# What NOT to do when drying blanks!!



## Chris S.

So, I was drying a batch of stuff to stabilize. Toaster was sitting at a rock solid 220-225 degrees F. Last night I was going to pull the blanks out, which translated to about 36 hours in oven, but decided I will just wait till morning. Well, morning came and so did the rain. I had oven outside for safety sake. I think rain got onto temp control knob, caused unit to spike up temp and then a magical thing happened, FIRE. I awoke to my toaster oven bellowing smoke and $200+ in wood being turned to charcoal. Worst part was most of it was not mine but a buddies I was going to stabilize and give back for my data collection. 

I learned multiple things from this.

1. Glad I did outside in case the unit just overheated itself as this would of been very bad to have happen in house. Going to do outside if leaving unit unattended from now on.

2. Stop while you are ahead when drying. Should of pulled them after 24 hours.

3. Find a way to make a thermal cuttoff switch so that if oven gets over say 250 it kills power to prevent something like this happening again.

4. Check the whether any time you doing something woodworking related outside. 

5. Don't load all the wood into oven at once. Then if something bad does happen not out all the wood.

Here couple quick pics, enjoy. Photo doesn't do it justice of how bad this thing was smoking when moved it away from house.

Reactions: Funny 1 | Sincere 3 | Useful 2


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## Fsyxxx

Damn bro... That sucks! That is something that I've always been afraid of so I don't dry them in an oven. A food dehydrator does the job just as well with no danger of making very expensive charcoal. It does take longer. When I have something I know I'm gonna stabilize I put it in the dehydrator, when I get to it again it's ready to go. Just what I do, hope it's helpful....


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## DKMD

That's a lot of bog oak!

Seriously though, I hate that it happened to you, and I'm glad it wasn't worse.


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## justallan

Chris, that just sucks. Fire is a huge concern for me, having my little shop in the house.
I'm wondering if you didn't just light the stuff on fire by having the oven to full? That's a pretty good pile of charred stuff for that little oven.
Other than ruining a bunch of wood, you are learning and that's what you are trying to do right? Keep going, you'll figure it out.


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## ironman123

Now you can have an expensive BBQ to celebrate not burning your house down. A lesson to be learned.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Chris S.

Without a doubt lots of lessons learned. I like the dehydrator idea as I have one of those sitting around may use that for larger batches. Oven was about half full so maybe over loaded but not sure. Had basically 3 rows of pen blanks. I am glad nothing other than some wood got burned but will be putting less in the future at trying the dehydrator too. Overall a great learning experience for sure.


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## Noobturner

Wow, glad this wasn't inside the house for sure. These are the kinds of things I'm here to learn.. Sorry for your unfortunate mishap and glad everybody is ok.


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## Nature Man

Makes me sick just looking at it. Sorry for your loss, but thanks for sharing. Chuck

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Blueglass

Cast those clear and then turn them.

Oh, make sure they are out first.

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 2


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## TimR

I'm also sorry to hear about the batch going up in smoke, but glad it wasn't worse by being inside the shop.
I'm kind of surprised no one has commented about drying at that high of a temp. I suppose it's one thing to steam dry, but "dry" drying at that temp seems overdoing it.
Save the toaster oven and 200F for curing during stabilization process.

For drying, on a small scale, you can use an old dishwasher or even a wooden box, with a light bulb in it and a thermometer. Nice thing about the dishwasher, is it collects water that drips off at the bottom in a nice puddle that you can either drain automatically, or blot up with a towel. I set mine at about 90-95F using a 60W bulb till water no longer appears...then bump it up to 120F using a 100W bulb for a day or two and then about 135F using a 100W and 40W bulb for another day or two to kill off any critters. Should be ready to stabilize at that point.


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## barry richardson

Hmmm, sounds like a defective toaster, I would go to Black and Decker and ask for my money back


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## norman vandyke

Here's my wood drier. Old food dehydrator. Pretty much just a mini kiln as it does still take a month plus to dry burls from fresh cut.

Reactions: Like 1 | Way Cool 1


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## Chris S.

Blueglass said:


> Cast those clear and then turn them.
> 
> Oh, make sure they are out first.



I was thinking cast in red. Doused in water so they out now I just need to dry them.


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## Kevin

I don't see the problem. The wood looks dry to me. 

Like others I'm glad it was 't worse. Look at the bright side...you didn't burn your wife's gardening van down to the ground.

Reactions: Funny 5


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## robert flynt

Kevin said:


> I don't see the problem. The wood looks dry to me.
> 
> Like others I'm glad it was 't worse. Look at the bright side...you didn't burn your wife's gardening van down to the ground.


Yeah, Kevin forgot that catalithic converters get red hot, especially the ones on old vehicles!!

Reactions: Funny 1


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## ripjack13

Chris S. said:


> I was thinking cast in red. Doused in water so they out now I just need to dry them.


That would actually look good I think. Waste not want not. Glad you n your house are ok...


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## rocky1

Kinda reminds me of my first wife's cooking!

Reactions: Funny 3


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## Kevin

rocky1 said:


> Kinda reminds me of my first wife's cooking!



Thus the second wife lol.


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## rocky1

Only person I've ever known to burn boiled eggs... Took a week to get the smell out of the apartment!

Reactions: Funny 2


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## Chris S.

I had a roommate in college who burned peas in a pan so bad the pan almost melted down on the stove. Stunk up place to high heaven. Come to think of it he was boiling peas. Maybe he and your ex would be good together.


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## Kevin

Chris S. said:


> Maybe he and your ex would be good together.



Eggzactly. Two peas in a burnt pod.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## rocky1

NO when I divorced her, she asked all my friends to take her out. One of them did, wound up marrying her, and they've been together 35 years now. Either she learned how to cook, they eat out a lot, or they both like bad cooking, last picture I saw they were both old and fat.

I'm sure the peas stunk, but I'm gonna tell you, burned boiled eggs probably takes the cake for nasty stench, it was kind of a cross between that rotten egg sulfur smell and burned hair. It was terrible!!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## justallan

I know eggzactly what burnt eggs smell like, and it's beyond rough.
For whatever the reason, the girlfriend I had at the time had to drive the 45 miles to Sacramento to pick me up from work. As quick as she got there she starts fussing about if she had turned the stove off, boiling eggs of course. So about halfway home the phone rings and the neighbor had had to kick out door down and put out the fire. Due to previous problems with this guy, it took a good bit of convincing just to get him to unlock his front door to accept the box of beer that I bought him.

So anyway, how is the experiment going?

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Chris S.

Experiment progressing. Frustrating but some results. Posting in other thread in a few minutes. I find results interesting but not as earth shattering as I was first thinking they would be. Will see as more testing goes.


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## F.W.von

Whoa where'd you get the matte black dye from!

Reactions: Funny 2


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