Fridge Kiln

Darren Wright

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I was watching a woodturner's show on PBS tonight and they were doing bowl blanks. For drying the blanks, the host took them to a feller that was using an old gutted refrigerator as a kiln. He had several plywood shelves with lots of circulation holes in them. At the bottom was a 60 watt light bulb and a small circulation fan. There were also adjustable vent holes, on at the bottom and one at the top. The light bulb was connected to a thermostat and he kept it at about 80* consistently.

Looked like a good solution for someone that wants to speed up the dry time and has the space.
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I was watching a woodturner's show on PBS tonight and they were doing bowl blanks. For drying the blanks, the host took them to a feller that was using an old gutted refrigerator as a kiln. He had several plywood shelves with lots of circulation holes in them. At the bottom was a 60 watt light bulb and a small circulation fan. There were also adjustable vent holes, on at the bottom and one at the top. The light bulb was connected to a thermostat and he kept it at about 80* consistently.

Looked like a good solution for someone that wants to speed up the dry time and has the space.


It is amazing how inventive people can be with minimal materials to work with. I am impressed.
 
I've heard of others doing this to dry roughed-out bowls. Great solution, especially if you have the space and are turning a lot of bowls. :thumb:
 
An old refrigerator with a incandescent light bulb is an excellent place to store your welding rods as they out in the open will draw moisture ruining them. The new fangled lights won't work as they don't put out the heat to keep things dry.
 
How much time will this save? I have heard of people putting bowls in the microwave for three minutes to dry them out. I could do that if Marion isn't home.

Ha, maybe not that fast, but sounded like from the video that it would still take a few months, but that's probably a lot faster than waiting a year. The biggest thing was to make things dry consistently, it's the spikes in temp/moisture changes that cause the checking in the blanks.
 
I built one out of 1/2 inch ply that's about the size of a mini refrigerator. I put a couple of holes in the bottom and a couple at the top for air flow. A light for heat, and computer fan in the bottom to circulate air. I also put a gasket around the door. I have it on a timer and run it 4 hours on and 2 off. I use it to dry pot call blanks, pen blanks, 2x2 stuff, really anything small. It does a really good job. I can dry stuff in a couple of weeks. I can tell when things are getting dry, the temp will go from the low 90's into the 100's.
 
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