Roughing green wood - in stages

[Chris Colman]

For those of you who have experience with roughing out green vessels, how do you handle it if you get one partly roughed out, but have to stop in the middle and might not get back to it for a day or so?

Do you put it in a plastic bag to keep it from drying and cracking?

Do you toss it in the DNA bucket? Can you complete the roughout after a DNA soak?

What have you been successful with?

[Jesse Goodwin]

I place them in a plastic bag or in the past I have left them in a tub of water. I like the bags better.

[Roger Chandler]

Plastic bag with the tenon taped up to keep the air out will work just fine.........I have done it several times and have been able to come back with no warping or cracking..........once for nearly 3 days..........I was actually surprised that it held the moisture in as well as it did.

[Joe Landon]

I don't like to start a piece if I can't finish it. I put a brown paper bag over it while it is still on the lathe if I need to take a
20-30 minute break.

[Jim Sebring]

I'm like Joe. I tell my spouse to not interrupt me, since I can't stop.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Chris - I use a plastic grocery bag. Works great as nothing can evaporate. On pieces that have started to dry out while roughing, I spray them with water - then place in the plastic bag.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

I've left partially turned hollow forms in a bucket of water for weeks. A friend passed that trick to me. The water gets funky and requires changing once in a while but the work remains stable and can be turned directly from the water. I do make sure I keep tightening the chuck for the first few minutes of turning.
faust

[Scott Hackler]

I have only had to worry about this a couple times when I had to leave for an unforseen reason. I wrap the whole piece with a Wal-Mart plastic sack and tape it shut. Works just fine.

[Ryan Baker]

Plastic bags and pallett wrap (heavy saran wrap) work well if you want to keep the piece on the lathe. However, unless you have stainless chuck jaws, you will have a bad case of rust on the jaws by the next day (and that is a big pain to clean off). You could also coat the blank with some seal coat like wax, and just turn it off when you return. I try hard to avoid having to split up turning sessions. Rough outs really shouldn't take that long to do anyway (unlike the final turning).

[Bernie Weishapl]

I used do like the rest and wrap with a wally world bag. In the last couple of years I just make sure I don't have to stop during a session.

[Jack Mincey]

My students have to take several days to turn a lot of their bowls since their classes are only 90 minutes long and their skill level isn't up to hogging out a 14 inch bowl in that time frame. We put the partially rougherd out bowls in a plastic garbage bag with the blanks that still are to be turned and they keep just fine. Sometimes it will be a week or more until they get around to finishing the roughe out. Steve, With your new lathe I think that you will need to get some garbage bags, maybe 45 gallon size to hold your larger bowls in the future.:D
Jack

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

I'll often start a vessel & leave it for days, weeks even months sometimes. I put them in a plastic bag & put them in a freezer. I have a chest freezer just for this purpose. I have never had a problem with any of them.

[Nathan Hawkes]

I don't turn many hollow forms, but I do stop and put a piece in a plastic bag from time to time. I will say that the only big problem I've encountered is when I stop mid-turning and place a wet piece of wood in a bag when the weather is warm. Nothing will stop the mildew/mold spots from forming on the surface of the wood. Dark blue/black spots will appear on all sorts of wood if you leave it long inside a plastic bag. Even 8 hours is sometimes enough to necessitate a clean-up cut on the exterior surface.

This being cold weather season in the northern hemisphere, I'm not worried about mildew or mold at the moment. More like keeping my hands warm while I'm turning.