Drying Table Idea?

Take a cheap end table with a smooth synthetic top. Stretch a sheet of felt over its top snugly and tack into place on the side or underside. Lay soaked stamps on the felt without overlapping. Take a square piece of melamine-coated particle board cut just larger than the tabletop and place on top of the stamps. Put a cinder block on top of that. Wait a day.

Any reason this wouldn't make for an excellent drying press?

The felt concerns me. Would it prevent the stamps from being pressed totally flat? If so, the result will be those wavy stamps I used to get when I soaked.

$0.02
KirkS

Good idea, mcgeesorg. I have several 12" x 18" thin pieces of marble left over from a kitchen project. I sandwich the stamps between them with obsorbing material. Stamps dry with no curling at all.

By the time you add up the material cost, time and labor involved You could just get a "Drying Book" and be done with it. Plus, it also stores right next to your albums on the shelf.

I should have also included that the books go for $5-$25 depending on size and Manufacturer.

Also most felt is synthetic and contains huge amounts of sulphates also it is usually heavily dyed and bleeding/transfer of color might be an issue. just a thought. yeah a drying book would be much more cost effective or, like I do- just use 2 flat paper towels and a few heavy books. That has been working great for me for decades! Good luck with what ever you decide on.

I have to agree with revstampman that the "drying book" is both a simple and effective option for drying and pressing stamps.

I move the floated stamps to a paper towel to remove the excess moisture, place them in my APAK drying book, lay the book on a flat surface, and then put a few books on top. Six to eight hours is usually all that is needed but I typically leave them in the book a full 24 hours for good measure.

The book I have measures about 9"x12" and has ten drying pages so it will hold quite a few stamps at one time.

Consider that two Desert Magic drying books will set you back $15, more or less, and will provide more square footage of drying space than the table. I bet you'll also be happier setting up one page at a time, rather than trying to get all of the stamps lying flat enough, for long enough, to place the cover on the table. Plus, you can keep adding soaked stamps to the book in fits and starts all afternoon...

My 2d.

Thanks everyone. Yeah, I use a Desert Magic book right now. You're probably right that it's the best call -- I think it was just my DYI inclination getting the best of me.

Question: which side of the stamp do people here put against the blotting paper, and which against the coated, in the Desert Magic books? I believe gum side against coated paper, printed side against blotting paper, makes more sense, but I'm curious.

Gummed side of the stamp to the "slippery" side of the book. They never fail to "pop" right off.

See this topic for other ideas on drying stamps:

https://goscf.com/t/12959

Here's how I go about drying stamps:

Allow stamps to air dry on a towel for about 10 minutes, then transfer to the following setup:

Manila file folder which has plain white paper and wax paper inside.
Open manila file folder.
Place stamps face down on white paper.
Place wax paper on top of stamps. This way any residual gum will stick to the wax paper.
Close manila folder.
Place manila folder under a heavy book. I've found that two volumes of the Scott catalogs are sufficiently heavy.
Repeat.
Manila folders can be stacked on top of one another.
The manila folders absorb a lot of moisture. As long as the white paper is smooth, you won't have any wrinkles. I check the stamps at 24 hours and put in fresh paper if necessary. Then I usually leave them in for another 24 hours.

Another tip for soaking stamps is to sort them by country and era if you can. They will then take about the same time to soak and dry.

I love building stuff and trying things out so I love original ideas people build and try!

however my BEST purchase I ever made in stamp collecting was my Desert Magic drying book.
I can even begin to tell you how it took the pain out of floating and drying.

Edwin

I've seen Desert Magic drying books mentioned a few times now.

Are they really that good?

How many times can they be reused?

What's a good price? One place sells them for US$5.45 another in the UK
for US$23 and one dealer in Australia charges A$55 for two
and claims that's a bargain?

Are they all talking about the same thing ?

I use drying books as well. Works great for me. Don't take up a lot of space either, I just place it in a corner of a table, put some heavy books on top and don't think about it again before I remove the stamps from the drying book.