Cracks

[Jason Christenson]

I have spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks rough turning bowls and soaking them in DNA. Everything seems to be going well but when I look at a few of the bowls that are drying, I see a few very small cracks. I assume that for the most part they will be turned away in a few weeks when I finish these. What I am wondering is what procedure different turners use to deal with cracks that need to be filled or repaired. I assume that CA is probably the way to go but I am a little concerned about staining.

Jason

[Jude Kingery]

Jason, hopefully you'll have lots of input with good ideas; generally what I do is let any wet piece of wood dry a year or so, halved with end grain covered in wax. Then I turn to finish. If I notice a rough turned piece is developing tiny cracks, I re-wax and shelve to dry more slowly, come back later and finish turn. A lot of people like CA, and I don't for the reason you mentioned, stain and won't accept a finish like the rest of the piece as well as it bothers me (eyes/nose - even with a respirator on). So if I have something that has to be filled, I either use Inlace or Wood-Tite with saw dust and pack it. Just some ideas to consider! One piece I just left the cracks open - the rim, oddly enough was uniform and intact, but some cracks developed in the bottom - I called it "distressed Albutus." Sold the very next day - amazing - and I was going to toss it! Good luck! Jude

[Jason Christenson]

So if I have something that has to be filled, I either use Inlace or Wood-Tite with saw dust and pack it.

What is Wood-Tite? And did you go to college or high school in York?

Jason

[Mike Vickery]

For rough outs I have never had a problem with CA staining it deep enought that it showed after finish turning.

For hairline cracks while drying I just put a little thin CA on them. If I am getting a lot of them I might wax over it again or reaccess my drying process on that piece.

If the cracks are bigger I add thin ca, then put medium ca over it to fill the gap. If really big I might fill it with thinned epoxy (usually colored black) after the thin ca.

[Paul Engle]

Or, you could use epoxy mixed with a medium same color as the wood or there abouts, lot of people use fine ground coffee mix , does not take much to color it. I have used plaster of paris or old dry wall ground fine for fillets on radio controlled model aircraft and it works well, or micro ballons work well, they are brown colored sand good and take finish. even use fine sanding dust, most organic material will work and will not rot as is suspended in the sealer void of moisture and oxygen.

[Jude Kingery]

Jason, sorry, should've said Tite-Bond. Wood tight was a yellow glue we had when I was a kid doing turning, ha! Yeah, just Tite-Bond II (and saw dust of what I'm sanding) is what I use, wood glue. Oh and highschool in Denver, college in York, great time, fun place, too! PS, picked you out a log (biggest one we have that's not cracked badly) this afternoon, will chain saw it and put some wax on, think this one's sound. Have a good one! Jude

[Don Robert]

I have begun to use Dave Smith's technique (http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/readarticle.pl?dir=turning&file=articles_473.shtml) for DNA. I have done about 5 bowls and none have cracked during the drying process. I have turned three of these after they dried about two to three weeks and they seem to be fine. These were all Pecan. I have a messquite that is about half way through the drying process and there are no visible cracks.

I left a wall thickness of about 1/4" to 3/8" for the rough bowls I have turned so far. I've found 1/4" is the minimum wall you want to turn to since the bowls do shrink more across the grain and along the grain. This allows enough material to get them back to round again after they have dried.
Also, think ahead about how you will remount the warped bowls when you go to finish turning them; dovetail recesses, tenons and bowl edges will not be round when you go to remount them for final turning.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Jason again I use epoxy mixed with sanding dust to fill cracks. A lot of times you can't even see them.

[Jason Christenson]

Jason again I use epoxy mixed with sanding dust to fill cracks. A lot of times you can't even see them.

Do you use the epoxy straight or do you thin it? What finish do you use over it?

Jason