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For those of you who use a drip tube. Do you let the rod dry in the tube or in a separate drying chamber? For how long? (Randy Tuttle) I dry sections separately in a 4" PVC pipe, with the bottom open and raised on a couple of 2 x 4's, and put a coffee filter over the top to filter air. Since the solvents in the varnish are heavier than air, they set up a convection to draw fresh air in the top. I'd recommend no more than two sections per pipe, though, because although they're "small", they're swinging when you put them in, and a new section can bounce off a section already there, leave a dimple in the varnish, and ultimately a mark. (Greg Kuntz) I've been using a drip tube for a couple of years or so. I take my sections out and place them in a drying cabinet after they've been "dripped". My tube is kind of narrow, and I figured it would probably take longer to dry in the tube. The only time I do more than one section at a time is when I'm doing the tips, and I have only one drip tube. I like to do the finish on all the sections in one sitting, so I have to remove the sections from the drip tube to do that. If I have a couple of days in a row to be able to work on the finish, I'll let the sections sit in the drying cabinet for at least 16 hours, then put the next coat on. I should add that I use Minwax Helmsman spar polyurethane, which dries fairly quickly in the drying cabinet, which has an inside temp of about 90 degrees F with the technological wonder called a "light bulb" for raising the heat. I've been considering a new method of regulating the heat. Larry Blan sent me a neat heat strip about 8" wide by 18" or so long, 110 VAC, and coupling that to a PID controller to manage the temperature in the cabinet. Just haven't quite gotten around to getting the PID controller yet. Usually though, I rarely have the opportunity to be able to get out in the shop more than one day in a row, so by the time I get back to doing the finishing, the finish has cured plenty. (Mark Wendt) Like Mark, I dry in a separate cabinet for at least 24 hours for any finish. (Brian Smith)
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