Just to see what would happen.....

[Tony De Masi]

I cut up several cherry blanks a couple of months ago and began running a bit low on anchorseal. So I thought I would try something different to see what would happen. I took four of the so so blanks and just put them in a plastic bag and put the bag on the concrete floor of my shop. I wrapped the blanks the same as you would do if you left a wet piece on the lathe for a time. I checked them at first after two weeks and found no cracks. I checked them again ten days ago and still no cracks. This morning I checked again and still no cracks after nearly nine weeks.

Nothing earth shattering here but thought I would pass it along for those who find themselves in the same situation. We all come home with plastic bags and they certainly are less expensive than anchorseal.

Tony

[Roger Chandler]

I cut up several cherry blanks a couple of months ago and began running a bit low on anchorseal. So I thought I would try something different to see what would happen. I took four of the so so blanks and just put them in a plastic bag and put the bag on the concrete floor of my shop. I wrapped the blanks the same as you would do if you left a wet piece on the lathe for a time. I checked them at first after two weeks and found no cracks. I checked them again ten days ago and still no cracks. This morning I checked again and still no cracks after nearly nine weeks.

Nothing earth shattering here but thought I would pass it along for those who find themselves in the same situation. We all come home with plastic bags and they certainly are less expensive than anchorseal.

Tony

Hey neighbor,

I was wondering if moisture loss slowed by anchorseal, and moisture loss slowed by plastic bag would have any different effect on the turning over the long term? My guess is that it should not be any different.

Once you get one of those blanks turned, let us know if cracking or any unusual warping develop after storage in the bag. You might be onto something that will preserve better than anchorseal :confused:

It would mean processing wood as soon as one gets it, and not leaving in log form, but removing pith and making sure the plastic bags are able to be closed in an airtight manner.

Hey Tony, I wonder if anyone has tried those large storage bags you put a vacuum on to store clothes and reduce the size? I think they call them "space bags" or something like that? Might get a tad expensive, but they should be re-usable.

Edit:Now that I think about it, the point of the anchor seal is not only to keep cracking [checking] under control, but also to allow controlled drying. A vacuum sealed bag would most likely be counter productive, and if it remained airtight over time, one would still just have green [wet] wood.........I guess I should have thought that one through before putting thoughts to keyboard!

[Tim Rinehart]

I would have expected some mold if pretty green. I've usually on used plastic bags if in middle of something that I can't finish and it's still green.

Interestingly, I've just started playing with the DNA treatment (nenatured alcohol for those not familiar with DNA as a non-genetic treatment) and am hoping it works as well as alot of posts suggest. I did a bunch of walnut bowl blanks over weekend, similar sizes, same log ages, and cuts, and am drying some DNA soaked overnight, and then pulled/drained/wrapped with paper to finish...and others I've placed in paper bag with chips. I'll try to resist for a month or so to compare.

One thing I do, and I'm sure others may also, for some of my square stocks of exotics (blackwood, cocobolo, osage orange, etc) is after making a cut...I just put a piece of duct tape over cut end and that has kept any checking from happening and is easier to do than resealing.

Tony...can I assume that plastic bag was pretty wet inside when you opened it? Or was it loose enough to breath a little?

[Robert Arrowood]

Whats up there Tim.

I read somewhere that some folks use a dish detergant.I think it was from Cosco.

[Richard Madison]

Tim,
Others have written here that they leave the work in DNA for up to two days or more. Something about diffusion rate I think. Long time since those classes.

[Bob Bergstrom]

I've done quite a bit of bag my bowl blanks. I take a box of borg contractor bags when go to saw up blanks. I'll cut off everything I can before I put them in the bags. Saves a lot of anchor seal. I do turn them as soon as I can. Word of warning, Maple and many others will begin to mold if left too long. A black stain will form in the end grain and will penetrate quite a ways.:eek:

[Tony De Masi]

Tim, no mold and not much moisture on the inside of the bag. I didn't try to make it very airtight, just close the bag and see what happens.

Roger, good second thought on the vacuum bags.:D

Tony

[Thomas Canfield]

When roughing out multiple bowls, I will usually wrap them using a plastic grocery bag until time to anchorseal all of the roughed out bowls at once at end of day. I am even more lazy and just wrap my can and brush used for anchorseal in a plastic garbage bag if I plan to be using it again in a few days. So far that has worked pretty well. I also wrap my green turnings on the lathe using a dry cleaning bag if it is left for some time like running errands, lunch, etc. Plastic bags work well for short term storage but do promote mold with time. You can see the moisture on the plastic often with some of the really green wood.

[Rich Aldrich]

I have been using the DNA method and found 24 hour soak works well. Wrap them in a brown grocery bag and leave a small opening in the inside portion of the bowl. I also have been turning 7 to 10 days after drying with DNA.

I am new at turning, so I have little experience at any of this stuff, but so far so good. Most of my issues have been destroying blanks because of bad turning, not cracks or anything. Things are getting much better in the past week or so.

[Mark Burge]

Okay, on the advice of Tim earlier in this thread. I have just duct taped a log section I cut earlier today. It's too big for my DNA bucket and I didn't bother wrapping it. We'll see how it turns out.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I cut up several cherry blanks a couple of months ago and began running a bit low on anchorseal. So I thought I would try something different to see what would happen. I took four of the so so blanks and just put them in a plastic bag and put the bag on the concrete floor of my shop. I wrapped the blanks the same as you would do if you left a wet piece on the lathe for a time. I checked them at first after two weeks and found no cracks. I checked them again ten days ago and still no cracks. This morning I checked again and still no cracks after nearly nine weeks.

Nothing earth shattering here but thought I would pass it along for those who find themselves in the same situation. We all come home with plastic bags and they certainly are less expensive than anchorseal.

Tony

Tony, I have said this before that if you didn't have any sealer that you could use a plastic bag to keep the wood from splitting, but only for a few weeks.

I have done this quite a bit especially if I would get a lot of wood, often enough I will just cover only the one end and set the piece on its end, works well for a while, longer than covering the whole piece, besides if the log is 5 or 6 feet long , my bags aren't long enough.

It depends a bit on the kind of wood and on temperature and wetness of the wood, but the wood will get mold and even rot right inside the bag, yes learnt that the hard way :o

The wood will still lose moisture and the bag will keep it all in there, making for some very wet conditions if things are right for that (temp etc)

I pulled out a bag couple of weeks ago with some Beech wood in it, and it had gone very punky, I cut it up to see the inside, and then had to throw it all out, so much for not checking it in time :(

I still think anchor sealing is the better way to do it, but of course you will loose the wood also if waiting too long with that.

I found one picture, I know I do have a couple more but couldn't find them quickly.
it shows the plastic bags behind my bandsaw with large chunks of wood in them.

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