I am looking for some suggestions for scales to weigh green wood to evaluate drying. Block sizes for me are typically going range from 4 to 16 inches so I am looking for something with a reasonable range.
Wow! That's a beast of a scale at 110 pound capacity. The remote display is genius. I sometimes zero out my scale with a cardboard tube riser, but that's a lot better. Never seen anything quite like that.I had started out using a kitchen scale that went to 8 pounds but as my blanks got larger they also got heavier than the scale would read. And if the size was too large I couldn't see the display. I have since gone to a postal scale with a remote display. The scale goes to 110 pounds and handles all of my rough turned blanks now. I really do like the remote display.
Some kitchen scales weigh to 10 kg (22 pounds). Office supply stores are a good source for choices in postal scales, which also come in variable maximum weights. The Cheapskates Association recommends kitchen scales from discount stores--how many blanks over 11 pounds are you going to have?
Air drying with weight only makes sense if you know the RH.How about some feedback on how much weight needs to be lost percentage wise. I normally wait un-till a rough turned bowl stops losing weight before I consider it stable. Occasionally I’d like to speed things up, any suggestions.
Air drying with weight only makes sense if you know the RH.
The forestry service hasn’t several on line publications to help.
https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr117.pdf
Heat and relative humid determine what the final MC will be in your wood drying room.
The table below shows the MC of wood that does not loose weight.
You can see that in humid areas wood will be 11-12% MC
A dehumidifier will give you control of the RH and speed drying and moderate heat will speed drying.
These are elements of a kiln. There are lots of plans for home made kilns to speed drying.
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I contend that we don't really need to know the relative humidity. The thing that we really want to know is when the wood has stopped warping so that we can we finish turning it.
RH and Temperature define the MC the wood can reach as well as the rate of drying.relative humidity is a day to day variable and only influences the rate that a piece of wood is drying.
Most production turners use a kiln for speed of drying but also for MC consistency.
It seems to me that Bill's charts and Al's RH are only extra worry and math when for turning most risk is alleviated when EMC is reached , that is relatively no weight change for 3to 7 days. Not to slight the work these tow have done on moisture as it is enlightening it is just another step when I could be turning more wood.
It seems to me that Bill's charts and Al's RH are only extra worry and math when for turning most risk is alleviated when EMC is reached , that is relatively no weight change for 3to 7 days. Not to slight the work these tow have done on moisture as it is enlightening it is just another step when I could be turning more wood.
I agree on less non turning work.
I stopped weighing many years ago and just use time in a drying area with known humidity supported by a moisture meter reading.
All you have to know is that the humidity of your drying areas has to be 45% or less to get a bowl to dry under 9% MC.
In my area bowls in an open air drying shed would stop loosing weight at about 12% MC
Jackson MS is a little more humid than Tampa FL. A bowl dried in Jackson will have a higher MC than one dried in Tampa.
I run a dehumidifier in my drying room at 45% so that wood will dry to under 9%.
If you are reaching 9% MC in your roughed bowls, I'm wondering if that's better than the 12% MC in roughed bowls that are dried without a humidity controlled room.....? It does seem like a 9% MC finished bowl will actually increase in MC when it's at the end-destination.....where the MC of wood will eventually stabilize to be a bit higher......like 12%.....?