Knowledge You Can Build On — Est. 1998
green or not green
ken chase
>I've been using wood from the desert and although it's probably correct to describe it as green wood I think it's not that exactly. Drilling face plate holes into end grain is difficult. Cutting on the band saw is difficult(I bought special 3tpi 1/2" blade for green wood from Timberwolf) Is there a method to determine when wood should be treated as either green or dried?
Thanks
Re: green or not green
John K Jordan
>You can get a moisture meter and check the moisture level. I bought a pinless that has settings for various woods species (of different densities), but I think a pin version is a lot cheaper. The meter is great - I use it to check both new wood and rough-turned blanks.
Another option is to take a small piece of the wood and weigh it with precision scales, then dry it with heat (oven, microwave oven) and reweigh periodically. When the weight change stabilizes, you can calculate the percentage of moisture. If doing this on a thick blank, I'd try to get a sample that was not too near the outside or the ends exposed to air since those are likely to be drier than the inside.
If I did not know if a wood was dry, I'd treat it like wet wood: rough turn it, paint with anchorseal, let it dry for a year, then finish turn it. That is unless I didn't care if the finished piece warped or cracked.
JKJ in East TN
Re: green or not green
Jim King
>I am a firm beleiver in boiling any wood as a four inch thick blank would need a minimum of one year per inch plus one year to dry. I dont have the patiance.
I rough turn green any and all forms to 3/4 to 1 inch thickness and boil them for 2 to 4 hours or when the fire goes out, all night doesnt hurt them. Then I put them on the cement patio by our garage in the full Amazonian sun flipping them every hour or so when I walk by and they read on the moisture meter under 16% in 3 days. Maybe one in 15 will crack but it was a defective peice that would have cracked anyway after I did all the work. BOIL everything, it is good and you will get a better finish.
Re: green or not green
ken chase
>Not sure I understand the purpose of boiling. Is it to cause the wood to dry in a shorter time? I soak in alcohol for that purpose then weigh the piece every few days and when the weight stays constant it's ready to complete. Please explain the boiling further. I'm fascinated
Thanks
Ken Chase
Re: green or not green *LINK*
John K Jordan
>in Google type BOILING WOODTURNING, you'll find Steven Russel's definitive article (and others):
http://www.woodturningplus.com/New%20Page/e-store%20logo
There is a short description in the WC Articles and Reviews on this web forum as well.
JKJ in East TN
Steven Russell's boiling article
Re: green or not green
Jim King
>Ken: The wood drys extremley fast after being boiled . I have no idea why this works but I cannot see myself going back to any other method of drying. We work with some very delicate tropicals and boiling has made woods usable that before were only nice to look at.
another article *LINK*
John K Jordan
>The article in the link is a followup to Steven Russell's original article on boiling. Steven also posted this in a forum thread somewhere but can't locate it at the moment (or even where the thread was posted). The thread I saved has several interesting replies (including more specific information from Steven) but I don't think would be proper to post them here since I didn't record the source. Perhaps someone will have a link.
JKJ in East TN
Russell boiling, followup
