Need help to recycle this wood

[Gary Simmons]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=221345&d=1327581186&thumb=1 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=221345&d=1327581186)http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=221346&d=1327581192&thumb=1 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=221346&d=1327581192) Here are the photos of the bannister rail I cant turn. Ive tried cutting blanks both horizontal and vertical. You can see the glue line in the middle. Ive tried cutting the bottom off and just using the top. Again no luck. Either way I get chip out or it breaks up. Any thoughts? it does look like oak, very hard.

[Anthony Cayll]

Maybe try to put a bead or some color on the glue line to hide it. I like to see other people that hate to waste wood. The reason for the tear out is grain orientation. Sharp tool with lite cuts. Good luck.

[James Combs]

Have you tried stabilizing your blanks before turning them? If you soaked it overnight in a 50/50 mixture of lacquer and lac'-thinner and let it dry for a few days it might help. The best scenario would be to stabilize it using a poly resin such as Cactus Juice(tm) and a vacuum chamber.

[Gary Simmons]

thanks for the comments. Do you feel its the directions of the grain that would be causing this. And if so, stabilizing the blanks as you suggest should help?

[James Combs]

Stabilizing, especially with a poly resin pretty much turns the blank into plasticized wood, it will even turn and polish like plastic but it retains the look and grain of the wood so yes I think it would definitely help. If you would like to try poly stabilization I would be more then glad to do a couple for you so you can see if it works. Just take care of shipping and otherwise it won't cost you anything to try. I will even turn one for you and let you know if it turns differently then other thinks I have stabilized and turned. I have a vacuum chamber and I stabilize a lot of punky wood, the kind that turns like a sponge cake so I know it will only help something that is already at least hard. lol Let me know.

[Gary Simmons]

Jim
thanks for the offer. I know there is a time frame for them getting this done, so they gave me some other stuff to use. In the meantime I will check with them and perhaps take you up on your offer.... Much appreciated. Gary