• The forum upgrades have been completed. These were moderate security fixes from our software vendor and it looks like everything is working well. If you see any problems please post in the Forum Technical Support forum or email us at forum_moderator (at) aawforum.org. Thank you
  • February 2026 Turning Challenge: Cookie Jar! (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Dean Center for "After Life" being selected as Turning of the Week for February 16, 2026 (click here for details)
  • AAW Symposium demonstrators announced - If the 2026 AAW International Woodturning Symposium is not on your calendar, now is the time to register. And there are discounts available if you sign up early, by Feb. 28. Early Bird pricing gives you the best rate for our 40th Anniversary Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 4–7, 2026. (There are discounts for AAW chapter members too) For more information vist the discussion thread here or the AAW registration page
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Drying wood on a toaster oven?

John Torchick

John Torchick

Joined
Jan 24, 2010
Messages
3,213
Likes
971
Location
Cleveland, Tennessee
I have a small toaster oven gathering dust in the basement. Can it be used in place of a microwave? If so, what are your recommendations?
 
Drying wood is more than just getting the wood hot. The microwave dries the wood from the inside out, the toaster oven from the outside in. If it’s not a huge toaster oven, you will over dry right by the heating element and uneven heating causes stresses and that means cracks. Remember, you can even crack wood from the heat of sanding. A toaster oven can just blow up the wood. Now you didn’t mention at what moisture content you plan on baking the wood, so I’m making assumptions here.
 
Thanks to all. Sitting on a shelf in the basement. Toss it. Fire extinguisher? I wouldn't let the wood get that hot even in a microwave.
 
I use a toaster oven to dry wood for stabilizing. You just control it to 105c. Not a fire risk. The temp controllers are notoriously inaccurate, so make sure to use a temp gauge or thermocouple. I actually use a separate temp controller with mine. I haven’t used it for green wood, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work so long as you can control the temp to a low number. No different to using a light bulb in a refrigerator etc.
 
No one in America has taken home more "free" on the side of the road microwaves than you, John. Surely, you've got one that you could set up in the shop to use to dry wood. If you go slow, it'll work.
 
Last edited:
robo hippy said:
Just about all "shortcuts" to drying your bowls leads to more cracking. Possible exception is boiling. Trying to speed up the drying process results in "internal" stress, and wood relieves stress by cracking.

robo hippy
Click to expand...
My go-to for Madrone and fruitwood, unless the project is thin - then I soak in denatured alcohol. Actually, DNA will work on thicker bowls if they're soaked for a few days. With thin projects, 24-48 hours works.
 
TOASTER OVEN FOR DRYING?
Could be tricky. Microwaves heat the internal moisture, resistance ovens heat the surface. Microwave drying itself can be tricky and quickly turn to disaster. An external heat source should be OK if careful and perhaps use an external controller.

I use a toaster oven in the shop for two things:
  • Drying desiccant beads - the indicator beads I use are pink when wet, blue when dry.
  • To determine absolute wood moisture content on certain batches of wood. This is far more accurate than any kind of moisture meter, rarely needed but useful on occasion. However it's a destructive test since it requires cutting on4 or more samples from the center of a typical piece or two. (I read that this method is sometimes used by commercial kiln operators.)
First, cut samples from the center of the board/blank (Cut from the center to avoid skewing the numbers by the internal moisture gradient due to surface drying.) For example, I once bought a large quantity of Ebony of unknown moisture content. The process requires a heat source, good temperature monitoring, and a precision scale.

I cut a few small pieces from the centers of some typical blanks in the batch. Used a thermocouple to monitor the temperature of the toaster oven to keep it within the range recommended by my wood technology books. Record the initial sample weights than periodically log the weights over time - I used a scale good to 0.01 grams. When the weights quit changing, calculate the initial moisture content of the samples and average the results. The process took hours even with small samples. Could be far quicker with a less dense wood with open pores.

1771372983193.png
1771372363660.jpeg

The wood dealer didn't know if the wood was wet or dry.. My testing showed the batch to be nicely at EMC for my shop environment. I still have some pieces. Come and visit if you want a piece.

JKJ
 
Steve Bonny said:
I use a toaster oven to dry wood for stabilizing. You just control it to 105c. Not a fire risk. The temp controllers are notoriously inaccurate, so make sure to use a temp gauge or thermocouple. I actually use a separate temp controller with mine. I haven’t used it for green wood, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work so long as you can control the temp to a low number. No different to using a light bulb in a refrigerator etc.
Click to expand...
Having had a toaster oven fire in my garage...i gotta disagree. I was using a PID controller, and it was a new toaster oven (not an old beater). I had noticed when setting up the PID that when i cut power at 155-f i still had a temp rise to near 350-f after the power cut. Used it several times successfully, but one afternoon (with 5 buckeye burl pen blanks in it)--i went back out to the shop after a few hours to find the oven door open, and the buckeye was just pile of ash. The fire had blown the door open. Fortunately the fire did not spread beyond the toaster oven.
Dental lab ovens are not hard to find used, and relatively inexpensive. Work very well with good thermal mass for steady temps. Never will have another toaster oven in my house or garage.
 
Earl McLain said:
Having had a toaster oven fire in my garage...i gotta disagree. I was using a PID controller, and it was a new toaster oven (not an old beater). I had noticed when setting up the PID that when i cut power at 155-f i still had a temp rise to near 350-f after the power cut. Used it several times successfully, but one afternoon (with 5 buckeye burl pen blanks in it)--i went back out to the shop after a few hours to find the oven door open, and the buckeye was just pile of ash. The fire had blown the door open. Fortunately the fire did not spread beyond the toaster oven.
Dental lab ovens are not hard to find used, and relatively inexpensive. Work very well with good thermal mass for steady temps. Never will have another toaster oven in my house or garage.
Click to expand...
that sounds like the PID loop lacked the necessary adjustments.
 
Earl McLain said:
Having had a toaster oven fire in my garage...i gotta disagree. I was using a PID controller, and it was a new toaster oven (not an old beater). I had noticed when setting up the PID that when i cut power at 155-f i still had a temp rise to near 350-f after the power cut. Used it several times successfully, but one afternoon (with 5 buckeye burl pen blanks in it)--i went back out to the shop after a few hours to find the oven door open, and the buckeye was just pile of ash. The fire had blown the door open. Fortunately the fire did not spread beyond the toaster oven.
Dental lab ovens are not hard to find used, and relatively inexpensive. Work very well with good thermal mass for steady temps. Never will have another toaster oven in my house or garage.
Click to expand...
Obviously a control issue. You would want a PID controller with a thermocouple that responds quicker, you can also position the thermocouple closer to the elements for better control. I also set the oven stat at a low temp as a backup. Note this is a standard practice method to dry blanks for stabilizing with cactus juice, many thousands of people are doing it successfully.
If you burned your blanks - you can fix the problem if you want to......
 
Jamie, with madrone, I do too much of it to take the time to boil it. I did find out, through trial and error, that I need spring harvested trees. Those taken mid summer are far more prone to cracking, as is anything left sitting on the ground for a week or more. Turn to about 1/4 thick walls, and soak at least 24 hours in soap/LDD, rinse off, let them dry and warp, then sand and finish. I do need rpm speeds of about 15 or less to be able to keep the abrasives on the wood as it spins. I did a drying comparison once with LLD and alcohol drying and for my bowls, it made no difference at all in drying time and warping. The 1/4 inch thick walls are dry in a week at most. I guess if you were to twice turn them, then maybe the alcohol may make a difference. The theory behind the DNA drying was that the alcohol, being very thin, would penetrate the cell walls and make it easier for the "bound" water to escape from the cells. I think the boiling ruptures the cell walls, so that process may be redundant, but I don't use it and have not played around with it.

robo hippy
 
Steve Bonny said:
Obviously a control issue. You would want a PID controller with a thermocouple that responds quicker, you can also position the thermocouple closer to the elements for better control. I also set the oven stat at a low temp as a backup. Note this is a standard practice method to dry blanks for stabilizing with cactus juice, many thousands of people are doing it successfully.
If you burned your blanks - you can fix the problem if you want to......
Click to expand...
All i know is that i saw well over 100 f temperature rises AFTER the power was cut to the oven. I fixed the problem by buying a lab oven that weighs about 35 pounds, takes a half hour to warm and stays in a 2 f range for 18-24 hours. I know that many folks use toaster ovens for stabilizing, but i'm sticking with my old lab oven. Side benefit is that drying the CJ after stabilizing i get much less push-out as the temps are very stable. Paid $50 for the lab oven, and sleep well at night.
 
Earl McLain said:
All i know is that i saw well over 100 f temperature rises AFTER the power was cut to the oven. I fixed the problem by buying a lab oven that weighs about 35 pounds, takes a half hour to warm and stays in a 2 f range for 18-24 hours. I know that many folks use toaster ovens for stabilizing, but i'm sticking with my old lab oven. Side benefit is that drying the CJ after stabilizing i get much less push-out as the temps are very stable. Paid $50 for the lab oven, and sleep well at night.
Click to expand...
What type of lab oven do you have? I don’t disagree that toaster ovens are not good at controlling temp. The temp rise after turning off the oven is still a control issue. Moving the control thermocouple closer to the element will help with this so it turns off sooner. The element is at 1000 degrees and although we are calling them PÍĎ controllers, all they are doing is turning the element on or off, so there is no P, I or D happening. If you move the thermocouple closer to the element rather than on the wood, it will turn off sooner and reduce the amount of heat generated and reduce the over temp issue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top