Knowing when to cry uncle

[Peter Dougenik]

Greeting All,

Frequent reader and infrequent contributor here at the creek, I always enjoy what you all post so I'm getting started early on my New Year resolution to post more ;)

Nothing informative, just sharing my disappointment that I lost this nice piece of ambrosia maple. I've gotten a few fantastic natural edge bowls from this tree but I've also fought ring shake issues and lost a couple more bowls to that problem. I grabbed a HF blank that I had sitting around and decided to work on it during my Christmas vacation from work. Unfortunately as soon as I started getting the form worked out a fine crack appeared down 3/4 of the piece. I decided to keep working on it, partially because I need practice with the Jamison captured hollowing rig I got for Christmas LAST year and haven't worked with a lot and partially because I thought I could save the piece. Well I got my practice with the jig but the crack expanded and got more severe after I hollowed 1/3 of the way down. No point continuing I guess..I could get creative with treatments for the crack but I'm not a fan of chunks of wood flying around the shop unchecked and this thing is looking to detonate on me.

At least the wood was free :(

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Peter

[Steve Schlumpf]

Peter - I feel your pain about losing good looking wood but can personally boast of having some of the best looking firewood in the upper peninsula! Remember - it is just wood!

I look forward to seeing you posting more of your work! Fastest way to get better is to participate here and ask for opinions! Have fun with it!

[John Keeton]

You made the right call on that one! That ring shake would have only gotten worse as you removed the interior. Pretty wood, though!

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

I've warmed myself by a fire of ring shake wood many times. At first sight it goes right in the firewood pile. It will break your heart every time but that's better than having it break bones in your face. "He who fights and runs away will live to fight another day".

[Olaf Vogel]

No point continuing I guess..I could get creative with treatments for the crack but I'm not a fan of chunks of wood flying around the shop unchecked and this thing is looking to detonate on me.

At least the wood was free :(

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Peter

Personally, I'd keep going. Pretty wood nice shape. And you are using it to learn / practice.
Fill the crack. Wrap piece in saran tape, then duct tape - that will hold it together.

For my work, cracks happen so I've learned to deal with them. Often the finished product with those has more character.

[John K Jordan]

Personally, I'd keep going. Pretty wood nice shape. And you are using it to learn / practice.
Fill the crack. Wrap piece in saran tape, then duct tape - that will hold it together.

A friend of mine wraps with filament-reinforced strapping tape and turns large things with voids that would certainly fly apart otherwise. It would take a force bigger than the lathe could produce to break several layers of strapping tape.

But it is certainly safer to just quit while you are ahead, or still have a head. The outside form looks good from the photo and the figure is beautiful - what about just leaving it as it is and finish the outside? Make a lamp, a pedestal, a thing.

JKJ

[Peter Dougenik]

A friend of mine wraps with filament-reinforced strapping tape and turns large things with voids that would certainly fly apart otherwise. It would take a force bigger than the lathe could produce to break several layers of strapping tape.

But it is certainly safer to just quit while you are ahead, or still have a head. The outside form looks good from the photo and the figure is beautiful - what about just leaving it as it is and finish the outside? Make a lamp, a pedestal, a thing.

JKJ

When the crack was smaller and running through the body of the piece I was thinking I might be able to get it finished and then do something along the lines of a decorative filler or maybe drill holes to either side and lace it up with leather. I didn't have packing tape so I used the painters tape you can see in the second pic to reinforce it a bit. Then the crack really opened up along the top and I decided to call it a day :mad:. Up along the edge of the opening the thin section closest to the hole lifted 1/16" or so and was trying to lift further.

On the plus side the hollowing rig works very well. Took a little figuring to work with a 1" hole but easier on the body than my other hollowing tools!

[Brice Rogers]

Last year I started turning a spalted liquid amber HF. It had pretty grain but the wood was punky and I was experiencing tear out. So I decided to try out some solvent based Minwax wood hardener. Parts of the HF soaked up the wood hardener like pouring water onto gravel. When done I let it sit in a drain pan. Then I started hearing these horrible cracking sounds. I'm not sure of the underlying mechanism, but the top ended up with a couple of 1/4" cracks. I covered it with aluminum foil and just let it sit thinking that I had a piece of firewood. Overnight the cracks narrowed to a little under 1/8". I decided to keep it for practice. I filled the cracks with wood flour and CA glue. When hollowing, I had the outside wrapped with filament tape and stretch wrap. The finished piece actually looks pretty nice.


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[Dane Riley]

One plus in hollowing with a rig is you can stand way out of the line if fire.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Greeting All,

Frequent reader and infrequent contributor here at the creek, I always enjoy what you all post so I'm getting started early on my New Year resolution to post more ;)

Nothing informative, just sharing my disappointment that I lost this nice piece of ambrosia maple. I've gotten a few fantastic natural edge bowls from this tree but I've also fought ring shake issues and lost a couple more bowls to that problem. I grabbed a HF blank that I had sitting around and decided to work on it during my Christmas vacation from work. Unfortunately as soon as I started getting the form worked out a fine crack appeared down 3/4 of the piece. I decided to keep working on it, partially because I need practice with the Jamison captured hollowing rig I got for Christmas LAST year and haven't worked with a lot and partially because I thought I could save the piece. Well I got my practice with the jig but the crack expanded and got more severe after I hollowed 1/3 of the way down. No point continuing I guess..I could get creative with treatments for the crack but I'm not a fan of chunks of wood flying around the shop unchecked and this thing is looking to detonate on me.

At least the wood was free :(

Peter

You made the right call IMO, actually you’d been better off by not starting on this piece wood IF you saw the split/ring-shake, you can spend a lot of time and effort on it if you where able to finish the turning, and then you’d still have a split piece of wood.

I’d show and would remind you every time you looked at it, DAMHIKT :o

[Peter Dougenik]

After sitting in the shop overnight without the protection of a plastic bag...she's really starting to open up!

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I saw a small hairline crack but wanted to see if it would turn out as I took some material off that end....no such luck

[John K Jordan]

Yikes, is this wet wood? You might already do this: I keep a spray bottle of water to keep green wood wet while turning. Some people will even wet it down well after turning the outside and wrap in plastic while turning the inside. But that wood looks like it was itching to crack regardless of what you might do.

Is there enough solid left in the bottom to cut up into short pieces to dry for small spindles? It certainly is nice looking wood.

JKJ

[Peter Dougenik]

yes it's still wet. Normally I'll wrap things up tight in a plastic bag when I'm done and come back and work on it the next day. if it's looking unstable I'll wet it down first for good measure. I might be able to salvage some pen blanks from it if I'm lucky!

[John K Jordan]

...I might be able to salvage some pen blanks from it if I'm lucky!

Have you ever turned little weed pots or finger tops? With the larger scale of that beautiful figure I wonder if much of it would be lost on pen blanks but might show up on something a little bigger (if there is enough wood left).

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JKJ

[Peter Dougenik]

Have you ever turned little weed pots or finger tops? With the larger scale of that beautiful figure I wonder if much of it would be lost on pen blanks but might show up on something a little bigger (if there is enough wood left).

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JKJ

That's a better idea...or maybe wine stoppers. thanks!

[Jay Mullins]

Good for you for not giving up on this piece. It turned out very nice.

Jay