Stabilizing green wood?

[John Miliunas]

A buddy of mine gave me quite a few pieces of Silver Maple last Summer. I coated the ends on most of them, but took a few hunks and cut "square" blanks for turning and put them in plastic bags. Out of about 1/2dozen attempts, I got one bowl out of them. The others just blew up about 90% of the way to completion. So, I let the rest sit in their plastic bags. Tonight, I decided to pull one out to try on the "new" Vega. Lo and behold, there was a fair amount of spalting going on! :D

As I started the rough outside shape, I noticed that part of it is quite smooth, while the other half is very "thready". I know that's probably the end grain, but the roughness goes below the surface. Is there anyway a guy can "stabilize" the blank to keep this from happening? If nothing else, I might just try throwing it in the LDD for a night or two and trying again. For now, I just left it on the lathe with the plastic bag around it again. Any ideas? :cool:

[Steven Wilson]

I like to coat my blanks and then let them sit in the air. If I rough turn a bowl green then I seal it and set it in shavings in a paper bag. Anyhow, if it's not cutting cleanly you could try to spray the working surface with CA glue - it stiffens up the fibers nicely so you can finish.

[Jim Becker]

John, while it's common customer to wrap a plastic bag around a turning when you need to walk away for awhile, actually storing blanks in plastic bags will invite spalting at the very least (if the necessary spoors are available already) and complete rot at the worst. Obviously, adding some spalted shavings to a blank in a plastic bag is one way to try and make additional spalted material, but it's something that should be monitored to avoid having the wood deteriorate beyond usability.

Sealing the ends is all that is required before you set them on a shelf with a couple thin strips to allow air under them. The idea of the end-sealer, such as Anchorseal, is to retard the loss of moisture through the end grain which allows the blank to loose moisture in a more even manner.

If you rough turn bowls to about 10% of the diameter, you can slather a little Anchorseal on any end-grain and dry them on a shelf for final finishing. Some folks "speed up" this process through other techniques, such as liquid dish detergent solutions, microwaving, etc, but most of the "pro" turners I know just put them on the shelf.

Personally, I just seal the end-grain of my blanks and turn them to finish when I decide to do so.

[Bob Hayles]

First, I gotta say that despite me making my living at the lathe, I,m no expert.

I rough turn 90% of my work to 110% of finish size, coat the whole rough turning with anchorseal, don' even look at it for 4 mos, then start checking for weight loss every week. When it quits losing weight (losing water), I turn it to finish.

BubbaBob

[Chris Padilla]

...spray the working surface with CA glue - it stiffens up the fibers nicely so you can finish.

Steven,

I am unfamiliar with a spray CA glue...only with the little bottles. Could you elaborate...website? brand?

I've got some darn near unusable spalted (rotten??) maple boards that I'd still like to try and salvage. It was suggested to me to try some CA glue but dribbling little dots of it all over this rather punky maple didn't sound like fun. A spray, however, sounds like it might be worth a try. Epoxy might work, too.

Thanks!

[Thomas Glenn]

Steven,

I am unfamiliar with a spray CA glue...only with the little bottles. Could you elaborate...website? brand?

I've got some darn near unusable spalted (rotten??) maple boards that I'd still like to try and salvage. It was suggested to me to try some CA glue but dribbling little dots of it all over this rather punky maple didn't sound like fun. A spray, however, sounds like it might be worth a try. Epoxy might work, too.

Thanks!

Cris
Your local paint dept. will have a product called wood hardner there are several brands . I get it here at lows . I use it when turning Spaletd meterial and it works wery well and is much cheaper than CA
Tom

[John Miliunas]

Cris
Your local paint dept. will have a product called wood hardner there are several brands . I get it here at lows . I use it when turning Spaletd meterial and it works wery well and is much cheaper than CA
Tom

Tom, thanks for the tip. Never seen/heard of such an animal. :D

As for the rest of the suggestions, thank you, as well. I hope to, at some point in time, start to build such "stock", so that I may rotate in/out. But, at present, I just want to learn to turn! It's not just the immediate gratification of a good piece, but the learning experience from having one "blow up". (OK, in my case, MANY blow up!) I primarily learn from repetition. Once I get some more skills down, then I will start to stock some roughed pieces. In the meantime, I hope to learn the other end of doing pieces from start to finish within a few days' time. I'm going into it knowing that there will be dissapointments, but the good ones will almost be a "bonus". :cool:

[Steve Inniss]

John,
In the absence of cracks etc., I can't imagine it blowing apart unless it has begun to go punky - which soft maple can do very quickly, and without spalting if the tree stays upright for a while after death. Is the wood comparatively light?

I usually find the end-grain goes hairy like that and actually gets caught on the edge and I have to get it off with my finger. When wood is like this, it blows apart, the foot breaks off, it sands unevenly and you never really get a worthwhile finish. It's best to move on. -Steve

[John Miliunas]

John,
In the absence of cracks etc., I can't imagine it blowing apart unless it has begun to go punky - which soft maple can do very quickly, and without spalting if the tree stays upright for a while after death. Is the wood comparatively light?

I usually find the end-grain goes hairy like that and actually gets caught on the edge and I have to get it off with my finger. When wood is like this, it blows apart, the foot breaks off, it sands unevenly and you never really get a worthwhile finish. It's best to move on. -Steve

Wow Steve, your second paragraph describes my trials and tribulations with the spalted variety very well! :rolleyes: No, I don't think it's overly light in weight, but the cracks show up very quickly, even while still spinning it. The sanding is extremely uneven, as well. I did check to see if it's "punky", but it doesn't really seem to be. Not overly hard, mind you, but not the real soft fiber one normally associated with punky wood. And yes, it's definitely the end grain giving me the major headaches. The face grain actually spins, sands and looks quite nice. Yup, as you say, best to move on. Maybe with a bit more experience (say a year or ten!), I'll get a more profficient process going on it. Until then, it's an education and will NOT stop me from turning or even further attempts with spalted! Thanks for the input! :cool: