Intentional Warping

[Burt Alcantara]

Usually, warping is an undesirable thing. I've begun to make very thin, at least for me, turnings with the hope that they would warp. Now that I want them to warp, they wont. Comes out almost dead flat symmetrical.

This piece of oak was finished turned and has been left to dry-warp for about 3 days. I haven't put a finish on as I'd like it to warp.

Should I nuke it or is it too late for that?

Thanks,
Burt

[Steve Schlumpf]

Burt - the bowl looks really cool! As far as warping and applying a finish - be patient and give it some time first.

[John Fricke]

Wonder if you were to set it out in the sun if that would help? Always seemed to work for the old LP records when you left them in the car.

[Burt Alcantara]

Not too much sun of late. Rainy here. But how long should I wait? I'm kind of fixated on this particular design and would like to get it thinner. I'm using a flashlight to ballpark the thinness. When I'm cutting, it seems like I've got the thickness of a fly's wing but once off the lathe...not so thin.

In "The Art of Turned Bowls," Richard Raffan talks about nuking bowls. My experience with nuking has not been one of success. But...maybe I'll try it on the next one.

Thanks,
Burt

[John Fricke]

Burt
I've never done intentional warping but I'm wondering if perhaps the blank was already too dry? Maybe if you soaked it in a bucket of water overnight then set it someplace warm? When it gets that thin it's gonna dry fast while turning. On the Video i've seen of the guy building wooden hats he is constantly spraying the blank with water as he turns to keep it from drying to fast.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Burt, could it be that by having the wood as thin as you do - that it has already dried such that the wood dried equally on the inside/outside and as a result you do not get the warping you normally would expect? Maybe, soak the wood in water and then submit it to rapid drying. Course, you then take a chance on it cracking!

Good luck to you! Hope you can get it to do what you envisioned!

[John Fricke]

Burt, could it be that by having the wood as thin as you do - that it has already dried such that the wood dried equally on the inside/outside and as a result you do not get the warping you normally would expect? Maybe, soak the wood in water and then submit it to rapid drying. Course, you then take a chance on it cracking!

Good luck to you! Hope you can get it to do what you envisioned!

Great minds think alike......sorry to lump you in with the likes of me Steve!

[Reed Gray]

You probably alreany know that I love warped bowls. That piece, as thin as it is, probably has done about 95% of the moving it will ever do. A Madrone piece, turned to 1/16 inch will air dry in the shop in about 8 hours on a dry day. Some woods warp and move more than others, and this seems to be related more to water content at harvest time than anything else. More water equals more movement. You could steam/boil it and put rubber bands on it to warp/bend it, but I doubt much else will happen.
robo hippy

[Jeff Nicol]

Burt, By looking at the way the grain is, it looks a lot is quarter sawn. This is very stable wood to start with, also most of the oak I work with tends to warp less than other woods, most times it just cracks. Like Reed and others have said when turning thin it drys fast and may not have any movement left in it. I was also looking at the shape and it may be to solid of a design to let the wood move. With the rim wide and almost flat at the widest point it kind of creates a strong equal pull on all sides down to the base. If you try another one make it more bowl shaped and try to have some figured grain in it, I think then the difference in the drying speeds of the figured wood compared to straight grain would make it dance some more! You could try steaming it and forming it to a shape that you want also.

Good luck but nice the way it is!

Jeff

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Wonder if you were to set it out in the sun if that would help? Always seemed to work for the old LP records when you left them in the car.

LP? You're dating yourself!!!!

That made me ALMOST fall off my chair I laughed so hard. :)

Maybe I should try that trick. Make a bowl and tell it, "I want you to warp" and it wont.

[Tim Cleveland]

Burt, I agree with Jeff that it looks like most of it turned out quarter sawn, which would minimize warpage. Exactly how thick is it? As a general rule, the closer the blank was to the pith, the more it will move.

Tim

[Burt Alcantara]

Not as thin as I thought. The rims are 1/8". Next one will be paper thin and I'll try to use freshly cut wood. I have a few cherry logs I just got. They were cut last week. Haven't been able to break them down because of the rain.

[Tony Kahn]

I have been doing that for sometime, turning to finish thickness and go for the oval, wrk great on hollow forms to. The trick though is it needs to be a little thicker, i have found that if i go thinner than 1/4 inch it will barely move if at all, you essentially end up drying it on the lathe leaving no moisture.

[Allen Neighbors]

One good trick is to keep it wet while turning. I use an old 409 spray bottle, that I keep a 50/50 mixture of Ivory Dish Washing Detergent and water. After turning the outside to the desired shape, I spray it, and keep it wet while turning the inside. With wood like Oak and Ash, anything 3/16" or less should warp like crazy.

[Tim Cleveland]

Forgot to mention that you always want to make sure that the pith is not in the finished piece, since it will almost always split.

Tim

[Ryan Baker]

I have a couple pieces very similar to that on my kitchen table that I turned a couple weeks ago. Mine are maple, and at least one warped a fair amount. They are natural edge, so the more it warps the better. I agree that yours has probably moved about all it is going to.

As for the pith, I wouldn't worry about it. In my experience, I have not had any problem with cracking from the pith if the thickness is 1/8" or less. Especially if the pith is in the center. Now if you put the pith in the side, that may actually help with the warped edge look you are after.

Maybe see if you can find some green apple?

[neil mackay]

Warping, I have had some success with it. Much of it depends how you cut the timber out of the log.
Heres a couple of small bowls... pen holders/knick knack containers or whatever you want to put in them :)
The timber is Chinese Elm roughly 4.5"x 4.5" ovality is round about 1" Finished in wipe on poly. The first one continued to warp until is it was similar to the second.
Turned and finished all in one go, warping occurred over a few weeks after wards. Fortunately the cut was right so the warping came out not too bad.

[Ralph Lindberg]

Odd you should mention this. At the suggestion of Dave Schweitzer (http://www.d-waytools.com/index.html) I tried the following this weekend

I took a piece of Bigleaf Maple I had just cut down (two days), the turned it to a 14 by 8 inch bowl and finished turned it to about 3/16.

Then I did Dave's thing. I put it in the "shop" microwave (yes I have an old, large capacity one in the shop) and got it HOT (took about 90 seconds at full power. I then took it out and put a wood-working band-clamp around it, running across the grain. I then drew the clamp as tight as I dared.

The bowl is now drying, pulled oval.

[alex carey]

If you turned it really thin and sanded a lot then most of the moisture might already be gone and thus no warpage.

Sanding can dry it also.

Alex