Green wood turning start to finish

[Jerry Rhoads]

Hello everyone, I would like to here your expericenes with turning green to finish

Do you turn off tenon and oil imediatly? How much do they warp if they have been oiled right away?
Do you put them up for sale right away, or do you wait a certain amount of time. Do the bottoms stay flat?
Has a customer ever came back and asked, "why did it warp"? or it "does not set flat".

Curently when I turn green through sanding, I leave the tenon on, let bowl dry and warp, then cut off tenon sand and mark bottom,and put on finish.
If I had turned off tenon when wet, I hold bowl and sand bottom edge on full sized sand papered plywood.

Thank you
Jerry

[Bernie Weishapl]

Jerry about the only thing I turn green to finish is a NE bowl and I turn it to finish including the bottom. I saturate it with oil until it won't take any more and haven't had them move to much. Some woods like fruitwoods tend to move more than others. I generally let them dry for a month or so before I put them up for sale. Any other bowl that I turn I rough turn them and then coat the whole bowl with anchorseal. I started this after watching Mike Mahoney at a couple of his demo's in which he said he uses this method. It has worked well for me anyway. I then let the bowl dry for several months. Once dry I return to the lathe and finish. I know others will turn them green and let them warp. So I am sure they will chime in.

[Reed Gray]

All of my bowls are turned green to final thickness (1/4 to 1/2 inch), allowed to dry, then sanded and finished. I use a recess which does not have to be turned off later. One possible down side to the tenon is it will be thicker than the rest of the bowl, and may be more likely to crack. Make sure to round over the rims. If you are not returning the bowl, then anchor seal is out of the question. I wrap the rim in stretch plastic film (like they use to keep boxes on a pallet) with about 1 inch over the rim, and the rest on the inside, and s t r e t c h it around the rim. You want some compression. I start them drying on the concrete floor for a few days, then up on a wire rack. They are dry in 10 to 14 days.

How much will they warp? Depends on the wood. Some don't move much at all, and some go crazy. I have a Madrone bowl that came off the lathe at 22 inch diameter, and finished moving at 25 by 17 inches. The problem with warped bowls is sanding them. If you want to sand them with the lathe spinning, you need speeds of 15 or so rpm. My Robust will do that thanks to reprogramming the phase converter with the help of Brent English. The old PM lathes used to do the same, but with the B models, they shut off at 50 rpm. They were concerned about the motor over heating, but it actually runs cooler than when I am turning. If you can't slow your lathe down that much, then the spindle lock helps hold it while you sand. You can sand while green, but it takes a lot more time than when the wood is already dry.

robo hippy

[Dennis Ford]

Like Reed, I let them dry before sanding. If you are concerned about them sitting flat, try one of these methods:
* turn the foot tall enough that it can be dressed back to flat after warping.
* carve three feet, all three will touch but bowl/platter may not be level.
* turn a round bottom with no foot at all

[Baxter Smith]

I have done a few once turned apple and cherry burl hf's with a naturaledge that would be amost impossible to sand after drying/warping. For those I try to sand and oil before bagging/drying. They may need a little more later but it makes it a lot easier.

[Kathy Marshall]

I turn just about everything green to finished. Here in the AZ desert it's very dry and for most pieces the surface dries enough during turning to do a complete sanding job. I turn off the tenon, sign and oil the piece, and then most go into a plastic bag for a few weeks. I use a large ziploc bag and start off with it sealed, open it every day or two for a little air exchange, then as the air inside starts feeling dryer I start leaving the bag cracked open a little and increase the opening in increments until it's fully opened. I don't have a set time table, each piece is different and I just go by what feels right. Might not work as well in a more humid environment, but so far it's worked pretty well for me.

[Jamie Donaldson]

Kathy- I recommend the brown paper bag treatment for a more low maintenance kiln than plastic bags, as they don't have to be checked for mushroom farms like plastic has a tendancy to grow!

[Jerry Rhoads]

Thanks Everyone
I was looking for something new. Kathy's is the only thing that I have not tried.
Maybe I will get a chance to try that this winter, and I can put in paper bag here in Illinois
Usually I turn all but about 1/16" of tennon off and leave the cone on for recentering when piece is dry.

Jerry

[Reed Gray]

Jerry,
Where you are, it can be very dry in the winter, maybe with humidity almost as low as where Kathy is. In the summer it is very humid. Different drying methods for summer and winter. Plastic bag might be better in the winter, and paper in the summer, or the plastic wrap as I do.

Drying is just as much of an art as the turning.

robo hippy

[Wally Dickerman]

Seems to me that the turn green to finish folks go to a lot of bother and still end up with a warped piece.

I prefer to rough turn to be finished when dry. I usually add a collar or a lid with finial and I want as little wood movement as possible.

It's a matter of choice. Either way works well. Depends on the turner.

[Reed Gray]

Wally,
With the warped bowls you can call them "organic" for their shape. Took me a while to catch on, but organic sells well here. Besides, they fit my warped personality. No one has ever mentioned that they don't sit flat. I have wondered how much movement there is in twice turned bowls. Do they rock in the humid season and sit flat in the dry season?

robo hippy

[Wally Dickerman]

[QUOTE=Reed Gray;1822840]Wally,
With the warped bowls you can call them "organic" for their shape. Took me a while to catch on, but organic sells well here. Besides, they fit my warped personality. No one has ever mentioned that they don't sit flat. I have wondered how much movement there is in twice turned bowls. Do they rock in the humid season and sit flat in the dry season?

LOL Reed...even here in dry Az. my bowls sit flat.

As you know, the most unstable wood in N. America is Pacific madrone. I once turned a fairly large, wet piece of madrone to a thin walled finish. This after watching and admiring Del Stubbs do one of his thin walled pieces. As my bowl dried it warped badly as I knew it would. It ended up looking like a hospital bed pan. I kept it for a while until a guy made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

[Reed Gray]

That is why Madrone is my favorite wood to turn. Trash wood for the lumber mills, since it competes with the money trees, and it usually goes to the chip/slash burn/fire wood pile. They don't want to give it the TLC it needs to dry for lumber. You never know what it will do, and cored bowls can all move differently.

robo hippy