Slowing drying on the lathe

[Jeff Horton]

Roughing out my largest bowl on the J-line last night and tonight. (Wished I had a bandsaw blade because even with 550 Lbs of cast arn' it still wanted to wiggle around and scare me!) I had to quit last night before I got the outside turned.

Came back tonight and found some cracks in it. Nothing serious yet. I should have waxed but didn't think about it. Tonight I quit to fix me something to eat and since I was not sure if I was going back I was thinking about what to do. Since I don't know where my paste wax is I looked around for inspiration and it came to me!

I backed off the center and I wrapped in plastic bag from the grocery store. I expect that should stop if from drying to quickly and cracking anymore. Well, I hope anyway, will see tomorrow. I hope this works because this one is going to take more than a couple hours to rough it out at the speed I am going!

[David Fried]

Sounds like a good idea.
Let us know how it works out.

[Andy Hoyt]

Jeff - My experience is that plastic will work for a short while only. I've had better luck taking the blank (with chuck still attached) and burying it in the pile of shavings that came from it.

But be sure to post how the plastic works.

[Pat Salter]

I usually wrap it in newspaper with some shavings while it's on the lathe. When I come back...rip off the paper and crank er up!

BTW, what is your slowest speed with your new setup?

[David Fried]

OK, how about cleaning up a bit? Put the shavings in a plastic bag then put the bag over the piece. Nice wet shavings to create a steamy micro-climate.