How to turn green wood

[Eric Schatz]

I have seen a bunch of tutorials about turning green wood. Everything from coatings to paper bags to "turn it thin and let it do it's thing/pray".

What are your approaches? I have been only turning kiln dried cabinet scraps for about a year and just started turning green.

I'm not someone who is in need of massive processes. I have seen processes that involve turning to 1" then coating with something (armourseal?) then waiting 2 months, then turning to thickness and praying. I want something that is practical, cheap, repeatable, and quick. Anyone have anything that fits the mold?

[ALAN HOLLAR]

I have turned green wood as the bulk of my work since 1988. Most of that turning has been single session turning to the final form and thickness. In all that time I have never seen the need for alcohol or detergent soaking. I will turn usually to thicknesses of 1/8" to 1/4", aiming for a reasonably consistent wall thickness. If the work is turned in the summer, when it is humid here in western NC, i place the work out of the sun in an area with moderate air circulation, and forget about it for a week. In the winter, when my heated shop gets quite dry, I will wrap the work in a paper bag or 2, or put it in a cardboard box. If I have several pieces, I may just place them close together and throw a couple of layers of sheet over them. 3 or four days later, uncover and shelve away from the furnace airflow for a week. Flatten the bottoms, sign, finish and sell. Failure rate due to drying for the last 10 years is less than 1%. Since that works for me, why explore other processes that add cost to finished work?

[Dan Masshardt]

Alan,

Do you do any sanding after drying or all before?

Flatten bottom on a sander or return to lathe?

That's a lot of years of experience!

[Prashun Patel]

Eric-
Everyone will be partial to their own method. That being said, mine's the best

Turn to 1 inch, then paint the ends with Anchorseal original - not armorseal. You can make your own Anchorseal substitute by dissolving wax (any kind of wax) into mineral spirits. The ratio is not critical, as long the room temp consistency is like half-and-half cream You want to be able to paint it on. I usually paint the end grain up to 2, 3 times, giving it a day to dry in between.

I prefer to turn the green roughouts with a tenon - not a recess. If there's any warp, it's easier to true up the tenon than a recess (for me).

Wait a couple months, and then re-turn.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

That really depends on where you live. What works for me in hot humid weather all year is NOT going to work in hot dry Arizona. (NO OFFENSE intended. I do like Arizona, especially Flagstaff, beautiful) Add your location, then the people in your area can help.

[Dwight Rutherford]

I agree with Kyle, ask the turners in your area what works for them.

[mike pockoski]

Practical, cheap, repeatable, and QUICK means turn to final thickness (3/8") and enjoy the warp...

- practice until you get a clean cut off the gouge at that thickness.
- give it a quick sand with 220 or better (while wet)
- wrap with cling wrap
- dry 10 to 14 days
- give a quick final sand (220, 320, 400)
- turn off the tenon
- oil
- sell for huge profit (lol)

[Rich Sabulsky]

Hehe - if you ask 40 wood turners this question, you might get 50 answers. I am in the twice-turn with anchorseal on the end grain camp. My biggest issue so far (about a year now) has been leaving the bottoms too thick. Those crack on me. As long as I turn the bottom to an inch or less, they seem to do fine.

[Aaron Craven]

Hehe - if you ask 40 wood turners this question, you might get 50 answers. ...

So very true. Depends on so many factors -- not just environment, but time of year, type of wood, desired final shape (if you don't like warp, twice turning is basically a must), etc.

I've only recently started rough-turning bowls and I've not quite nailed down a process. I started with rough turning (thickness to 1" or 10% of diameter, whichever is larger), then bagging in paper with its own shavings. After getting cracks that way, I amended the process to include painting the outside with anchorseal before bagging. I usually check the blanks about once a week for mold (none so far, thankfully) and lightly stir the shavings. Once the shape is mostly stabilized (seems to be 1-2 months, but YMMV), I'll remove it from the bag and leave it to dry in the open indefinitely. I'm so new to this, though, that I can't tell you if this is a successful process or not. One thing I can pass along from my turning mentor though is that sometimes it's going to crack no matter what. As he puts it, sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.

Oh, one tried and true tip -- try to remove the pith. If your piece has any pith in it, it's almost always going to crack.

[john taliaferro]

Rough the out side ,sand with 36 grit ,spray a can of shelack or sanding sealer , set the steady rest and start hollowing . That is 3 days to a month , i start by drilling a 2" hole to one inch of the faceplate to get the pith out . Hollow then plug the hole and back to tailstock , turn or just sand the surface for finish . Remove the cap sand neck and spray finish , clean up the inside ,sand . Start on the inside and spray final coat of automotive laquer out and around to the faceplate . Reverse chuck on a shaft , cap on one end and tailstock on the other cut the bottom up 4" or so tell its thin {2"} ,sign finish , sell . 60 " tall and 50 lb ,o and cary out 1000 lb of chips . I think ive had to much coffee today . John T

[Barry McFadden]

I don't turn a lot of green wood but here's how I did a few. I turn to final thickness all in one session and sand to 120 grit. I then put the bowl in the microwave at 40% power for 4 minutes. Let it cool then repeat (may even need another repeat). I can tell by the weight of the bowl how much it is drying. When I'm happy with the weight as compared to when I started I put it back on the lathe and final sand and then I put the finish on the next day. The bowl will usually warp (adds character) but usually won't crack.

[Brice Rogers]

John, that is HUGE !! Would you mind posting a picture of one of these large vessels?

[Pat Scott]

I want something that is practical, cheap, repeatable, and quick.

Good luck with the quick part. Unless you get a kiln or something, air drying takes months to a year or more.

I agree that your location and the type of wood can influence how you handle green wood. If you live in a humid climate you might not have to take some of the precautions that you would if you lived in a dry climate. If you're talking about roughing out bowls, it depends on if you want round bowls or warped bowls.

I live in CO which is a dry semi-desert climate with low humidity. I don't like warped bowls so everything is twice turned. What works for me is to rough turn to 10% and anchorseal the entire piece. If you live in a more humid climate then you might get away with just sealing the end grain. Then I put the bowl upside down in the corner of my basement no higher than a few feet off the ground. If you have several bowls then I lean one against the other, similar to a stack of books on a bookshelf that have fallen over and are all leaning against the other. Don't set them directly on the concrete if your floor is unfinished, put a scrap of plywood or something down first. The bowls stay this way for several months. After that I will turn them right side up and use stickers to stack other bowl blanks inside it. I still keep them as low to the ground as I can, and only after they've been drying 6 months or more do they ever get moved up to a higher shelf. Some wood is dry and ready to re-turn within 4-6 months, other woods take a year or more to dry. If it's a 1.5" thick roughout (ie: 15" bowl), then it dries for 1.5 years before I look at it. I have hundreds of blanks drying, so most of the time they are more than ready by the time I get around to them. For my really large bowls, I have taken Robo's advice to wrap the rim with stretch wrap. It does seem to help prevent splits in the rim. I take the stretch wrap off after 3 or 4 months.

Here's a picture showing a little bit of everything. My shelves are full, so everything here is stacked on the floor. The bowls in the rear are upside down and stacked on one another. The ones in front have been drying for a while (I took the stretch wrap off after this pic was taken) and have stickers in-between the blanks. You can see how I stack plates with stickers separating them. For peppermill blanks I usually coat the entire piece, but lately I've been experimenting with just coating the end grain. The entire pile is no more than 3' high.
20150823_100940.jpg

[Eric Schatz]

Thanks for the advise. I've been turning wood that was split into firewood sized chunks for about a month now. I've turned 4 pieces and only one has gotten a tiny crack. All of the bowls are under 6" and I end at around 1/4" thickness. I turn them and then wipe with one coat of teak, linseed, danish, etc. oil. Then I give them a thorough rub down with Johnsons Paste Wax. Should I be looking at these to start having problems? They haven't warped enough for me to notice.

[Reed Gray]

All of my bowls are green turned to final thickness, and I have a bunch of video clips up on You Tube (type in robo hippy) on how to do it. I don't sand till the wood is dry, it just takes more work. Bowls turned to 3/8 to 1/4 inch are dry in 10 days at the most, even here in damp western Oregon. Make sure to round over the rims of the bowl. I use the stretch film as extra protection for the rim. The stretch film on woods like maple can help mold to form, so you have to watch them, and generally maple is pretty easy to dry without cracking. I would only apply oil or finish to a green turned bowl if it is the same finish I will use on the final product. With twice turned bowls if you use sealer or other coating methods, you turn it all off when you do the second turning.

robo hippy