# Drying wood-food dehydrator



## railrider1920

I wanted to make a pen from some wood that wasn't quite dry enough. I stuck it in a food dehydrator, set it on low and left it over night. The next day I took out the wood and it all looked good. Only one or two pieces had slight cracks on the ends, all the others were fine.
The one I have has different settings on it. It blows warm to hot air all around the trays to dry out whatever is on them.

In my area, after hunting season, the thrift stores and Goodwills get food dehydrators donated to them. I bought one for $3 instead of the $30 at dept stores. Many of the hunters use them to make deer jerky then just get rid of them.

Hope this helps


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## redfishsc

Not a bad idea as long as you're willing to sacrifice a blank or two drying them that fast. I have some bamboo to cut and make pens out of, that might be my trick, since the bamboo is free and there's truckloads of it to have.


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## rjwolfe3

Do you have picture showing the blanks in it?


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## railrider1920

I wouldn't suggest it for very wet wood as I'm sure it would crack drying that quick.

 No rj I don't. But it kinda looks like this, just blanks instead of food.    If the blanks are laid down, I could only get a few per tray. Mine were longer than normal. Put some fruit along side the blanks and you'll have a nice snack while you are turning  j/k


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## redfishsc

How much Worcestershire sauce did you use?


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## PaulDoug

I'm wondering why would they crack any more using the dryer than using the microwave method?  I've often thought of using a food dryer but haven't gotten to it.  If you do more please post how they turn out.


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## Dario

PaulDoug said:


> I'm wondering why would they crack any more using the dryer than using the microwave method?  I've often thought of using a food dryer but haven't gotten to it.  If you do more please post how they turn out.



Dehydrator dries from outside in.

Microwave is by exciting the water molecules.  The water expansion as it turns into steam is what dries the wood.  The big difference, is the (almost) equal moisture in the wood (inside and out).


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## low_48

I find that the attic of the house works really well this time of year. I made up some trays that have hardware cloth for the bottom, and wood frames around the sides. For really big drying projects (like a couple hundred blanks), I made up some "envelopes" out of chicken wire. I keep one end of the envelope open and fill with blanks. I also have to wire the sides of the envelope together with the blanks in them, or else the sides spread open and all the blanks fall to the bottom. I drove some screws in the rafters, then hang the envelopes from them. Let them sit up there for a week and you're ready to go. Since it's going over 90 degrees here this week, I don't imagine I will have to wait the entire week!


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## PaulDoug

Dario said:


> Dehydrator dries from outside in.
> 
> Microwave is by exciting the water molecules.  The water expansion as it turns into steam is what dries the wood.  The big difference, is the (almost) equal moisture in the wood (inside and out).




Makes sense, thank you


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## tbroye

I have one of the old RONCO dehydrqatos that was in many infomationals.  It is about 14" high and has 4 trays.  When I used to build plastic car models (NASCAR) I used it to dry the paint. It worked great temp about 110 on the top tray with the adjustable cover on.  Would dry Dupon Acrylic Enamel in about 3 hours, enough to use MM on and polish out to a shinny finish.  I recently tried it on a pen blank with great results.  Turned the blank and then use water based Polycrylic on it, took about 30 minuets to dry and than sanded and applied another coat.  Did three coats and polished it.  Came out great can't tell if it was CA or some other finish.  I plan on doing some with the oil based poly to see what happens.

If you use care it should work fine for drying wood, as long as the temp isn't to high.


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## redfishsc

As a side note, if you use air conditioning for your house, the blanks will also dry quicker than you might think. I normally dry my blanks in the spare bedroom (not anymore with the baby on the way:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin and they only crack if they are wacky-grained woods. 

The AC keeps the humidity fairly low in your house, thereby working a lot like  a Kiln dehumidifier.


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## railrider1920

redfishsc said:


> As a side note, if you use air conditioning for your house, the blanks will also dry quicker than you might think. I normally dry my blanks in the spare bedroom (not anymore with the baby on the way:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin and they only crack if they are wacky-grained woods.
> 
> The AC keeps the humidity fairly low in your house, thereby working a lot like  a Kiln dehumidifier.



I forgot all about that. I got a piece of cherry that had been cut down a few weeks earlier (about the size of a football). I put it in a brown paper bag and put it in the return air vent for the AC unit. I actually forgot about it. I pulled it out about a month later and it had dried nicely. Hardly any cracks, just a few small ones that didn't go very deep.

BTW, congrats on the coming new addition


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## 1JaredSchmidt

I can fill ours up with burls and they can all be dry in 2 days. I usually seal the ends with Anchorseal and they don't crack.


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## TBone

Getting rid of a dehydrator after making deer jerkey just one time?? That's just wrong.    :frown::biggrin:


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## Aderhammer

Dario said:


> Dehydrator dries from outside in.
> 
> Microwave is by exciting the water molecules.  The water expansion as it turns into steam is what dries the wood.  The big difference, is the (almost) equal moisture in the wood (inside and out).



So if we stick the dehydrator in the microwave it'll all dry at the same time?


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