# Alternate ways to dry wood



## Brain M (Jul 4, 2016)

Hey guys are there any alternate ways to dry wood well enough for stabilization without having to use an oven? I don't want to leave my gas oven on all night and my little toaster oven I use for my projects only stays on for 90 min's on its longest setting. I was thinking about letting the wood set out for a couple weeks then bake for maybe 1 or 2 cycle's at the 90 mins? Would this work?


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## Tony (Jul 4, 2016)

There are some threads about building a solar kiln on here, pretty good stuff. Tony

Reactions: Like 1


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## rocky1 (Jul 4, 2016)

Build yourself a small kiln out of a cardboard box, using a standard incandescent light bulb. If you can find a couple boxes that fit inside each other it will help insulate and keep your temperature a little higher. Someone posted one here built out of plywood with several drying racks, just recently, that incorporated the light bulb and a small fan out of a computer to move air through it, and said it worked extremely well.


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## Schroedc (Jul 4, 2016)

I've used a food dehydrator to dry down blanks, won't get really hot and takes a while but it will do the job in a pinch.


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## Don Ratcliff (Jul 4, 2016)

Check out this page to the ones I have made and they work fantastic. http://woodbarter.com/threads/dehydrator-for-more-than-just-mangos.27742/ it is in the tips/ jigs section of the forum.


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## rocky1 (Jul 4, 2016)

That's the one I was looking for!!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Brain M (Jul 4, 2016)

Thank you all so much! I have much to learn on my search-fu. This site is great!

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Spinartist (Jul 4, 2016)




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## rocky1 (Jul 4, 2016)

Search-fu don't help when dealing with Hawaiians dehydrating mangos in their kilns. I could not for the life of me find that one! If you can't find the little heater element he showed there, try beekeeping supply warehouses... Dadant & Sons, or Mann Lake they sell them.


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## vegas urban lumber (Jul 4, 2016)

pentacryl. the way i understand it, pentacryl drives off the moisture and stabalizes. get enough pentacryl to submerge the piece of wood in. 24 hours submerged for every inch in thickness. when you take it out of the pentacryl put the wood in a bag of sawdust for one week for every 1 inch thickness. that's a week in sawdust to dry for every day that you soaked. removes the moisture such that if you keep the pentacryl in the same container it will need a valve on the bottom to let out the water that has sunk to the bottom. after the dry time no shrinkage or checking. ready to work and is especially good for green cookies (cross sections of logs)

Reactions: Informative 1


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## Don Ratcliff (Jul 4, 2016)

rocky1 said:


> Search-fu don't help when dealing with Hawaiians dehydrating mangos in their kilns. I could not for the life of me find that one! If you can't find the little heater element he showed there, try beekeeping supply warehouses... Dadant & Sons, or Mann Lake they sell them.


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## rocky1 (Jul 4, 2016)

Wasn't hatin, just didn't know I was sposed to be searchin for dehydrating mangos!

Reactions: Funny 1


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