my observations on drying
DWFII
>Steve,
Somehow this thread is splitting nad showing up all over...I must have posted in the wrong spot or something. I apologize to all...
Anyway, I appreciate your observations. This is the kind of thing I am looking for. I am a raw beginner (well, that's not entirely true) and I don't have ready access to wood. I got some "cut-offs" of big leaf from a fellow turner and have been working with what I could salvage using highly unrealistic optimism as my guide. I'm not having much luck with alcohol. this is not a criticsm of the method...I readily admit I don't know what I'm doing. (And I read the instructions).
My first attempt was a piece of black locust that should have been good...no micro-cracks, it had been sealed since it was cut. But despite following the instructions to a tee, it cracked the first night out of the alcohol. I filled the crack with CA and painted the end grain with Anchorseal and no problems since. But that's not the way Dave says to do it.
All my big leaf has cracked alcohol or not. Anchorseal or not. One hollow form cracked when I turned off the lathe and sharpened a gouge.
So I've been looking for a sure, or at least better, way of dealing with roughouts.
[sigh]
DW
In the High Desert of Central Oregon
