Burl wood update

[Carl Mitchell]

So I finally got 2 small projects completed from the massive burl I got out of the tree. The drying process was a pain. I put the burl in a vacuum chamber which was an air tight box with an ac vacuum pump to pull out the moisture. I let it run for a day then sit for a day. I repeated this 6 times before I got the moisture level of the wood down to 19%. If you have the equipment this seems to be a great way to dry the wood and keep the splits to a minimum. The pictures are 24 hours after I removed it from the lathe and let it sit and happily there was no warping

 

[Mark Jundanian]

Did you have source of heat in your vacuum kiln, or did you just use vacuum?

 

[Carl Mitchell]

Did you have source of heat in your vacuum kiln, or did you just use vacuum?

I chose not to introduce any heat because it would super heat the oil in the vacuum and cause premature breakdown

 

[Richard Coers]

You need to do some more research on vacuum kilns. Water will boil at 90 degrees F in a hard vacuum. An airtight box is not much of a vacuum chamber unless it has really thick walls. What level of vacuum did you achieve in the box?