small wood blanks from Woodcraft

[Jack Gaskins]

Does anyone know if those wood blanks that you can get from Woodcraft will crack once you remove the wax? Some of them are quite expensive and I would hate to buy one and then have it split on me.

Also, since I am new to turning and I want to start turning bowls and dont want to wait a long time to let fresh cut wood dry is blanks from Woodcraft the only other alternative to be able to buy and turn or are there other good sources for fairly dry wood to turn?

One more thing. What type wood is good for a beginer to try bowl turning on (besides FREE wood :D)?

[Mark Burge]

Jack, I bought a purpleheart blank from Woodcraft about a year ago. I kept it around for a while then I bandsawed it into a round blank and set it aside again. It has been just setting there with no wax for about eight months and shows no signs of cracking. I still can't quite decide what to do with it. In the meantime, I've been learning on a lot of free wood that I either turn wet or rough turn and soak in DNA and let dry about a week and then finish turn. It is not that long of a turn around time and I find that my limited amount of time in the shop allows for the drying time anyway. Finally, I've been learning on sycamore and oak that I got free. I don't know if they were the best or not, but it seems to be working. I'm having fun anyway.

- Mark

[John Fricke]

Welocme aboard Jack.

You will find that most folks here turn their bowls from green blanks. Green wood turns much easier. There are many many posts here about how to dry after turning. You will find nearly as many opinions on that subject as there are members here...:). One important aspect of handling green wood. If you are not going to turn it immediately, use ANCHORSEAL on the end grain of the blanks to seal them to prevent checking and cracking. Anchorseal is available at WoodCraft for around $21 / gallon. Gallon lasts quite awhile.

[George Guadiane]

Free wood is always good :p
Having said that, a great place to find resources, of all kinds is at a local club.
Woodturners are delighted to help, sometimes with free wood, sometimes at much less expensive prices than Woodcraft.
Cherry, maple, walnut ash, elm (although it smells kind of bad) are all good turning woods. Whatever is local to you is best, your club members will know what that is.

[Joe Pfeifer]

I have bought those 1 1/2" spindle blanks from woodcraft and rockler and the answer is- it depends. I have bought blanks of osage orange and turned them a week later with no problems. I bought a blank of red heart and turned it 3 weeks later and it cracked from one side to the other. Now when I buy them I scrape the wax off the sides and let them sit for at least a couple of months before doing any cutting.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have bought a few blanks from Woodcraft and Rockler. Some wood does and others don't. The worst wood that has cracked for me is Black & White Ebony. As far as a good wood for turning your first bowl is maple, cherry, and walnut. All turns really nice.

[Jack Gaskins]

Free wood is always good :p
Having said that, a great place to find resources, of all kinds is at a local club.
Woodturners are delighted to help, sometimes with free wood, sometimes at much less expensive prices than Woodcraft.
Cherry, maple, walnut ash, elm (although it smells kind of bad) are all good turning woods. Whatever is local to you is best, your club members will know what that is.

I joined our local turning club last month and at my first meeting I did ask a few of the guys where they find their wood and they all said where ever they could. They were not the most informed on getting wood. I suspect most had their favorite places to get it and did not want to let out their secret spot. There is one place in town I havent contacted yet and that is the big tree service company. I have heard they bring back large logs and they will let you go in and cut some chunks off.

[Allen Neighbors]

Jack, any wood will make a bowl; some's just better than others. :)
The majority of wood you can buy from Woodcraft has been fresh-cut and waxed to keep it from splitting, and will remain wet/green for a very long time. Notice I said "majority". You can sometimes find a stock of old wood somewhere toward the back of the store in Fort Worth, so it's possible that other Woodcraft stores will have some old stock somewhere, too. I buy wood every once in a while, and cut it into smaller pieces, and Anchor Seal the ends, and put it in my refer kiln to dry. I've bought Ebony, and Lignum Vitae, and Cocobolo, and all were wet.
If you can locate some tree services in your city, they'll sometimes call you when they get large pieces, but most won't give you much time to get your part. They have schedules to keep, so you have to be prepared to go on a moments notice. I'm lucky, because our city landfill has an area that they put trees, and will let anyone go in and cut wood. And, after you've been turning for a while, word of mouth will take over, and people will be calling you to ask if you want such-and-such a tree.
If you turn wood while it's green, it's fun to turn it thin, and allow the wood to move the way it wants to. (others will tell you to rough-turn it and soak it in DNA) When turning a green bowl, it will help (most of the time) to keep it from cracking, if you make the bottom just a little bit concave, and thinner than the sides.
Just plain native Elm makes beautiful utility bowls.

[Mark P. Brown]

Look for sawmills and hardwood suppliers. most of them have scraps or off cuts. The sawmill I go to often cuts away burls as useless wood and tosses it on the burn pile along with wood that is to spalted for their use. I can get it for 10.00 a truck load. Unfortunatly most of their wood is red oak.
Mark

[John Fricke]

I've had really good luck sourcing wood on Craigs List also. I check out the free section and the materials section. I have also placed ads asking for free gnarly wood with good success.

[Jack Gaskins]

Look for sawmills and hardwood suppliers. most of them have scraps or off cuts. The sawmill I go to often cuts away burls as useless wood and tosses it on the burn pile along with wood that is to spalted for their use. I can get it for 10.00 a truck load. Unfortunatly most of their wood is red oak.
Mark

Yeah I need to look for a saw mill around here. I did happen to drive buy a persons house and saw they had just cut down a large tree. When I stopped to look at the wood it was a large oak tree so I passed on the wood. I thought oak would be terrible to turn? Guess I should have grabed a few small logs anyways.

[Jack Gaskins]

I've had really good luck sourcing wood on Craigs List also. I check out the free section and the materials section. I have also placed ads asking for free gnarly wood with good success.

Yeah, I try to keep an eye on CL but have had no luck thus far. Everything is always free firewood but they have not photos of it and I never call to see just what kind of firewood it is.

[Ryan Baker]

The blanks from Woodcraft are almost guaranteed to split if you scrape off the wax (for most species). Even leaving the wax on the ends will usually allow it to dry too fast and split. If it's more than 2" thick, don't scrape off the wax until you are ready to use it. Purpleheart is one of the few species at Woodcraft that is dry enough (usually) to not cause problems. It usually is only end waxed in the first place.

[Peter Lamb]

Your neighbors and your city are always cutting down trees for one reason or another. Find out where they put it get permission take your chain saw and get free wood as you as you need it. Then
practice, practice,
Good luck,
Peter practice

[John Fricke]

Yeah, I try to keep an eye on CL but have had no luck thus far. Everything is always free firewood but they have not photos of it and I never call to see just what kind of firewood it is.

Most wood that doesn't get turned is firewood. :) I always check on it if it is nearby......often it hasn't been cut into very small pieces yet.

[Reed Gray]

For your first bowl turning attempts, I would stay away from the really hard woods like Locust and Osage, and the softer woods like popolar which tend to be stringy. The fruit woods are nice, not too soft, not too hard. Also, walnut, ash and a few others. If it is free, then anything of course works, and you don't really have to care about the finished product, unless you are cheap like me, and can't bear the thought of turning some thing just to burn it later or even cut it in half to see how consistant your wall thickness is. Some one will see it and ask you 'How much', they you can buy more toys for the shop.
robo hippy