Somewhat new.. I have been laying my hides on cardboard boxes to salt. I work in the basement and all flooring is cement. I just started tubing out my capes and the down side doesent seem to get as dry/hard as the top. any ideas would be great! thanks much
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After double salting and draining...hang the capes or skins from a line to air dry completely and evenly...like when hanging clothes out to dry...so the air will circulate completely...That'll solve your problem.
~ ETCC
....Pete, I would also recomend that you allow the cape to drain by proping it up to make a decline to allow the fluds to drain off the cape. This will avoid any pooling of fluids,which could createe a problem for you.Plywood would be a good choice.
Good luck,
Dave
Pete:
I use the sides from an old baby crib (with a cinder block under one side, angling it for drainage). I like these because when not in use they are easy to store. I know some guys use wood pallete the same way. Hope this helps....
Oh, for tubing after 2nd/24hr salt, hang like ET said. Also use a fan for quicker drying.
You can also use old wood crates ,after you salt for the second time,lay the skins on wood crates and set a fan to 'em ,they will dry on both sides,you can also lay plastic under the wood crates to collect any water drained.
All the above responses are good. Since I work in my basement, I wanted to pass along what I do to prep the cape.
I am concerned about odor, soiling my concrete floor, and the wife yelling at me.
So, I built a drainage frame out of 2 by 2 and covered with scrap fence wire (the small rectangle size--hardware cloth). Since I do not want fluids on my floor, I stole from my kids an old wading (swimming) pool tub. I put the lower end in the tub, elevate the other end so the cape will be on an incline and all the 'fluids' gravity feed into the tub. I do lay poly on the floor first. Since salt is cheap, I throw couple hands full into the tub just for the h### of it to keep odor down. After the cape becomes crusty, I drag outside and knock off the old bloody salt, hose down, resalt and take back to basement. Here is where I use ETCC's suggestion. If your basement is like mine, it is full of overhead rafters and pipes. I take a heavy duty pieces of wire and bend 'S' hooks and use dowel rods and hang the cape from dowel to air dry. This presents a new problem. The cape hangs and dries vertically and this causes the cape to stretch elongated vertically. ie I loose the width. So I have to be careful to make sure I recover the width when pickeling and tanning. There is useful info on this site on how to do this. I suggest as others have above to use fans and dehumidifiers. (unless you live in Az.). this is what I do...... GL
Ron
Get with the program! Buy an auto tanner and your troubles are over. JO