OK you professional turners

[Rob Littleton]

Picked up some Black Walnut stumps yesterday. Need to dry them. They are about 8 inches thick and dripping wet.

What's the procedure to dry them without them cracking beyond useless so I can turn them into bowls down the road? Any idea on time frame too?

Cheers

[Richard Allen]

Coat them with anchorseal and wait about 10 years.

Or you can rough turn then to 1" of wall thickness for every 10" of diameter, coat with anchorseal and wait a year.

Some people use LLD. I don't have personal experince with that.

Thanks

Richard

[Chris Padilla]

You in AZ now, Rob...or back here?

[Rob Littleton]

Im back and forth between AZ and CA.

My kids are in school till June, thats when I finally up and move.

My house is officially in AZ but for now, Im living at the in laws (across the street from my old house).

The only thing I own in CA is my truck, car and kids..........and clothes.

Everything else is officially AZ.

So, yes I do have time of an evening if thats what you're asking Mr Chris :-)

[Chris Padilla]

Ah, splendid...how about some time this weekend or are you better off on a workday evening? :)

[Rob Littleton]

Im easy dude...........

Dont let that become public knowledge though :-)

Sunday morning is not good but anytime other that should work.

Shall we get pics and do a "Visit from a creeker" post :-)

[Rob Littleton]

Richard,

Is anchorseal something that i just coat the faces with and leave them? Does is let the moisture out still? I have seen some woods with like a wax coating on them and often wondered how they breath.

Please excuse my ignorance.

[Chris Padilla]

Im easy dude...........

Dont let that become public knowledge though :-)

Sunday morning is not good but anytime other that should work.

Shall we get pics and do a "Visit from a creeker" post :-)

Ah, good...Saturday morning is nice and we are just about obligated to take pics and do a visit post! :D We can hammer out the details in email or PM (my computer is down today...back up this evening or tomorrow).

[Wolf Kiessling]

Coat them with anchorseal and wait about 10 years.

Or you can rough turn then to 1" of wall thickness for every 10" of diameter, coat with anchorseal and wait a year.

Some people use LLD. I don't have personal experince with that.

Thanks

Richard

This may not be the best way but what I would do is cut the wood into turning blanks and store them in plastic bags. I have never done it with walnut but have done so with several other types of wood. Sometimes you will still get some checking but..... so what. Filling cracks in walnut with crushed turquoise or turquoise colored inlace is extremely attractive.

The idea behind putting the blanks into the plastic bags is not to let them dry. Nor is it if you coat them totally with anchorseal. These procedures help keep the moisture in the wood thereby preventing cracking and when you do get around to turning them, instead of having to fool around with a difficult dry blank, you have a nice, moist blank that will turn easier. Then, if you complete the turning in a day, you will have relieved the internal stresses and the bowls may not crack. It will probably warp, however, but no one really cares.

[Jim Becker]

Is anchorseal something that i just coat the faces with and leave them? Does is let the moisture out still? I have seen some woods with like a wax coating on them and often wondered how they breath.
Rob, Anchorseal is a liquified wax emulsion that is made specifically for sealing end grain (or entire pieces if you choose). It still allows moisture to escape, but in a more controlled fashion. End-grain really will let too much moisture out too fast as opposed to the face and side grains and that will cause a lot of stress, resulting in checking and cracking.

Walnut is pretty stable, so sealing just the end-grain should work fine. I've actually turned some black walnut pieces green to final thickness and just soaked them in Watco or similar with no cracking. But that's somewhat of a gamble...

I know that Wolf mentioned plastic bags, but the danger with that is rot plain and simple. Plastic bags are fine for short-term containment and to wrap around a turning while it's on the lathe and you have to walk away to do SWMBO's bidding, but longer term storage in plastic can result in loss of the material. You can use this technique, however, in a controlled fashion to "shop-spalt" some material if you add some shavings from spalted wood (same species is best...) to the bag, too, and monitor it carefully.