The wait…

[Brent Pauba]

4 weeks ago I picked up my first load of free green wood. All was well and good. Periodically I have been turning out roughs in between studying for tests and being lazy, but now I have come to the first (and maybe only) blatant downfall to turning green wood, the wait!

I am guessing it really is not that bad, but since I am starting out, I have no previously turned roughs to work on! So I am stuck turning out roughs and then throwing them into the DNA and waiting… L. Ah well, its still fun!

Is the wait just as difficult for you veteran turners?

[Bernie Weishapl]

Welcome to the world of turning. It takes a lot of patience. I felt the same way you did and sometimes when I very first started I would rush the finish. Not anymore. To get a show piece it takes patience as does a utility bowl.

[Brent Pauba]

Welcome to the world of turning. It takes a lot of patience. I felt the same way you did and sometimes when I very first started I would rush the finish. Not anymore. To get a show piece it takes patience as does a utility bowl.

it is interesting you say that because just last night I learned that patience is priceless while finishing! Only time will teach me these important principles!

[Phil St.Germain]

You could always turn a couple bowls start to finish green in one session, let it warp and finish it a few days later. Sometimes you get some nice surprises with warp. I sell alot of oval bowls because people like the organic shape.

Phil

[Brent Pauba]

You could always turn a couple bowls start to finish green in one session, let it warp and finish it a few days later. Sometimes you get some nice surprises with warp. I sell alot of oval bowls because people like the organic shape.

Phil
Does the moisture in green wood affect finishes?

[David Wilhelm]

I'm with Phil, Turn green and let the warp kick in. I do soak the rough blank in my soap mix for a while to two then drip dry and finish turning. This hs pretty much stopped the cracking. Keep you walls and bottoms the same thickness 1/8-3/16 and give it a go. NEs work great as well hides the warp or makes the warp fit in so to speak. You never know though I've treid to get a warp and end up with hardly no warp at all.........

[David Wilhelm]

Brent a fresh cut tree will be 40% or higher moisture. This will start dropping each day as the log ends are cut. I'm sure you'd seen the sap run out of some trees. This drop moisture doesn't stop untill it reaches it's environment level and is increased each time the wood thichness is decreased or additives are used to remove the waters. The checking or cracks you see on the ends of the block are a sign of this moisture dropping too fast through the pourous end grain. This is the reason we use end grain sealers. Roughing to 10% gives us a smaller amount of wood to work with in dealign with removing the moisture plus it gives us enough wood to alow for trueing back to our origanal shape once the blank had been dried. Turning green to finish you would take the wood to the thickness of your finished product and hope for the best. Using the common 1/8-1/4 thickness you have thinned the wood out and the spinning from the lathe also forces moisture out. as does the heat from tooling and sanding. I have set my bowls aside a few days to dry on out and I have rubbed them with oil and buffed them the next day. The wod takes the finish differently but I can't say that it effects the finish. I use differen't typs of finishes on spalted wood bowls than i would a green bowl and honestly I dont turn but a few type of green bowl. Sycamore being one i like the most then white oak crotches or blisters and any burl. I've not tried red oak. Perhaps other will have more input

[Thomas Bennett]

I agree with Phil and David...turn it green. At least some of it. I turned this red oak 18 incher today. Notice the water coming through to the outside on the first photo...and notice the wet area on the inside of photo two. They cut beautifully because they are wet. They seem dry quickly and sand easily. I just sand them all the way to 1500...let 'em sit for a month and maybe hit them by hand before finishing. Celebrate and revere the warps and fill the cracks !

[Ben Gastfriend]

It definitley is painful, but in a month or two, they'll be plopping in, and being unwrapped, and finish turned, and piling up for your next craft show faster than you can say DNA Drying Method!

[Barry Elder]

Patience is a virtue, but not while sitting on your keister. I learned to outwait the "wait" that you speak of by turning enough roughouts that the time came that with scheduled weighings of the roughouts, I could finish a few. After that, I would rough a couple in between various stages of finishing. Even took the time to learn how to sand properly.
If you can squeeze out the money for a digital USPS scale from Ebay or some other site, it makes it a snap to keep a schedule. Plus, with some paper bags, you'll have a place to use all those shavings that seem to mysteriously accumulate around your lathe! It's all part of the fun of being in the vortex.