Cracked Up

[Joe H. Davis]

Well this last Sunday, I saw an ad on Craigslist for free firewood. Well, I thought this might be a good opportunity to pick up a couple of pieces of wood for the lathe. Went and one of the pieces was about 19 inches in diameter and about 10 inches thick followed me home along with some pieces for the firewood pile.

Chucked up the piece and over the next few hours turned the biggest bowl that I have done to day. The wood wasn't to impressive, but it was a nice experience turning it. I even managed to get a rather flat bottom. Well, tonight (Tuesday) I went out to the shop to see if it had warped very much and here is what I found.

[Paul Heely]

It was looking like a nice bowl, sorry it cracked.

In the pictures it looks like the way the bowl was cut that the pith is in the center of the bowl. If it is then that would help explain why it cracked so bad.

--
Paul

[Bernie Weishapl]

Wow Joe that is some crack. Sorry to see that.

[joe greiner]

Part of the problem is the flat bottom. The outer wood shrinks, and pries against the rigid center. A more cone-shaped transition to the bottom will let the wood warp into more of a paraboloid or spherical shape, i.e. with some bending parallel to the lathe axis. Sort of like an umbrella, for want of a better analogy.

Joe

[Steve Schlumpf]

Impressive bowl Joe! Things happen... looking forward to your next big bowl adventure!

[Reed Gray]

Interesting to see how the crack came in and then went off along the growth rings (ring shake). I wonder if the ring shake was already there, and that was what caused the crack?
robo hippy

[Matt Haus]

Looks like your walls are too thin for the first run. Make em 3/4 to an inch for the first run. Let it dry in a pile of shavings in a paper bag for a couple of months or DNA soak the bowl and let it dry for a couple of weeks.

Then,

Final turn the bowl.

[Mike Vickery]

That is a shame. I once had an endgrain platter that when I took it out of the paperbag to check it was basically in three pieces.

[Bill Wyko]

You might try wood glue steam and hoseclamps and maby a little prayer. Once you get the gap closed up a little, use casting resin mixed with inlace turquoise and fill the rest. Then re turn it. I don't know if it's going to work but if you can close up the gap enough it might work. Good luck.

[Joe H. Davis]

I now figure I have a great conversation piece for the back porch, I will just tell everyone that this is the new fad in wood turniing.

I am not sure what kind of wood it was for sure, but it looked a lot like pine. I figured it would move around a bit when I turned it, but this was a lot more than what I had been expecting it to. When I finished there was a natural crack in the midle of the bowl that I uncovered when I was finishing the inside bottom and figured it would crack there. However that crack didn't get any bigger, the big crack was almost 90 degrees to it.

The sides of the bowl were about 1/4 inch thick, maybe a bit more. I wonder if I had taken it down to 1/8 or less if it would of cracked as bad?