Drying plum wood

#1

I’ve been given some plum wood from a tree felling, has been lying in a garden for 3 months, is now in my basement. 3 sections of the main trunk, each around 2M long around 30cm diameter so plenty to go round once it’s dried.

What’s a quick and achievable way to dry it? Leave as is but paint the ends, chop it up and seal, or something else? The Internet is fairly conflicting and mostly tells me what I don’t want to hear - that it’ll take several years to dry before I can turn it. Any suggestions?

@woodtechs?

#2

Turn it green, it’s so much easier/nicer. Then once bowl shaped, dry it out either in some paper bags or microwave it.

#3

As Calum says rough turn it, leaving the walls at say 30mm then it should dry quicker. Say one year :wink:
Or oven / microwave to speed things up.

Then turn to final shape.

#4

As the guys say.

If you want to cut into boards, anything less than 2in will bend bow or warp…stacking the boards with spacers and weighting helps keep them straighter.

Keep away from sunshine, monster cracks appear fast. Gentle ambient circulation speeds up drying.

Good effort shifting those logs, 2m x 30cm…very heavy!

Turning green wood is a real pleasure!

#5

We now have @lathetechs too!

#6

is it like pottery where you have to turn everything bigger as it shrinks to its final size in the kiln?

#7

Did not know you could just microwave it! Any one got any references to tried and tested techniques? I found a tutorial or two but wondered if there was a specific method ppl had already had success with or if there’s any ‘gotchas’ I should be aware of?

Also if anyone wants any I have a lot (it was indeed bloody heavy afshind) so gimmie a shout and we can figure out logistics.

#8

I wonder if you could dry it out using a vacuum which would reduce the ambient vapour pressure to dry it out quicker without heat.

#9

What I’ve done in past has been cut it to final bowl dimensions or to oversized, both seem to work, then microwave it for a couple of minutes(anything between 2 and 5 depending on bowl size) on max power, then let it steam in kitchen/or open microwave door for maybe 10 minutes, then repeat a fair few times. For thin bowls this is pretty quick - maybe 5 or 6 cycles, but for thick/bowls that are only roughed it will need a fair bit of microwaving.

To tell when it’s done - weigh it, when it stops losing weight between cycles then it’s done - it should lose between maybe 1/3 and 1/2 of its weight in the process depending on how green/fresh it was.

I’d love a bit of plum if it’s going! Do you need help cutting it up/is it in rounds already?

#10

You cod build a kiln, sounds complicated but basically a humidity controlled box with a fan for air circulation. Would speed up drying the blanks, to a few weeks.

I’d be up for some plum to turn, happy to help move or cut it when needed.

#11

Sounds like my Biltong box project I’d like to do. Maybe do a hybrid wood kiln/meat drying contraption?

#12

That sounds interesting - have just finished building a controller for mushrooms which is pretty similar - humidity sensor and just requires changing a line of code to make it dry wood instead.

#13

Yes, it’s very doable. There are two problems - it’s difficult to scale for commercial applications (not really an issue for us, but even so, a vacuum chamber for, say, a table-sized lump of lumber is still a big ol’ thing), and aggressive drying of timber over a certain size leads to internal stress that the wood cannot withstand.

#14

I would love to try making something with plum - please let me know what help I can offer shifting. As you’ve got quite a lot from the same trunk, maybe worth trying several fast-drying strategies in samples, and see what works best? I’m quite keen to try the microwave approach…

#15

Have not tried microwaving but let me know how you get on. If there is any plum left I’d like to use some. Let me know what I can do to help.

#16

I would love a chunk of Plumb if its going. I’d like to gouge a bowl and plumb is great to carve in the green.