# Drying Wood with Air Fryer



## litletre (Jan 4, 2019)

Recently I decided to purchase all the necessities for stabilizing wood, pump, chamber, cactus juice, and toaster oven. However I'm stuck at this last one since I keep seeing a combo of toaster oven air frying. There are def many posts on toaster oven drying wood, but I have yet to find one n regards to air frying. To me it sounds like it's a tiny kiln, though I could be wrong. Anyone have any feedback would really appreciate it. My fingers are crossed that I stumbled upon a little kiln….but you know what they say, "hope for the best, but expect the worst".


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## CaptainKlutz (Apr 23, 2014)

An oven is oven is an oven.

An air fryer is nothing more than closed loop convection oven. 
Just note that you can dry green/wet wood out too fast. 
Using convection oven on green wood will likely result in spilts/cracks, and sound of 'popcorn like popping' why drying.

If you want cheap oven, stop by local appliance store and ask about used ovens. 
Often can find them for < $50. 
All you need in an oven is a box, heating element, and temp controller; don't care if burners or clock works.  
For that matter, can build oven easy too. Foam board from BORG, space heater or heat lamps, and temp controller.

Don't over think an 'oven', unless you are attempting to dry freshly cut green timber.
https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr118.pdf

YMMV


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## therealSteveN (Oct 29, 2016)

Can you inquire where you saw the reference to air frying? I may be wrong, but can't help thinking someone had a typo, and was trying to say, air drying.


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## LesB (Dec 21, 2008)

That is new to me. For small scale wood drying I use the microwave and a paper bag. Repeatedly heating the wood internally and driving the moisture out with the paper bag providing a steam kiln effect.
The problem in drying is to get the interior moisture out as uniformly as possible so there is no stress between the outer parts of the wood getting dry before the inner moisture is releases. So I don't see how an "air fryer" could do this just by circulating heat around the outside of the wood.


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## litletre (Jan 4, 2019)

I do have a tendency of over thinking something so I appreciate the response and the idea about getting a used oven. Lately I have been keeping a heater on them and was thinking of ways to localize the heat it puts out since the wife won't let me use the inside oven lol.

As for the Microwave technique with the paper bag, I have not heard that one before but it sounds like it would work. My follow up question is do you do this for blanks or your finished turning?


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## LesB (Dec 21, 2008)

> As for the Microwave technique with the paper bag, I have not heard that one before but it sounds like it would work. My follow up question is do you do this for blanks or your finished turning?
> 
> - litletre


The answer is yes. I do dry roughed out blanks using this method. I realized my suggestion did not give much detail but there are several U-Tube videos and blogs on the subject. Basicaly I place the blank in a closed brown paper bag….if you can still get them…LOL….Put it in the microwave oven and heat until I can just barely handle the item with my bare hands. Then I leave it to cool in the bag slightly open to release the vapor and repeat the process until the item is dry. Depending on the size and moisture content the process can be repeated as needed. The main purpose of the bag is to hold in some of the water vapor/steam in so the surface of the item does not dry out faster than the interior wood which reduces the stress. During the process if I see any cracks developing I treat them with medium CA glue, which usually stops any further progress of the crack.
It is not fool proof but it is fairly quick.


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## Andybb (Sep 30, 2016)

There was a recent thread over on IAP. People were very happy with the microwave method. Gonna be the next thing I try. Apparently the secret is to nuke it on low for short periods until it stops loosing weight.

The oven method (at least for me) caused the blanks to crack and twist.

*"I did as was recommended above - 2 minutes on Defrost then let it cool for 5 minutes. Then repeat. Took me about an hour to get it to where I wanted. Turned beautifully and has not moved in 2 years. Take it slow and rest it and it works well."*

*"Well I went ahead and cut some pen blanks from it, 1 inch square, 3 inches long and ran it through the microwave 4 times, 1 minute each time at 30 % power. It went from 39 grams down to 23. No cracks and for the most of what I cut, it looks pretty solid,so looks like stabilization won't be necessary. It doesn't look like it's very figured, but it's nothing that I pursued or bought, just hope the pen looks nice when done. I will post a picture when done, assuming it all goes well."*


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## xeddog (Mar 2, 2010)

What about using a food dehydrator? Still too fast???

Wayne


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## Andybb (Sep 30, 2016)

> What about using a food dehydrator? Still too fast???
> 
> Wayne
> 
> - xeddog


Don't know but if the microwave technique works the way everybody says it does it moves into the "no brainer" category for me. Nuke it until the weight stops going down. End of story.


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## jacww (Aug 23, 2015)

Be careful using a microwave. I have seen one video on youtube showing internal burning after using a microwave to dry a piece for turning. There was no external indication of damage.

A member of the woodworkers guild I belong to has recently experimented using silica gel desiccant to try turned pieces. He had watched a couple of videos on youtube and was intrigued. He was able to obtain a 5 gallon bucket of silica gel. After about 48 hours in the silica gel, a very wet piece was ready to finish. No heat. no cracking. No risk. The silica gel can be regenerated and used forever.

Use your favorite search engine and check it out.

TonyC


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## LesB (Dec 21, 2008)

> What about using a food dehydrator? Still too fast???
> 
> Wayne
> 
> - xeddog


It will work but a lot slower and you are still dealing with external heat; whereas the microwave heats internally and helps drive the moisture to the surface where it vaporizes. This greatly reduces the stress on the wood that happens when the surface dries and the interior is still wet. The paper bag method enhances this balance of interior and exterior moisture. This is why steam kilns are often used commercially.


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

How thick are the blanks you guys are drying in the microwave? I use the microwave to dry rough turned bowls, usually less than 1" thick, before turning them down to final size and I can see it working on pen blanks or knife scales but it seems like it would take forever on a larger, thicker blank. For punky wood that you are going to stabilize with cactus juice, you can probably dry larger blanks this way because with it being less dense or having voids the moisture can escape more easily.

I have burned the inside of a rough bowl before. It didn't show up until I removed a little more wood.


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## litletre (Jan 4, 2019)

Seriously love this forum! I get the exact answers I seek and more! Going to try this microwave thing cause it sounds pretty perfect for what I'm looking for.

I'm going to be putting in blanks of various sizes but I'm also thinking that it being soft boxelder it should work well.

As for silica that sounds really cool and am going to look into that for sure!

I just got my jb eliminator pump today (from eBay for $100!) got my cactus juice, and now need to search through the forum and find some good chamber ideas. I'll post some pics when I'm done but here are some of the blanks I'll be stabilizing


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

Just take it slow with the microwave. I usually start at about 50% power for about 2 minutes but you have to adjust the power and times based upon moisture, size and wood density. You might want to try it first with some wood that you won't be too upset about ruining.

It just occurred to me that you are going to be using a vacuum chamber for the Cactus Juice. Another thing to consider is using the vacuum chamber to help suck the moisture out. It seems like a vacuum should basically lower the boiling point to evaporate the water without the risk of overheating the wood. Just make sure you have a moisture trap so you don't suck any water through your pump. I suppose as an experiment, you could heat the blank and put it directly into the vacuum chamber to speed up the process?


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## Andybb (Sep 30, 2016)

I didn't realize how big the pieces were that you were going to stabilize. I'm a pen turner. No wonder someone was talking about gallons of cactus juice. You're gonna need a big container and a strong pump and a long time to stabilize that but it should be awesome when done.


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## Andybb (Sep 30, 2016)

Looking at your original post a question just occurred to me. Are you looking to stabilize wood because it's punky/spalted or because it's wet? If it's dry and you stabilize it you will still need to bake it. If it's because it's spalted but dry here is a technique for turning the spalted wood then coating it with resin thinned with acetone. Seems easier.


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## litletre (Jan 4, 2019)

The picture shows just a few of the blanks that I'm hoping to stabilize. Included picture below.

I'm planning on selling 90% of the wood so I'll be only working with them in blank form. I'll probably start with the pen blank sizes and see how it goes but I'm honestly thinking that I won't be able to speed up the process with the larger ones without significant distress to the wood. The wood is Boxelder with insane red flame, Birdseye, spalting black streaks, and deep figuring. Only problem is that is too soft for anything more than decorative purposes in its current form.

On the turntex site that sells the cactus juice, they say a toaster oven is a necessity, but after reading here about the f differences of a microwave and an oven's functionality I find myself re-evaluating my game plan..


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

You need the toaster AFTER you infuse the cactus juice inside the vacuum chamber. The heat from the toaster sets the resin. I have never heard of anyone using a microwave to do that. The microwave is to help speed up the drying process because the cactus juice does not work well unless the wood is dry.


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## Andybb (Sep 30, 2016)

> You need the toaster AFTER you infuse the cactus juice inside the vacuum chamber. The heat from the toaster sets the resin. I have never heard of anyone using a microwave to do that. The microwave is to help speed up the drying process because the cactus juice does not work well unless the wood is dry.
> 
> - Lazyman


+1
As I said earlier, you are talking about 2 different processes and 2 different customers. There are people who want spalted blanks that they may or may not stabilize themselves and those who want to buy blanks that have already been stabilized. You must use an oven if you want to stabilize. You can even add color to your juice.

There are also people who just want a blank, stabilized or not as long as it's dry. Those would be the candidates for whatever process you want to use to dry them. The ones that are punky are the ones you probably want to stabilize. The ones that are spalted can be sold either way, you just need to properly identify.

If you join and look over on IAP you will see lots of blanks offered up for sale like these to give you an idea.

The small ones in your top picture can probably can be cut into 3/4 or 7/8×6" blanks and sold in batches. Until you know what you're doing I'd stay away from selling stabilized blanks and leave that to the pros. Too easy to not do a thorough stabilization and end up with a punky/rotted core, so start practicing.

Using any species the progression is green, dry, spalted then rotted. The only reason to stabilize is if the wood is too rotten to turn in it's present state, which can be unique and gorgeous after it's stabilized. If I'm turning a pen or bottle stopper from spalted wood I may not want it to be stabilized. If I'm stabilizing or buying a stabilized blank it's because I know it is wood that is too soft to turn without being stabilized. You'll need to learn the difference.

youtube is your friend.

In fact, PM me if you want to sell this piece just as it is.


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## litletre (Jan 4, 2019)

Well regardless I plan on getting my practice on and we'll see how it goes after that. As for the toaster oven, yes you are correct on it needing after, I misread on his site, thanks for the correction


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## cseymour (Jun 12, 2009)

Hello All,
Just found this post.
Has anyone tried using a small electric smoker instead of a toaster oven?
The are built for "low and slow" and to be used outdoors.
Was wondering if they could be used for both drying the wood before stabilization and for curing after.

Just me thinking out loud.

Thanik you


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## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

I have 2 smokers of that type. I never thought of useing them for a small kiln. Interesting idea!


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