Lord of the Oval

Re: Lord of the Oval

tek-Brunswick, Ohio

>Chris, you aren't doing anything wrong. Bowls will go oval as they dry out. When you turn them green the general rule is to make the wall thickness 10% of the diameter. Example, a 10" bowl would have a 1" wall. That leaves enough sock to make it round after it dries. Even dry wood will move, but not as much as green wood. Some turners when making boxes with dry wood will rough them out and let them sit a day or two before fitting the box and lid. When we turn we take away wood that once supported the wood that is left. Some wood has internal stresses. The wood that is left now can move to where the supporting wood was removed. Have you ever ripped a strait board in two on a table saw and end up with two curved pieces? It is the same principle.

Re: Lord of the Oval

Doug Trembath

>Well, Chris, this isn't the most popular answer to someone in your position, but it usually ends up being conventional wisdom for making turned objects that stay round, or nearly so. Spend your time now practicing your cuts and shapes on rough-outs. Let them dry. By the time the first ones are dry, you will have lots of practice in, and will have developed the technique to finish them much better than you can now. I know I'm making suppositions anbout your proficiency, and I hope you'll forgive me that, but I have helped a number of folks who have had similar experience levels with this same advice.

Let them get dry, and you'll eliminate, as much as possible, the "deaded oval".

Doug Trembath

Studio in the Woods

Re: Lord of the Oval

adrien

>Tincture of time. You apparently are not giving the rough-turned (10% of bowl diameter for wall thickness) stock time to dry. There are a variety of ways to keep the stock from checking as it dries. You know it is ready to turn�round�when it stops losing weight. A kitchen scale is a helpful tool.

It is more fun to turn a green bowl than a dried one, but once dried, you can find that round bowl inside the oval one.

Re: Lord of the Oval

CKap

>Thanks for the good advice. I've been giving bowls about 4-5 months to dry and I've been using a moisture meter to keep track of how dry they are. When they reach 10-12% I finish them off. The problem seems to be when I finish it in the garage and then bring it into the house the nasty little oval transformation begins.

That's why I thought a kiln might be the way to go. If I could throw it in the kiln and get it down to 6% or so before finishing may be it would'nt warp when I brought it in the house.

I tried to include a picture with this post but I don't think I've cracked the code on that one either.

Safe Turnings

Chris

Re: Lord of the Oval

CKap

>Thanks for the good advice. I've been giving bowls about 4-5 months to dry and I've been using a moisture meter to keep track of how dry they are. When they reach 10-12% I finish them off. The problem seems to be when I finish it in the garage and then bring it into the house the nasty little oval transformation begins.

That's why I thought a kiln might be the way to go. If I could throw it in the kiln and get it down to 6% or so before finishing may be it would'nt warp when I brought it in the house.

I tried to include a picture with this post but I don't think I've cracked the code on that one either.

Safe Turnings

Chris