as it melts.

b) if the blank is big enough, you can simply slice off 1/16" or less at a time until you get underneath the wax and then dry it. You could even turn off that wax until you get underneath it and dry it. You could also do either of these AND drill your hole and then dry it. It'll go quicker (but take it easy as it may be too quick) that way. You may have to redrill that hole before putting it on the lathe. This is a common thing with some of the exotics such as Snakewood.

Wax is a pretty good moisture barrier but it is not, by any means, a complete one. And thankfully so. You can get moisture to pass through it but it just takes a bit more time.

 

[woodboy]

depending on what your wife will say, I say pick a day when she is now around and put them in the oven at 160 with the door open for a few hours that will take care moisture content pretty easy and most of the wax if you put them on a baking rack over aluminum foil. This also eliminates almost any evidence you have done it.

 

[arbud]

Advanced technology

I bought an old, 2.2 cu. ft. microwave for $8.00 at a junk shop. Works for me.

 

[woodboy]

I bought an old, 2.2 cu. ft. microwave for $8.00 at a junk shop. Works for me.

do you only dry small pieces such a pen blanks and the such in your microwave or are you doing larger things like medium size bowl blanks? I can nuke small stuff most of the time without cracking it but larger stuff always seems to split or worse explode? if you think box elder stinks when you turn it, you should smell it after it has exploded in your microwave...

 

[Joe Herrmann]

In issue #2 of Woodturning Design, Ron Hampton described his method of drying wood using both a convential oven and the microwave. You might want to read that article over. He claims it works well for bowl blanks.

Joe

 

[RonZ]

IMHO opinion if you're turning pens, the moisture and wax won't be an issue. You'll be turning off the wax and the wood will get so thin and heated during the sanding process I would give it a try as is.

Good luck,

Ron Z