green wood

Re: green wood

Ron in Drums PA

>Basicly you only rough turn green wood.

Make sure the walls of the bowl are equal thickness.

Then seal the end grain.

Now letthe wood sit for 3-12 months.

When dried, then you finish turning.

That said, cherry has a habit of splitting quickly so extra precautions are needed.

Re: green wood

RevDoug

>Looks like your too late. I'm seeing a split in the knob of the lid as well as one completely down the side. In the future, when turning boxes you need to use dry wood. Even if you are using a wood that does not split as badly as cherry, green wood usually moves and will warp enough that the lid either won't go on any longer or will not come off.

On the other hand, when turning bowls or unlidded pieces, you can use green wood. The only trick is to do either of two processes. 1. Rough turn it to ~ 10% of the final thickness, let it dry 6 - 12 months, ruturn to the lathe for final turning, sanding, and finish. 2. Turn green to finial shape, sand, boil, hand sand, and finish.

With method 2, you can still expect some warpage, but I have never had a crack using this method. Just my experience. Your experience may vary.

Turn 'em round,

RevDoug

Re: green wood

adrien

>You don't say how thick the walls of the bowl are. Anything green turned more than 1/4" thick stands in danger or cracking as it dries.

Sometimes sanding with an oil finish can fill the cracks (sawdust and oil), a little CA on top of that can make for a pretty good repair.

Re: green wood

Roly (So Cal)

>Adrian, I had the same problem with a green bowl that I turned some years ago, but cheer up, all is not lost. I promptly ran it through my table saw, on each side of the crack, glued in a contrasting section of wood and wrapped the whole thing with nylon string, many, many wraps. After salting it away for a few months, I rechucked it, turned and sanded it and now have a one-of-a-kind hunk of wood that I rescued from being thrown into the fireplace.......Roly ~~