# Cutting and drying cookies



## BassBlaster (Jul 23, 2012)

I have an ambrosia maple log, actually its more of a chunk than a log. Its 24" in diameter and will be 24" or so in length once I cut it square. Plan is to slice off a couple of cookies about 3" thick and process the rest of it into pepper mill and small bowl blanks.

My chain saw is only 18". What is the best way to cut the cookies and get a somewhat uniform thickness?

What is the best way to dry the cookies? The plan for the cookies is for a couple of small tables. I dont mind if it checks a bit and requires bowties, actually, that would be prefered. I just dont want it to crack like crazy.

I understand that 3" thick is way too thick for a table top of this size. I just thought if they were 3" thick that would leave me plenty of material to work with when it came time. Then again, I'm looking at removing over an inch of end grain material at some point and that could be a pain. Maybe I can find a wide belt sander in my area.


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## Dusty (Jul 24, 2012)

I've had pretty good success drying cookies without cracks by drying them in my microwave... I have Attention Deficit Disorder or "Can't Sit Still" disease. Waiting for 6 months for a rough turned bowl to dry just isn't something I can do. So I've been drying my bowls and other green wood turnings in my microwave for several years. I start out by weighing the chunk and heating at full power for 2 minutes. I want the steam to build up in the cells and break the cell walls. Thicker pieces may take longer to build up enough steam to break the cell walls that are holding the moisture inside the cells. Then I set the microwave on defrost and use the defrost frozen meat cycle. It's 50% power for a time the microwave calculates. Then I cycle between heating, cooling to room temperature and recording the weight. When the weight stops dropping, I start sanding and finishing. I made a bunch of cutting boards like this for Christmas gifts last year.


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## BassBlaster (Jul 24, 2012)

Joe Rebuild said:


> BassBlaster said:
> 
> 
> > My chain saw is only 18". What is the best way to cut the cookies and get a somewhat uniform thickness?
> ...



I have to square both ends so I'll see how those cuts go before I start slicing the cookies.

So Anchor Seal will still allow the wood to dry, just slowly? Ive been using parafin to end seal all my blanks. I can pick up a gallon of AS if thats the best method for this. Thanks for the tips about the cinder blocks. I never would have thought of that, I would have just stacked em and let em be and they probably would have turned into bowls!!

I just saw an add on CL the other day about some lumber for sale and in the add the guy mentioned he had a wide belt sander. I'll have to find it again. That would be a good place to know about for future projects anyhow.

Thanks for the help!!


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## BassBlaster (Jul 24, 2012)

Dusty said:


> I've had pretty good success drying cookies without cracks by drying them in my microwave... I have Attention Deficit Disorder or "Can't Sit Still" disease. Waiting for 6 months for a rough turned bowl to dry just isn't something I can do. So I've been drying my bowls and other green wood turnings in my microwave for several years. I start out by weighing the chunk and heating at full power for 2 minutes. I want the steam to build up in the cells and break the cell walls. Thicker pieces may take longer to build up enough steam to break the cell walls that are holding the moisture inside the cells. Then I set the microwave on defrost and use the defrost frozen meat cycle. It's 50% power for a time the microwave calculates. Then I cycle between heating, cooling to room temperature and recording the weight. When the weight stops dropping, I start sanding and finishing. I made a bunch of cutting boards like this for Christmas gifts last year.



I dont think I can get a 24" cookie in the microwave!!

I have dried smaller blanks in the microwave with great success but nothing larger than pen blanks.

That cutting board is awesome!! Ive made several end grain boards but never one from a cookie. Too cool!!


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## BassBlaster (Jul 24, 2012)

Roughly how long do you think it will take these to dry if I AS them? I know there are many factors that determine dryng time. I'm just wandering if this is something that will be dry in 6 or 8 months or is it gonna be more like 2 or 3 years? No big deal either way, just curious.


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## arkie (Jul 28, 2012)

[attachment=8360]
What sort of luck did you have cutting your cookies? We were given a couple fresh cut thin maple rounds about 25" across. Charlie looked at them and saw table tops. I've sliced them into cookies 4-5" thick. That was a bit of a trick with my little 18" electric chain saw, but I managed to get lucky both times. I'll wax a couple of them and hope they don't break up too badly as they dry.


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## BassBlaster (Aug 1, 2012)

I havnt cut them yet because I havnt made it out to get a gallon of AS. Maybe this weekend. I have the same saw, just a gas version. Hopefully I have as good a luck as you did. Those look good!!


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## davidgiul (Aug 1, 2012)

Dusty said:


> I've had pretty good success drying cookies without cracks by drying them in my microwave... I have Attention Deficit Disorder or "Can't Sit Still" disease. Waiting for 6 months for a rough turned bowl to dry just isn't something I can do. So I've been drying my bowls and other green wood turnings in my microwave for several years. I start out by weighing the chunk and heating at full power for 2 minutes. I want the steam to build up in the cells and break the cell walls. Thicker pieces may take longer to build up enough steam to break the cell walls that are holding the moisture inside the cells. Then I set the microwave on defrost and use the defrost frozen meat cycle. It's 50% power for a time the microwave calculates. Then I cycle between heating, cooling to room temperature and recording the weight. When the weight stops dropping, I start sanding and finishing. I made a bunch of cutting boards like this for Christmas gifts last year.


How long on defrost?


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## Dusty (Aug 2, 2012)

davidgiul said:


> Dusty said:
> 
> 
> > I've had pretty good success drying cookies without cracks by drying them in my microwave... I have Attention Deficit Disorder or "Can't Sit Still" disease. Waiting for 6 months for a rough turned bowl to dry just isn't something I can do. So I've been drying my bowls and other green wood turnings in my microwave for several years. I start out by weighing the chunk and heating at full power for 2 minutes. I want the steam to build up in the cells and break the cell walls. Thicker pieces may take longer to build up enough steam to break the cell walls that are holding the moisture inside the cells. Then I set the microwave on defrost and use the defrost frozen meat cycle. It's 50% power for a time the microwave calculates. Then I cycle between heating, cooling to room temperature and recording the weight. When the weight stops dropping, I start sanding and finishing. I made a bunch of cutting boards like this for Christmas gifts last year.
> ...



I weigh the load I'm putting in the microwave, and use the defrost by weight setting on my microwave. The defrost cycle is 50% power for a time the microwave calculates. But, the first thing I do is to heat at full power, one minute at a time till I get steam out of the edge grain. I want to rupture the cell walls so the water that's bound up in the cells comes out as fast as the water between the cells. If you don't get the wood hot enough and just defrost, it will still crack. And sometimes it cracks anyway. When I'm driving the moisture out of fresh turned bowls, I just fill the cracks with sawdust and superglue and keep turning. 

Hal


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## wade (Aug 4, 2012)

What species is that in the picture? I would suppose that this method would work better with some species but possibly not all. Or better said, "better with some, than others". Like Mesquite, with the same tangential as radial shrinkage, would be a good candidate for this method. What is your experience with different species? Same result?


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