Turning Spalted Maple

[John Miliunas]

Got what looked to be a nice chunk of Spalted Maple on Sunday, which was to yield four medium sized bowls. Well, two up, two down. And I don't mean as in "finished", either! :( The wood is still very green and seems to cut quite nicely, but once into it a bit further, the wood is cracking all over the place. The first one started out quite nicely and I decided to leave it in a "roughed out" state and soak it in LDD overnight (24+ hours, actually). While it was soaking, I decided to try another one to completion, keeping thin walls in mind. No way. Blew up about 3/4ths of the way through. After work today, I pulled the other one out of the LDD. Started ok again, but soon a major crack developed. Not knowing what else to do, I tried CA and accelerator. Seems to work. Ah, but then a different crack appeared. Do the CA again. Once more, yet another crack! And so it continued until I had what appeared to be nothing more than an smallish loose change plate! But then, you guessed it: On MORE crack appeared! I CA'd it, sanded it and pulled it off the lathe, rather dejected. What did I do wrong? Is Spalted Maple something one needs to do after it's dry? Or, is that just the nature of the beast and you keep taking your chances until you hit a good one? Help! :cool:

[Ernie Kuhn]

John,
I have a rather thick piece that is also destined for the lathe. I have tried a smallish piece and turned a pen out of it but had to soak a couple of times with CA as it was "punky". I just got word that Bill Baumbeck of Arizona Sillouttes (sp?) is sending back some of the spalted maple I sent him for "stabilizing". A couple of the pieces were big enough for small jewlery or music box tops. We'll see when it gets back. Maybe you have to have it stabilized before you turn it? I'd be very interested in some knowledgeable responses you get as I am looking for more of this stuff.
Ernie

[Jim Becker]

John, I've turned a bunch of things from spalted maple in the past few years without the problems you are experiencing. Therefore, I think you should consider that it's not a problem with spalted maple, but rather a problem with the particular wood you are working with containing stress cracks or other pre-disposition to breaking apart. They may not be evident while the material is "wet" but as moisture leaves it, the cracks re-form. I have had this occur a number of times in various species. Sometimes the cracks are minor and actually disappear as the whole turning looses enough moisture after completion. Other times...things, well...come apart.

The two problems that do occur with spalted material, in my experience, is punky material that if severe can be frustrating and difficult to stablize even with judicial amounts of CA and density imbalance that can tend to distort a piece as you get it thinner...causing ripples, shape distortion or other anomolies on the surface.

Such is life...spalted material still makes for wonderfully interesting pieces!

[Richard Allen]

HI john

By chance is this reaction wood you are turning? Is the pith in the center or over to one side?

If this is limb wood then you should expect "issues". I would tend to avoid such wood. There is a LOT of wood around and if this wood is predisposed to cracking then perhaps it is a hunk of wood that should be discarded.

Perhaps it isn't maple. Perhaps it's something in the fruitwood class of woods. Fruitwoods a prone to cracking.

Good Luck

[John Miliunas]

Thanks much for the info, gents! I'm not sure of its origins as far as what part of the tree it actually came from. One of the guys I get my rough lumber from, had a squared up chunk of it laying near his sawing operation and let me have it dirt cheap. It's really some of the best Spalted I've seen, but maybe you guys are right that there are just too many internal stresses working on it. (and *against* me!) I may just take the last two pieces I have, Anchorseal them and let them sit on the shelf for a year or two! Back to the Black Locust, I guess. Well, that and finish the blanks and get to cranking out some more Freedom Pens.... Thanks again! :cool:

[Bud Duffy]

Hey John how about some freedom pens out of that stuff or is it to wet yet??????? Bud

[John Miliunas]

Hey John how about some freedom pens out of that stuff or is it to wet yet??????? Bud

Bud, don't think for a minute that I hadn't considered exactly that! BUT, this stuff is *real* wet and, even though it should dry out pretty good once turned that thin for a pen, I'm afraid of it cracking at the most inoportune time. I don't have enough spare tubes to take a chance on that. Once I get all 15 of the blanks made for the kits I have, I may try it, just to see if it works. Sure would be gorgeous stuff to send across the pond! :cool:

[Bud Duffy]

Spare tubes are pretty cheap John i been keeping a set of ten on hand just in case i goof up and have used two or three so far, if i remember right i got them thru Berea for like a dollar or two. Ken probly could tell you for sure. How about trying drying some of that wood in the microwave dont i remember some one saying that they did that for some bowl balnks a while back? Just impaitant to see some of that wood! Bud

[John Miliunas]

Spare tubes are pretty cheap John i been keeping a set of ten on hand just in case i goof up and have used two or three so far, if i remember right i got them thru Berea for like a dollar or two. Ken probly could tell you for sure. How about trying drying some of that wood in the microwave dont i remember some one saying that they did that for some bowl balnks a while back? Just impaitant to see some of that wood! Bud

Yessir, know 'bout the spare tube thing. Like I said, I'm now *down* to just a few extra's! :rolleyes: I did forget about the microwave thing, though. I'm not sure how I should go about that, though. If I should try rough turning, then zap it or do it before I rough turn or if...???? All new territory for me! I've done some green turning before, and have been semi-successful, but that was with Silver Maple, freshly cut. Hmmm...Another flavor of Maple!? Maybe I should stay away from that stuff and find something different!? :rolleyes: I did some relatively green Cherry quite a while ago. Burled Cherry, no less and was that simply awesome! Because of the burls, a bit slow to turn, but the smell was heavenly and the piece turned out beautiful, albeit not very large. Took it down to one of the Artisan galleries near Madison and it sat on the shelf for about a week and was gone! :D :cool: