Time for all alkies to come out of the closet.

Re: Time for all alkies to come out of the closet.

Bob Strand

>Dave,

Haven't started yet, had some medical probs, was happy to find denatured alcohol up here in Ft. Peck is $8.99 a gallon as compared to $10.99 at Home Depot in Billings. The only time that has happened.

I'm anxious to try.

Later,

Bob

Re: Time for all alkies to come out of the closet.

Ken DeMarco

>Hi Dave,

So far for me, I soaked one cherry bowl in alcohol, exactly as you described, 2 hour soak, wraped in paper, three weeks to dry. Bowl was roughed out of green cherry 8" wide 3" tall just under 3/4" thick rough. three weeks later, dry, dry, dry. finished to 3/8" thick one week ago, and has warped less than 1/32" since. Sorry, I did not weigh the bowl at any time.

I am soaking a Malle (sp) burl vase right now, and soaked two more cherry bowls and one box elder today. So far no problems.

Thanks again for your work, and for sharing this with us

Ken DeMarco

(quit drinking 20 years ago, but cant quit playing with alcohol!)

How about naming the process

Wayne Cooper Charlotte NC

>I confess I am a 'newbie' to turning, having just gotten my first lathe. It seems to me that Dave Smith has developed a new process and he should be given credit & recognition for it. I see other turning processes named after the person who developed them. Maybe some of you 'ole timers' could give your opinion. Maybe I am way off base or just do not understand. Thanks for letting me butt in. I appreciate all the advise I have received on this forum.

Wayne Cooper Charlotte NC

Hey Bob.........

W.C. Turner

>Why don't you get HD to match that $8.99 price, plus an extra 10% for you?

Alcohol

Jack Stevenson

>This is a copy of what I sent directly to the man:

Howdy,

I've been doing some drying utilizing your method. Here are some of my observations:

1. When doing coasters I try to include the bark. Due to diferent drying rates/movement some of the bark delaminates around .040. Not a problem. Some dust and CA solves all.

2. Radial cracking is nil to none. I store in alcohol for 24 or so hours. Then into a paper bag. That's it.

3. I soak both blanks and rough turnings. No sweat.

4. I'm now doing a couple of small bowl blanks. About 4"x8"x5". I'll know in a couple of days.

5. I work with madrone, fir, and oak. All wild drying woods. Now they are real tame in the alky bath!

6. My next move is to combine with the wood in the plastic bag microwave scheme.

7. I wear nitrile gloves any time I'm around alky. I read a while back regarding rubbing alcohol. It was somewhat of a dichotomy utilizing a poison to kill bad bugs and then have it absorbed and then stress the liver. I now use drinking stuff for rubbing. Best way.

8. I don't look on this as rocket science except for the research you did. Rather than trying to disprove the procedure my interest was confirming. I think that I can say with a fair sense of confidence that it works. Anything beyond that is a waste of time.

9. Thank you for your good works.

BTW, I'm just down the I-5 in Grants Pass, OR. If you are allowed out of your cave and coming down this way let me know and maybe we could meet.

Again, thank you for your good works.

Jack

PS: I'm sending a copy of this on to the Turning place on WC.

My name is Kurt..and I'm an alkie..

KurtK in Indy

>

Re: Time for all alkies to come out of the closet.

Ron in Drums PA

>Here is a quick run down

10 spindles of cherry and maple that will be used for small bud vases. All measured about 2" round and 8" tall. Bone dry after 10 days.

2 cherry spindle boxes with lid. One finished so far. Very little if any movement, Rough to about 3/8". Finished to about 3/16". After two weeks of sitting in our home the lid still has a good fit.

1 hollow form (bowl) and one box (spindle) from the same cherry log that has heavy sap lines. The lid on the box split along a sap line while in the alcohol. Still haven't finish turing these but bone dry after 10 days.

4 small maple hollow forms. Bone dry after 7 days, very little if any warping. Rough to 3/8"

1 curly maple bowl roughed to about 11", bone dry after 10 days.

1 Cherry burl bowl about 10". Rough turned to 1", Bone dry after 14 days. Very little warping before finishing. Finish turned to about 7/16". All I have left is to turn off the bottom tenon and buff. I had a problem with waterlox drying, still tacky after 2 days, so I placed this bowl on the oil burner in hope the the heat will help dry the finish. Well it did dry the finish but the bowl warped a little.

1 Cherry bowl about 10" bone dry after 12 days. rough to 3/4" finished to 3/8". Bone dry after 10 days, little warping after roughing out. None since finishing about a week ago.

All of these I wrapped in a few layers of newspaper held on with rubber bands. The bottom and inside still exposed to the air. After a few days I removed the paper and just let sit on a shelf.

You miss spelled aleck, and a smart one at that.

Dave Smith, Longview, WA

>

Pffffffttttt...

BubbaBob

>

I just want to admit....

KurtK in Indy

>I'm not a drinking alkie...but...I have done the alkie treatment on a piece of the big leaf maple Dave gave me and it really worked nicely. I am going to give it a try on some of the myrtle I have and will report as soon as I have some results!!

Kurt

Some of the people might think I was pithed

Dave Smith, Longview, WA

>Hi Kurt,

I was just checking to see if anyone paid attention during biology class with my tag line. Some people may have thought I was offended by your post and my response was negative. If I didn't know you Kurt I never would have make that comment. Since I know you I can add big to the adjective list. BWG

All seriousness aside. Were you able to turn a platter out of the big leaf maple? Riding in the back of my truck seemed to hasten drying and subsequent cracking of the wood. I would offer a refund but there was some shrinkage of the burl pile from the time we made the deal and when I went to get it. I haven't had a chance to do any thing with the burl you traded with me. I have a plan for some of it but will not have a chance to do it until February.

It was good to see you at Jennifer's as always.

Dave Smith

Thanks to woodworking forums I have lot of friends in Longview, WA.

But they'd be barking up the wrong tree? ;^)

Jay Kilpatrick in TX

>

Re: Time for all alkies to come out of the closet.

Greg in Oshkosh

>I have read about your work on the alcohol soaking with interest but I seem to remember hearing about alcohol soaking some time ago. I checked with a fellow club member and he indicated that we hear about it 3 years ago and the process was attributed to Dale Nish. I know that there is never anything really new in this game but I still really appreciate your work here. You have defined a process with soaking times and wrapping of the items after soaking that goes beyond what has been previously reported. Thanks for turning this into more of a science than a black art.

That is news to me.(kinda long)

Dave Smith, Longview, WA

>Hi Greg,

I was unable to find any published information on using alcohol for drying bowls. My procedure was inadvertently published in a turning club newsletter a little over a year ago but apparently no body pick up on the procedure as far as I know. I would not be surprised if some one had tried alcohol before but they either kept it to themselves or used a different method than I did and it didn't work well enough to pursue. It was not a straight line from conception to the refined process I published.

One thing that always lingered in the back of my mind was why someone else hadn't devised a process like this before? I have worked on the process for nearly 4 years. Once I got consistent results about 2 years ago I sat on it because I figured it had to be wrong because it was too simple and I came up with it. I would be interested to know if anyone had tried anything similar and why they didn't pursue it.

I do acknowledge that the person who started using LDD for conditioning bowl blanks started me on the road to the alcohol drying protocol. I don't know that alcohol soaking is the answer to everything associated with conditioning wood for final turning. However in the last month I have had reports from many people that they had 100% success. Some people have had mixed results and a couple have lost roughed out bowls due to distortion. I didn't count but I am sure the reports represent more than 100 pieces.

Dave Smith

Trying to carve some details on chess pieces in Longview, WA.

Re: Time for all alkies to come out of the closet.

Hovey Moore

>Dave, I remember when I first started turning you showed me how you were working on the alcohol concept. Not knowing any better and not liking my bowls smelling of soap I tried it. Didn't even think that what I was doing was revolutionary or even really understood what I was doing. But not owning a large pot/burner to boil them I just droped them in a 5 gallon bucket filled with the magic juice. The juice has been replaced many times but I love how simple it is. When I'm rough turning I just drop a turned blank into the bucket and next time I remember about it (often has been weeks to months) I remove the bowl. At first I just placed the bowls in a paper bag, but now I wrap just the outside of the bowl with paper as that does seem to reduce the amount of warpage. Both methods allowed me to turn end grain bowls and cups with so much succes that it wasn't until someone told me that I was not suppossed to turn stuff that way before I new I was doing anything wrong or different.

It is so simple that it boggles the mind, but it works! If you haven't tried it before do yourself a favor and try this method.

Hovey

P.S. Dave you need to post a pic of that holly (or was it vine maple?) vase you turned. I know its not finished but the outside looks great!

Re: That is news to me.(kinda long)

Greg in Oshkosh

>The alcohol makes perfect sense to me (we use it at work to wet wood fibers in a paper process) The big difference I believe that your current system brings is a systematic and well defined approch to the process. Plus asking for independent evaluations to add to your data.

I can also speculate that the sharing part of your work is much easier due to the explosion of woodturning publications, electronic communications and many more interested woodturners than it may have been for others in the past. Thanks again for sharing all your work