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how long inside a hotbox to keep a hickory selfbow snappy????

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shaun748:
I have a hickory selfbow that I want to keep at reasonable MC....

The average humidity here at the ocean has lately been around 70% with temps around 75 degrees and I found this gets wood to about 13% MC once it adjusts itself, which sounds high for hickory..

So I made a little "redneck" hot box from large diameter pipe with a string of christmas lights hung inside.  This set-up will max out at around 108 degrees and it shows about 30% humidity near the middle.. I found this can get wood to about 5% MC, which would be pretty low based on my research here.

I would like to rotate the bow thru the "hotbox" every so often to keep it snappy, but I have no idea how long at a time I should keep it inside without over-drying????

My bow(not made by my clumsy hands) is finished in a nice "spar/poly??" type waterproofing and I understand this slows down the moisture loss/gain compared to unfinished wood, but I'm lost beyond that.

To stay at a reasonable MC how many days a week or how many hours a day does it need to be in the hotbox to hold a reasonable MC level thru the hunting season.

Thanks for any wisdom on this as I have no knowledge of such things..

jamie:
if my  bows feel sluggish i throw em in the box overnight. then shoot em the next day after they have cooled down and they are fine. peace

Ryano:
With the humidity around here you would need to keep a hickory bow in the heat box all the time. :P
The Drier the better! ;)

tom sawyer:
I'd keep it there whenever you aren't using it.  I think hickory performs better at a slightly lower MC than a lot of woods, I've seen where you want it at 6%.  You gotta figure that it won't ever really get to 5% in your setup.

shaun748:
Thanks for the replies...  My main fear is over drying it.. 

Anyone ever tested finished bows to see how long it takes in the heat box before the bow adjusts its MC..

I know bow dimensions vary, but I am curious if it takes hours OR days for a typical finished flatbow to adjust to surrounding humidity??

I do not have a pin meter and do not know enough to test by sound, though I am starting to weight the bow to see if there is any changes.

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