Have a question/problem!

[Beth Page]

I have these logs an am making them into big discs so I can engrave in them and was wondering how can I prevent them from cracking before I get a chance to actually engrave them, here is a picture so you will know what I am talking about, thank you for your help

.234203

[Bruce Volden]

Beth,

You can't do much to prevent the splitting!! Besides that, end grain is a real pain to work with. Were it mine to experiment
with I think I would cut them at an angle so you would have more of the grain to laser into and no end grain. You would still have the live edge also.

Bruce

[Tom Sieczkarek]

Hi Beth,
I am pretty sure you have to air dry(like a year) the whole log before cutting into discs.Slower drying will help decrease the cracking and checking in the wood discs.

[Martin Boekers]

Yes there definitly is a process on drying these out. I would post this question to the woodworkers part of this forum.


Marty

[John Noell]

This is a common problem. One partial solution is polyethylene glycol (PEG). Here is a LINK (http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/How_to_Limit_Cracking_when_Drying_Wood_Discs.html) on preventing the type of cracking you are seeing. Here is another LINK (http://owic.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/pubs/peg.pdf) on using PEG for woodworkers.

[Steven Cox]

I read somewhere that you can use a Microwave oven to dry out wood, could be worth investigating for your discs. Note I've never tried this myself but I believe some woodturners use this trick a lot.

[George Carlson]

As wood dries, it shrinks across the grain, which would be circumferally on a log. Since the outside of the log has a larger circumference than the inner rings, something has to give, so the log splits to relieve the stress. There is no way around this except replace the water in the cell structure with something like PEG.
Bowl turners turn the wood while green and hope that the material they remove will releive the weaken the wood to where it will deform but not split as it shrinks. After the bowl is dry, they do the final turning. They also use PEG.
PEG is a waxy material, I'm not sure how well it would engrave.

[Beth Page]

OK I am hoping i have found a solution to my problem. I use wood filler to fill in the cracks, sand and then engrave my image and then used polycrylic protective finish, am at 3 coats of that with light sanding in between each coat.

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[brian fithian]

Basswood is about the best wood to use for this... You can buy slabs already cut at Michael's craft store for $ 9.99. Put some poly on it then engrave it.. looks Great

[Craig Matheny]

I have these logs an am making them into big discs so I can engrave in them and was wondering how can I prevent them from cracking before I get a chance to actually engrave them, here is a picture so you will know what I am talking about, thank you for your help

.234203 Beth as stated before wood workers forum s good but go to the turners forum as they dry blcks of wood all the time to turn

[Dan Hintz]

I haven't tried this yet myself, but once you cut them green, wrap the outside with some industrial zip ties and immediately start the microwave drying process. These are thin discs compared to the grain direction, so the process should not take long at all. Continually tighten the zip ties throughout the process.

In a nutshell, the wood either has built up stress in it or not... if it's built up, even cutting it dry may end up cracking thin slabs, so I don't think you have anything to lose by trying it.

[Chuck Stone]

I agree with everyone who said look into the woodworker's forums.. they do this
often, but with varying degrees of success.

HOWEVER.. if you're going to fill the cracks that you DO have, might as well make
that a feature rather than looking like a repair.

Try filling the cracks with polyester or urethane resin and some Pearl-Ex. You can
make a nice looking filler with a pearly sheen to it so that it looks like the cracks
were deliberate and the colors you can make up can add some sparkle to the
look of the wood.

Then, instead of people asking how you got the wood not to crack, people will
be asking you how you made those interesting cracks in the wood.