Kiln drying time

[Martin Cooke]

I have found a local place that offers kiln drying of your wood. I was thinking about having several bowl blanks dried, they are about 10"x10"x5" black walnut and some cherry. Any ideas as to how long this might take?
Also wondering if there is an acceptable way of quickly drying these myself?
Thanks,
Martin

 

[Bob Brown]

Show the kiln company. They will be able to answer your questions. You might make a friend and find a wood source.

 

[William Rogers]

In my homemade kiln it is between 4-5 weeks. Size is a factor.

 

[Richard Coers]

What is the moisture level now? 5" wet cherry will come out of conventional kiln as a piece of firewood. The only way to kiln dry 5" lumber quickly is by using a vacuum kiln. I'm kiln drying that thick of timber right now, but I cut it in 2010.

 

[James Seyfried]

Is there a reason to dry them as bowl blanks instead of rough turning them into bowls then drying them? It is a lot easier to turn green wood then kiln dried wood, especially for a 9"-10" bowl. Also it is quicker to dry a 1" thick bowl than a 5" bowl blank.

 

[hockenbery]

Also wondering if there is an acceptable way of quickly drying these myself?

You can rough turn the bowl 10” diameter with 1” thick wall. Day 1
The dry it in the microwave. You have to watch the bowl and do multiple cycles Day 2
Then finish turn day 3

Here are several microwave methods.

Microwaving Bowls

Brand new to this hobby and have been doing a lot of research. I eventually plan on building up a stock of rough turned bowls that have slowly dried, but until then I have been trying my hand at microwaving. I have been developing some small cracks on a few of the bowls that are rough turned...

www.aawforum.org

You might be interested in looking at this thread on working with green wood.
It’s from a demo I did where I rough turn a bowl from green wood and finish turn a dry warped bowl.

Working with green wood

The August 2015 AAW JOURNAL has great article by David Ellsworth on working with green wood. This is followed by 11 marvelous ways turners turned cracks into features. One of David's themes is that the deck is stacked against newer woodturners successfully working with wet wood. Might be a nice...

www.aawforum.org

 

[robo hippy]

Standard kilns do not do well with any wood over about 8/4 or 2 inch thick. Difficult to get equilibrium, which leads to cracks. Far easier to rough turn, seal, and dry on a shelf. A vacuum kiln will work better. Also, different woods dry at different rates, so if the kiln is running one kind of wood and yours is different, then results are not guaranteed.

robo hippy