Red CedarHF

[Bill Bolen]

OK...so another one of those Cedar HF's. I love the colors and smell from Red Cedar but what a pain this stuff is to work with. Starts cracking as soon as you look at it and doesn't stop till the finish is complete. This piece was a real terror to finish. More trouble than I have ever had on any project. Seems I bought a new can of minwax poly that was contaminated. After the first two coats were on the finish looked as if a dirty bomb had gone off in it. Very fine specks of what looked to be dirt or foreign material of some sort. Wet sanded down and could feel the grit in it as I was sanding. Went back to Wally World and got a new can with the same results. Checking the back of the can it had the same batch number as the original. I got another can at HomeDepot and made sure the batch number was different. Problem solved. I was six or 8 coats into the finishing before I got the Homedepot can so a lot of wet sanding had taken place. All in all it took 16 coats sanding between coats to get rid of the contamination. Stands 9X7 with a textured ring at the 7/8" mouth...Bill..

[David Christopher]

Bill, this one is beautiful as allways...

[Steve Schlumpf]

Bill - sure sounds like you had one heck of a time with the finish! Glad you were able to figure it out! The finish on this one is great - as per your usual! Very nice form, detail ring and color! Hope the next one goes a little easier on you!

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

OK...so another one of those Cedar HF's. I love the colors and smell from Red Cedar but what a pain this stuff is to work with. Starts cracking as soon as you look at it and doesn't stop till the finish is complete. This piece was a real terror to finish. More trouble than I have ever had on any project. Seems I bought a new can of minwax poly that was contaminated. After the first two coats were on the finish looked as if a dirty bomb had gone off in it. Very fine specks of what looked to be dirt or foreign material of some sort. Wet sanded down and could feel the grit in it as I was sanding. Went back to Wally World and got a new can with the same results. Checking the back of the can it had the same batch number as the original. I got another can at HomeDepot and made sure the batch number was different. Problem solved. I was six or 8 coats into the finishing before I got the Homedepot can so a lot of wet sanding had taken place. All in all it took 16 coats sanding between coats to get rid of the contamination. Stands 9X7 with a textured ring at the 7/8" mouth...Bill..

William
First great piece.
I recently had a bad can of Mixwax Fast dry Poly I bought from Menards. I called Minwax on it with my problem. They didn't seam to concerned about it. They didn't even ask the batch #. When I told them to check the batch after giving them the batch #, they said the batch was 2 months old & if there was a problem with it they would have heard about it by now. Basicly Minwax just blew me off.

[Bill Bolen]

Thanks Joe, that is why I did not even bother to email min wax. They probably run batches 100 gal at a time and figured it would be a waste of my time. The thing I just know is going to happen is Wal-mart will just put it back on the shelf and the next guy has the same problem. But at $8- to $10 a can I did return both rather than throwing them out. Sorry in advance to the next guy!...Bill...

[Mike Minto]

Bill, excellent piece! I'm prepping some red cedar to make a hollow form or three, can't wait to get into it. Question - with the cracking nature of red cedar, are you filling with crazy glue as you turn, as needed, and at the end, filling cracks with cedar dust of the appropriate color, then final coating? thanks for any info, mike :D

[Eric Magruder]

what a pain this stuff is to work with. Starts cracking as soon as you look at it and doesn't stop till the finish is complete....Bill..

Any suggestion on how to deal with the Cedar cracking? I just did a Red Cedar goblet - the base has two open cracks, and there are closed radial crack lines around the pith in the bottom of the goblet bowl. I tried to turn the pith area thin to relieve some of the stress, but it looks like I failed.

I'm also using Minwax poly. I found that it didn't dry well on the knots, its just sticky. The rest of the surfaces are dry. I turned the wood green so I'm thinking maybe I should let the work set for several days before I attempt to finish it. So far, I've only applied the poly to the outside areas of the work, the inside of the goblet bowl and underside of the base are unfinished. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Bill Bolen]

Mike, save all your sanding dust! That is exactly the way I handle Cedar. Eric, unless good and dry the knots tend to stay tacky a bit longer than the long grain. A few coats and it will solidify for you. When worse comes to worse I set up and old box fan and point it in the general direction of the piece. Just a tad bit of moving air overnight will help it dry without causing more cracks. Now a real load of air movement will start some very large cracks...Bill..

[Chris Rae]

That is very lovely, a wonderful job!

[alex carey]

Great piece, nice finish as usual.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great piece Bill. Glad you got the finish figured out. Most people think it is there fault when it is the fault of the finish. I got a bad can of minwax Turng oil finish. What a mess.

[Allen Neighbors]

Cedar is notorious for heat checking... that's cracking due to excessive heat buildup when turning, sanding, etc...
I always try to either slow my sanding down to really slow rpm and/or wet sand. I don't have too much trouble with it cracking except due to heat buildup. I hate to have to finish cedar, because it will show up scratches that you know weren't there before. It's beautiful, but I hate it.
The form and finish on this HF is awesome!! Really well done!!

[Brian McInturff]

Love it! Great looking form and finish. I'm especially happy you posted this. I have a Cedar hollow form that acted exactly the same way. I finally did get it turned and put a few coats of BLO on it. I really like the look of the high gloss on yours so I may give that a try this weekend on mine. Thanks again Bill. And love the rim treatment you did.