Has anyone tried drying green/wet blanks using blue silica gel vs. drying in a small shop built heated kiln? If so, are there is there any downside?

I basically only turn pepper mills. With the common American woods i'll usually get kiln dried so I can turn them right away. Most of the exotics I end up with are usually wax covered and green to some degree and I'll rough turn them to round and put them on a shelf to dry weighing them periodically until the weight stabilizes.

I realize it can be a long process and I'm in the process of building a small shop kiln to help the drying along but I was just wondering if there is a quicker process.

Now that I have retail space in a high end gift shop to sell my mills and cutting boards I was caught with my shorts down, so to speak, and didn't anticipate the sales I would have during the holiday shopping season. I couldn't keep up with the demand. I ended up using all of my dried blanks and still couldn't keep pace and now only have green blanks left. I'll get more KD blanks but still have a ton of wet ones.

I see your point. But as luck would have it I scored a inoperable 20 cu. ft. upright freezer just yesterday and will build a shop kiln. It's bigger than I had been looking for but you can't argue with FREE.

I ordered a wireless temp/humidity gauge and a small dehumidifier and picked up a small fan and some electrical parts to run a bulb. Surprisingly, home depot still carries 75 & 100 watt incandescent bulbs which I'll experiment with.

Based on your post I'll assume a temp around 90 degrees will be good to dry 3x3x12 blanks?