wet wood question

[Rex Guinn]

I just rough turned a Cherry bowl about 10" dia. It was very wet wood and I don't have any sealer, left it at the farm where I cut the cherry tree in MO. So I painted it with sanding sealer wrapped it in paper, and put it in a plastic bag.

My question is will this work or ??? what should I use.
Thanks

[Allen Schmid]

Hi Rex, I'm a newbie here but thought I would add a comment. With sanding sealer I would wonder if it would seal up the wood too much and not allow the wood to dry at all or as readily as a true green wood sealer. You might find out sooner than expected with a positive (or negative) results. Keep us informed.
Allen

[Bernie Weishapl]

Rex I soak my roughed out bowls in Denatured Alcohol for up to 48 hrs and in fact have left them 72 hrs with no problems. I then take them out and let the alcohol flash of for about 20 minutes. Then I wrapped with either 2 layers of newspaper or one layer of brown grocery sack. Once wrapped and taped I cut a small opening in the bowl side for moisture to escape. I don't quite cut the paper to the edge of the inside of the bowl. In about 3 weeks or so I can finish turning whereas if you don't it may be 6 months or longer to dry. If you do them that way I would use Anchorseal or Green Wood seal.

[Dario Octaviano]

The thicker the rough turned wood, the greater the chance it will crack/check/twist. that said, there will be more meat on it for re-turning if it just twist.

You definitely have to remove it from the plastic bag, else it will take forever to dry amd worse it might rot (spalt is okay but not rot)

I've tried paper wrapping only and it worked. Success varies on wood type, time harvested, thickness, location stored, etc. I mostly use anchorseal now though.

[Mike Vickery]

if it is the thin grocery store plastic bags I would say it will probably work they seem to let out enough moisture, garbage bags seem to hold the moisture in more and I would not recomend. I think you would be better off putting it in a paper bag though.

[John Hart]

Rex...I have a question....How thick are your roughed out walls and bottom on this 10" bowl?

[Bernie Weishapl]

if it is the thin grocery store plastic bags I would say it will probably work they seem to let out enough moisture, garbage bags seem to hold the moisture in more and I would not recomend. I think you would be better off putting it in a paper bag though.

Mike the wood might dry down in Arizona but if you leave it in a plastic bag up here including a cheap Wal-Mart bag in 6 months it will be sour. Did it and forgot it for 4 1/2 months and I could not stand the smell. :eek: :eek:

[Mike Vickery]

Good point Bernie I forget not everyone lives in the desert. I cant wait until it gets to be summer and I really need to start slowing down the drying.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Hey Mike it is a whole 3 degrees here in Kansas and was -11 last night. That will slow down the drying.:mad: :eek: :p

[Rex Guinn]

The thickness is about 1", I think I heard it should be about 10% of the dia.

[Rex Guinn]

Thanks guys for the input, I will take it out of the plastic bag and put it in a paper bag. This is my 4th bowl on my Palmgren lathe the others were small maple that was dry. Except one walnut bowl that I thought was dry, and did not put it in a bag, it cracked real bad, not fixable. I'm learning by my mistakes.

[George Tokarev]

Get some knowledge to go with the advice. Probably the best place to start is http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.htm , where the wood handbook is available free. If you're a dialup, get chapter 3 for sure. There you'll find out why wood moves when drying, which direction you may expect it to move, and how to control the rate of drying by controlling the Relative Humidity.

After looking at the tables on average shrinkage, you can game the drying game a bit by cutting thinner than 10%, and if you get yourself a humidity gage, you can find the places in your home which will allow you close enough control to give good rate without much risk of loss.

For now, even a bag may not be enough in a heated dwelling. Look to the relative humidity and decide if you want to escalate to better confinement. Your unheated garage might be the best place for the blank to spend its first month if you're in no great hurry. Then into the shop for the final tempering.

It's the shape of the turning and the orientation/interval of the annual rings that determine the extent and direction of movement, thus the risks. If you've got a bowl shape rather than straight up and down walls, your chances of survival are excellent at 1" , though your dry time is going to be six weeks or so, with the first couple above 65%, second dryer, third fortnight at use humidity. Weigh after the first six, then after the seventh to see if you're still losing water to decide if you're ready to turn for final dimension.

[Dario Octaviano]

I forgot to mention my usual method...microwave drying :D ;)

You can dry that and final turn the same day if you want. Just throwing you another option.

[Rex Guinn]

Get some knowledge to go with the advice. Probably the best place to start is

George;
Thanks for the tip, I did download the book. Now I just need to learn whats there.

[Larry McCumber]

Go ahead and turn it to final dimensions (thin), let it warp, call it art. :D

Seriously - lots of folk like it that way. Display it so that the warp effect is less noticeable.

Larry

[George Tokarev]

Pretty easy, really. Fig 3-3 will show you the direction things will warp, depending on annual ring orientation, and table 3-5 will give you the average change of dimension. Use with table 3-4 to game the business of "how thick" to turn and "how long" to dry. Two most common questions. Third factor is the shape of the object itself. Broader expanses of contiguous wood give greater risk of drying degrade, so contour accordingly.

Get a hygrometer. You can get a digital readout type for ten bucks or so that's pretty accurate.

[Christopher Zona]

If you're working on a slower scale, I have had much success with storing the green roughing into a cardboard box with it's own shavings. I use any kind of cardboard box. I like to close the lid too, but not seal it shut.

Leave some extra shavings in a pile somewhere so that they dry out. Every week or two, open the box, remove the bowl and mix up all of the shavings from the box with the shaving. Return the bowl to the box filled with the mixed up shavings.

Drying with this method is a bit slow, but so far I have had good luck without any cracked bowls. It doesn't prevent wood movement though, but that's to be expected.

[John Hart]

I second Chris's motion.;) Everytime I use the shavings in a cardboard box configuration, I have great success....even with the more crack and warp proned pieces. I'm sure that has to do with a pretty stable humidity controlled environment and a slowing down of the whole process.

Where I have my problem...it's with the intial decision to dry slow...or dry fast. I've found that when I'm turning...I'm anxious to see the end product so I get impatient. Once I commit to a slow drying process, my impatience subsides and I can easily forget the piece off in the corner for months.:)

[George Tokarev]

Watch the mildew in close confinement. Box probably breathes out rapidly enough inside in winter to get the moisture down to 15 or less before the black stuff sets in, but with higher RH outside the box it can get pretty nasty. When I used to do boxing and bagging I tried using dry shavings with a change after a few days. They seemed to dry things faster, and keep the black spots at bay.

Humidity is 28% downstairs now, so if I were roughing, I'd use a box to store down there. Come summer with 75%, a box would give me stinking mush. Winter roughs go out to the garage