Newbie Question About the DNA Process

[John Revilla]

Hello everyone,
Can someone give me light regarding the DNA process on greed wood? Can I DNA wood blanks or I need to rough turn them first? I experimented and did rough turned what suppossedly planned to be a flower base. Soaked the piece on DNA for three days, wrapped in brown paper for a week but still the wood cracked. The vase was turned into shape but not hollowed. Sorry, I pick-up the log by the roadside and have no idea what type of wood I got. I also tried to turn a smallish "mushroom" using green pine and applied the DNA process as above but to no avail, cracks eventually appeared. What gives?:confused: Thank you very much. Godspeed.

[mike fuson]

John, the wood does have to be hollowed. I rough mine out to the form I want and then hollow it out leaving it about 3/4 to 7/8 thick. Soak in the alky for 24 hours and then take it out . I just double a couple pieces of new paper and tape it up. Poke a whole in the opening , write the date on it and put it on the rack for no less that 2 weeks. If you leave it to thick it will split most of the time.

[Steve Schlumpf]

John, check out this site for Dave Smith's info on alcohol drying:

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/readarticle.pl?dir=turning&file=articles_473.shtml

Hope this helps you out!

[Bernie Weishapl]

If it is a endgrain piece normally on vases, pencil pots, etc. I just turn them down to the final form. Walls no thicker than 3/8" to 1/4" thick. You will learn there are certain woods that are going to crack no matter what you do. I have never turned box elder that it didn't crack on me. I turned a box elder hollow form Sunday which was endgrain and it was cracking as I turned it. If you do bowls, vases, lidded boxes like Mike said you need to rough turn them and then soak. Bowls I leave the walls 10% of the width across the bowl. If the bowl is 10" across or bigger I leave the walls at least 1" thick and then when dry then turn it to finial size.

Steve gave you a good site that Dave Smith has lots of info on using DNA.

[John Revilla]

Mike, Steve and Bernie, thanks for your valued guidance. Really appreciate the comments. Mike, really like the artistry in your work. Someday, may I e-mail you privately for tips on "segmented turnings"?.

Godspeed.

[mike fuson]

John, e-mail me any time, be glad to help. Maybe by then I'll know what I'm doing.:D