So following a recent series of storms, I’ve absconded with two rounds from a fallen park tree that I believe to be Box Elder. Nice medium sized rounds. I’ve got some AnchorSeal that I’m going to seal the ends with. The bark is still on and the rounds are very wet from many days of rain. Anything else I need to do to prep these rounds to eventually be split, and turned? They’ll sit outside until at least the summer and then I intend to turn them while green and try to dry them in bags of shavings.
I’m interested in any input to help make this process work! Whatever you think is important to know. Send it…!
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
You’re doing exactly what I do Ryan. Some people advocate for cutting the pith out immediately. I get good results from leaving it in full rounds though. Just get that Anchorseal on there nice and thick and get it off the ground with some space between pieces to let air circulate on all sides.
Ryan, I’d bet there will be a lot of nice lumber in the raw hanging around before these storms are done. I’m dreaming about some madrone once this ankle heals.
Watch and learn, practice and learn, create and learn
When I cut logs wet I anchor seal both the ends and the flat face I cut. No idea if I need to, but it seems to work well for me.
I leave the bark on mine until I'm ready to turn. Who knows, maybe if it stays on there solidly, you might want to keep it on when you turn and do a live edge :-)
It will depend upon the size and type of wood but when I can, I usually split them into 3 pieces with 2 rip cuts either with a chain saw or my band saw to get the juvenile wood out of the blanks. Juvenile wood is usually the first 5 to 10 growth ring. In general I will basically cut a 1 to 2 " slab that gives a little room on either side of the pith.
This will give you 2 nice turning blanks that will be more stable with less cracking than if you leave the log whole.
Then I cut the slab to remove the juvenile wood from it. This leave 2 very nice quarter sawn boards (the red pieces) that can be dried and then resawn or used for spindle turning handles or whatever. I will sometimes keep the center piece too if the wood is really nice but it may crack pretty badly. The rest of the slab pieces and the 2 bowl blanks will often not crack at all and if they do, not enough to be a problem.
I usually still put Anchorseal on the ends of everything but even when I do not, they will crack much less. BTW, many turning clubs buy Anchorseal by the barrel and sell it to members at cost. Rockler's Green Wood End Sealer is exactly the same thing and is cheaper than the Name brand.
I do not think it really makes much difference whether you remove the bark or not so I just leave it on because it is less work. This also leaves the option for a live edge bowl later.
EDIT to add: I never put Anchor seal on the side grain after splitting it in half. I do not think it is necessary. You mostly just need to slow down the moisture loss on the end grain. Moisture leaves the end grain much more quickly than the side grain, which what causes end cracks, so just sealing the ends allows the entire piece to dry more evenly.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
As an additional question, how long do you season it before you cut it up and turn it? Minimum time? Max?
Unless you want it to be totally dry when your turn it, there is no min or max wait time. Large blanks will take a long time to air dry -- years for large ones. Even if you wait a year or 2 for a large blank before you turn it, it will likely still be too wet to finish turning at that point. What I usually do with green wood, whether I turn it immediately or a year or two later, is rough turn it to a thickness of about 10% the diameter of the rough bowl. It is mostly the rim that needs to be that thickness so you can actually make the rest of the bowl closer to the final thickness but leave a little room for final shaping. I will then scoop up some of the wet shavings and store the rough bowl in the shavings in a paper bag or cardboard box to let it dry more evenly. Fold over the bag or put a lid on the box to seal it. I weigh the rough bowl and write the date, weight and species on the bowl before storing it away. I will take it out periodically and weight it to see how much weight it has lost and write the new date and weight on the bowl. When it stops losing significant weight, it is ready to finish turning. It may take a few weeks up to 6 months before it dry enough. BTW, it is a good idea to sort of fluff up the shavings every week or so until they do not feel wet anymore to prevent mildew. When it is ready to turn, it may be warped so if you used a chuck, the first thing you will need to do is mount it between centers and reshape the tenon or recess so make sure that you leave a little room to make the tenon a little smaller and still fit in the jaws of your chuck. You can just a use brown paper grocery bags but I use large paper yard waste bags and store multiple bowls in the bag.
When I do not want to wait for the rough bowl to dry on its own, I will use a microwave to speed up the drying process. It will vary based upon size, species and how wet it is at the time but I generally start by weighing the bowl and microwave it for 4 or 5 minutes on 50% power. Remove it from the microwave and let it cool. Reweigh and repeat. As it starts getting drier, reduce the power to 30% and shorten the time to avoid charring the wood. When it stops losing weight, it is ready to turn. I can usually dry a rough bowl in 4 to 24 hours depending upon how large and how wet it is and how long I wait between the next cycle in the microwave.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
I get so much from trees on my property I just stack them up and cover them with a plastic tarp for a couple of years then cut the slabs and sort through them
Microwaving works well. The method I have used is to put the rough turned items in a brown paper bag (top open) and then heat them in the MW until they are almost too hot to hold in your hand. Take them out fold the bag closed and let it cool. This acts like a steam kiln keeping some of the escaping moisture in the bag to slow down the drying of the surface wood. Repeat that until the wood is dry and then let it sit for 24 hours to stabilize. If during the process I notice small cracks forming I treat them with medium thick CA glue and that usually stops them from growing worse. The CA will react with the moisture in the wood and possibly give off vapors....don't breath them.
Yeah ducky, you’re not quite aquatinted with laws in the Peoples Republic of California. In some places you aren’t even allowed to collect rain water off your roof legally. Big brother knows best…
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
RyanGi replied about 7 hours ago new Yeah ducky, you’re not quite aquatinted with laws in the Peoples Republic of California. In some places you aren’t even allowed to collect rain water off your roof legally. Big brother knows best…
Downtown Churchill is not immune to polyticks... I had to come back at midnight, dressed like a ninja (ninjatō, shuriken and all), with bald untraceable tyres on the stolen borrowed vehicle.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
Ryan, I do exactly what Lazyman does....except I have bought a lifetime supply of paper bags at Sams, I never thought to put a bunch in one yard refuse bag. I used to throw in wood chips from the DC, but it bothered me having the bags of chips in my attic, so I just use the bag now. I turn mostly in the winter, so I what I rough turn one season I finish turn the next....some guys around here let minor cracks form then fill with colored epoxy for effect, still other just let the wet wood warp uncovered, unbagged, then see if they like the form it takes on its own, straiten the bottom up and call it art......I'm still in the Lazyman camp....
BTW, even if I am not going to turn it for a while I often take the rough bowl out of the chips after a couple of months and just put them back into an empty bag. After the about 2 months, the chips are usually pretty dry and the rough bowls have usually lost almost half of the weight they are going to and the worst of the cracking, if they are going to, is usually done by then.
On the other hand, I am not afraid to turn a badly cracked bowl and embellish it with a little epoxy or turquoise.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
