Knowledge You Can Build On — Est. 1998
Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
Carole in VA
>Does anyone else have a problem with this? Is it, in fact a problem? It doesn't seem to matter if the whole blank is sealed or just the end grain. The mold seems to occur only where the sealant is. The Box Elder has a white mold, the pecan a black mold and some of the maple a green mold! Cherry and cedar don't seem to get mold. They are stored in a garage.
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
Jim King
>We used to have that problem also. Now we put each blank of the susceptable woods in a bath of swimming pool chlorine for 10 minetes. No more mold. Two pounds of chlorine to 15 gallons of water.
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
Bud Gabaree
>Carole,
I had that problem with maple that I sealed. I found that the reason was because I stored the blanks on a solid shelf. When I switched to a wire shelf, with more circulation, the problem went away. I think the key is to keep plenty of space around all sides of the blank. No mold since the switch.
Hope this helps, Bud
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
Carole in VA
>Good grief. Don't know how I am going to keep air circulating on ALL sides! LOL I'm running into a storage problem. Guess I better get my butt out there and do a lot of rough turning and DNA soaking. Not sure I like Jim's method of chlorine soak. Maybe I will experiment with a Clorox/water spray before sealing and see what happens.
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
Mike Schwing from Md.
>Carole, I used to spray with a bleach solution before anchorsealing and didn't find it worthwhile. Instead, I now sticker my anchorsealed blanks just like they were drying lumber. There's no real air "flow" around them in the basement but apparently enough to keep the mold from growing. Some species mold more quickly than others, as you have noticed. Cherry doesn't seem to mold, but instead rots. Maple molds very quickly, but it also spalts well.
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
jeff jilg
>Like Mike Schwing, I sticker all my anchorsealed pieces. With this system there has been very little or no mold/fungus. Wood that has been processed includes oak, pecan, hackberry, cedar elm, chinaberry, american elm, and plum.
Hackberry spalts readily and molds too. But once it gets anchorsealed and stickered it doesn't spalt much more. Note that I live in Austin, TX and these pieces are in the garage. It's around 40-60 in the garage in the winters and 80-105 in there in the summers. There is plenty of airflow, but a fan is run specifically for the stickered pieces...it is run to keep me cool !!
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
Claudia Hayward
>I was using a cheap version endsealer and every blank that I used it on turned mouldy. Then I went back to using the real thing (end sealer from Lee Valley which I believe is Anchorseal) and am no longer having any problems. Sometimes it pays to spend a little more for the good stuff!
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
Dick Hines
>Here is the answer to your question about mold. Get a bigger lathe and turn more and faster.
LOL
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
Jim King
>We also sticker the blanks and have fans running 24 hours a day. Air movement is very important (critical)as well as the stickers have to be dry or they will stain the blanks where they touch. It appears that many of the tropical woods have a very high sugar content and tend to mold faster than others, for this as a precaution we bathe everything in chlorine to be sure. The chlorine tub is in front of the person farthest away, simple but effective.
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
David
>Does the mold really affect anything, or is it just a situation that when you do turn it, you don't want that junk flying around?
By the way, Carol, I have solid shelves too. What I've done is stand the blanks on end, and just put a small wedge underneath one side, so the blank is only in contact with the shelf on one edge rather than a side. It isn't wire, but it does allow air to circulate on all sides of the blank. I did this actually to keep the anchor seal from sticking to the shelf, but I guess I should say I do it for mold prevention.
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
ruth in So. Cal
>I read a post somewhere about storing blankc vertically increases teh speed of drying. I think storing this way would also give more air circulation and may still allow you to use your existing shelves.....
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
Carole in VA
>I use the "genuine stuff"
Re: Mold on AnchorSealed blanks
Mike Schwing from Md.
>It would make sense that if you store it so end grain is on bottom it would dry faster from the top down as the water wicks out due to gravity.
A good example of this can be had by standing a fresh cut log on its end - an awful lot of water will run out in a few hours.
