# Alcohol soak for turned wood



## John47 (Apr 26, 2013)

I am trying the alcohol soaking method for drying turned wood. The first couple of pieces I turned and soaked were Tabebuia. It is a beautiful blond wood but the alcohol seams to have given the wood a blue/grey cast. The denatured alcohol came from Home Depot. Anyone experience this?


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## KYSean (Jul 21, 2008)

I've never figured out why turners go to such extreme measures to dry turnings. If you follow the 10% rule for rough turning and double brown bag it, it will dry just fine. I've done it that way for years for bowls and hollow forms and only lost one hollow form that was apple. You can get the bags from box suppliers. Same bags as you used to get when grocery shopping.

Put your rough turning in the bad and roll the bag top down as far as the turning. Two months is all it takes in the summer. I put mine in the garage or shop on the concrete floor for storage.


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## John47 (Apr 26, 2013)

Well, I guess some of us just get impatient!


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## dyfhid (Jun 4, 2015)

I've never heard of using alcohol to dry wood, can you give me a link or some reference where I can read about it? Don't mean to hijack your thread, and certainly don't know your answer, but you have intrigued me


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## DonBoston (May 25, 2014)

The alcohol is supposed to displace the water content in the wood. I haven't tried it myself, but it sounds interesting.


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## John47 (Apr 26, 2013)

David - there are severel good threads in this forum on the subject. Just give it a search. What Don said is the basic idea and it seems to work. The Tabebuia dried quickly but has that color change that bothers me.


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