Green wood - ahem...

[Mike Minto]

As so many here do, I turn mostly green wood. I like larger pieces; up to 20" or so, anyway). As they dry and invariably crack on me, I usually just fill the cracks with sawdust and glue, or lately, sparkle/colored dust of some sort from craft/art supply houses, and glue (cheaper than the name brand color fillers, by far). Doesn't really bother me that the finished turnings show where they cracked (although it would be nice to have some crack free hollow forms, like I've seen at 'Instant Galleries', and such. Do you guys all just accept this as part and parcel of turning green wood? Mike

[alex carey]

Most people don't accept this and try to stop it.

There are like 100 different ways to dry green wood.
The most common way is turning it to 10% thickess of the pieces, sealing the end gran and then leaving it in a pile of shavings or a paper bag for a few months. When it stops loosing weight you can return and finish it. If it is fully dry it usually won't warp or crack.

Another common method is turning to 10% then soaking it in DNA overnight. Waiting a month or so and then returning.

There are other ways involving boiling the wood, microwaving the wood and so on. Find what works best for you. If you google "Drying bowl blanks" you find about a million different ways to dry it and stop cracking. Also if you search SMC forums you can find tons of information.

Hope this helpls

Alex

[Mike Minto]

alex, thanks for the info; most of it i have heard before. maybe i'm doing something wrong, because i have tried DNA, paper bags, packing in shavings, and still have cracks. i'm mostly interested in how people who have an experience similar to mine feel about it. mike

[alex carey]

Depends on the wood I think, I have a ton of cedar that cracks and looks like spiders webs. I love it for that wood. For other wood I hate it, my bradford pear cracks in only 1 or 2 spots but they are big cracks. It's lame.

So really it just depends on the wood. By and large though, I don't like it.

The fact that there are so many people who have found so many ways to stop cracks makes me think they don't like them. I have seen a few websites of people who only sell warped and cracked turning saying it is more "Natural".

[Jack Mincey]

Mike,
One of the bggest problems with cracks is starting with wood that already has small checks in it.. As the wood dries they will become cracks. Cut off the end of your log more than you think needed to make sure and get these checks out of the blank completely. I then rough the blank out and rough turn the bowl ASAP. If you rough out a blank with a chainsaw or bandsaw and let it set around without being coated or in a plastic bag, it can start to check in an hour or two. I put my roughed out bowls in a brown bag or cardboard box to dry. If I do natural edge bowls they are turned to finish thickness green say 1/4". I then put them in a bag or box for a few weeks and they ready to sand. One other thing is to avoid the pith or the center of the tree if possible. One will almost allways get at least a check where the pith is present in a turning. Consistant wall thicknes is another key to having less problems. John Jordan's has a video out that explains all this very well. It is call Aesthectics and properties of wood. There is Zero turning in the video, John talks about wood and how to dry it without problems. Maple,birch, and walnut are stable woods to learn on. I have better luck with bowls turned from very large trees to. I don't turn much from smaller trees unless it is a burl.
Good Luck
Jack

[Mike Minto]

thanks, guys. it just occured to me that i turn almost exclusively end grain bowls and hollow forms, or face grain wood with the pith still in it. Mostly cherry from here in Virginia. Maybe that has something to do with it. Mike

[Bernie Weishapl]

Mike if I turn a end grain HF or bowl with the pith in it as soon as I get it roughed I soak the pith inside and out pretty heavy and maybe a inch out from it with thin CA. That will generally take care of the pith cracking.

[Jack Mincey]

If you have a big tree you can quarter up a round and turn end grain with no pith. You can also drill out the pith for drying and then plug the hole with a piece of wood that matches the wood of the bowl.
Jack

[curtis rosche]

if you have tried the dna method and are still geting cracks, i would say your peices are drying to fast. i had a couple of my first dna peices crack because i didnt wait for them to dry long enough. now i know better