Any use a vacuum oven to dry blanks

[Jim Smith]

I'm curious if anyone here has used a vacuum oven such as this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...h=022&category=26237&_trksid=p1742.m153.l1262 to dry blanks. It could be set on low heat drawing a vacuum for green blanks or on just heat if you're curing stabilized blanks.

I've purchased a number of items from these folks and the prices are usually extremely good. No affilation with the seller at all, just a satisfied customer. Your thoughts...

p.s. I sure hope this will be useful since I bought one for $26 last week from them and I'm awaiting it's arrival. The list price new on the one I bought is somewhere around $2000.

If nobody has used a vacuum oven, then I'll certainly post my results.


Jim Smith

 

[LostintheWoods]

Don't think I've heard of anyone here using one of these, but I'll bet you have everyone's attention, and I'm sure that more than a few folks around here will
be interested in hearing of your results. Shipping charges on that unit had to be
horrendous!

 

[Jim Smith]

Shipping was about $45 which is not too bad considering the dimensions and weight of the oven. I believe the vacuum ovens are used by medical labs to dry specimums which explains the outragous list price of these units. I also picked up a very nice vacuum pump for $21.00 from the same seller that I use with my pressure pot.

Jim Smith

 

[low_48]

It won't take much heat. I think water boils at around 95 deg F in a vacuum. I have read about the vacuum kilns used for wood. One odd thing is that radiant heat doesn't work in a vacuum. Those kilns use layers of aluminum manifolds between every layer of wood. Hot water is circulated in those manifolds and heats the wood. The biggest concern on any hobby type system is the acidic water, drawn out of the wood, that may go through the vacuum pump. They say that it will eat up a pump in little time. The commercial units have condensors so the water condenses out and drains before getting to the pump. There are some guys working hobby systems. They heat the chamber and pull the vacuum. When the chamber cools, they open it up and add the heat, then pull a vacuum again. This repeats till the wood is dry. It won't take many cycles to dry a pen blank. You should see zero defects because of the low heat. Good luck.