Drying Green Wood

Jim, it depends on just how impatient you are. Of course considering your temps, drying is going to be quite a bit slower for you (right now IGoogle tells me it is 65 degrees outside - I keep telling my brother there was a reason I retried to Alabama)

The brown paper bag works well, it just takes awhile (this is what I usually do). If you are going that route, or the sawdust route, get yourself a postal scale. Weight it when you put it in the bag (I write the weight and date on the bowl) then weight it every couple of months. When it starts losing weight slowly, weight it more often. When it stops losing weight, its as dry as its going to get and ready to finish turning.

As for the microwave (aaaawww, instant gratification :-0 ). Turn it to nearly finished, nuke it (I run it on the defrost setting for

7min 45sec (its an auto setting on that partucular microwave) and keep hitting it, with short cool down periods, until you quit getting steam. Put it on the lathe and do any last minute touch ups with the tools, sand and finish.

Hope that helps.

Deb

Thanks, I'm also retired but in Idaho. I'll brown bag it and turn another one out of another chunk of the same wood and try the microwave method also. I'll visit one of the local thrift stores for a Microwave. Jim

That tends to rescue you from the "little woman's ire." Somehow, they just do not understand about us running our turning projects through "their" microwave. lol

Really, you are doing exactly the right thing. You are checking out various techniques and seeing which one you like the best.

Enjoy

Deb

nobody has said this so i will - put it outside so it freezes hard - that will rupture the cell walls (with ice crystals) and reduce the potential for distortion and cracking. to speed up the "processing" you could bring it in for a day, then put it outside for a day - repeat several times.

I tend to turn wet wood to final (thin) dimensions in one shot and never come back to it, just sand and finish - you didn't say how thick you left the walls - I often aim for 1/16th or so on "active" wood like eucalyptus, and 1/8 to 3/16 on more stable woods

I left the walls at about 5/8" to 3/4" and the bottom about 1 1/2" thick. The height is about 8" to 9" and it's about 9" across. It is getting down to 10* to 20* at night here so freezing might be an option. I could also put it in the chest freezer. My next move is to buy a new roughing gouge as my old one had grab and broke at the tang just when I had gotten it sharpened to where it was working good. I welded it back together but I won't trust it now and I was a welder forever and have a Heli-arc and know what I'm doing. I'll use it for light duty stuff. I'm not sure what brand it was maybe a Disson. I've had them since Jr. High and that was a long time ago. A question on roughing gouges can a spindle roughing gouge be used for bowls or should one get one of each? Jim

You can take more out of the bottom. It's the sides that move most. The bottom is more stable.

You should never use a spindle roughing gouge on a bowl. Get a bowl gouge. They don't have tangs - they're solid bars with the flute milled in them. If you're doing spindle work a spindle roughing gouge is good to have but if you're going to focus on bowls just get bowl gouges. A couple sizes is good - I like a large one (3/4" diameter bar) for big bowls, and a 1/2" bar for smaller and general purpose use.

Note that an American made tool uses the bar diameter as a measurement whereas the English tools use the flute size. Thus, a Robert Sorby 3/8" bowl gouge is what is called a 1/2" bowl gouge on this side of the puddle. Pay attention when you order our you may get the wrong size.

...Kevin

On Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:19:10 -0600, James wrote (in message ):

re the welded gouge... consider annealing the shaft in the area of the weld. The softer metal will be much less likely to break at the weld. This is usually carbon steel and gets pretty brittle around an arc weld. Annealing may save it for you.

As for the freezing route, there are two things to consider. If the moisture level is high enough, when the wood and water freeze, the water will expand and could split your bowl. Lots of trees get cracks in them from this kind of freezing action. OTOH, if the bowl does not split, just leave it in the freezer. Ever hear of freezer burn? The moisture sublimates out of the item in the freezer, whether wood or steak, leaving a dried surface behind. Good for wood, not so good for steak. Some taxidermists will use freeze sublimation on fluffy and fido for those folks who want to preserve their pet

- is cheaper than conventional taxidermy, with skinning and tanning and then mounting on a form, etc. A bowl that is turned to a relative thin cross-section should freeze dry nicely if it does not split. tom koehler

1. never ever ever EVER ever !!!! use a spindle roughing gouge on a bowl

- in fact, you might be well served by putting it in a different room when working on bowls - never use a regular bowl gouge either

1. you left the walls and bottom very thick by my standards but maybe what we are aiming for is different (there is a gallery of some of my stuff at
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   - click hobbies/wood turning and find the gallery link) - I like reasonably thin walls (usually, unless the shape wants thick), I like distortion and discoloration, and so on. So I turn to final dimensions and sand it right away. Rarely does this fail me - for some woods, boiling or freezing reduces distortion and cracking - if you do that, then you need to resand afterwords

Just to pile on. The bottom is too thick

The theory for wet turning is the wall thickness should be about 10% of the diameter, and the bottom should be a little thinner then the walls

I think you have learned why NOT to do this (there are You-Tube videos showing and explaining why not to do this)

I'm planning on doing the finish turning after it dries. I'm most playing with it right now. I was looking a set of Savannah tools off of Amazon to replace my old tools and visiting my local Woodcraft store, the second eivl store next to Cabela's here locally, and look at bowl gouges. On the welded tang I let it air cool but I'm still going to replace it. Here's the link to the tools on Amazon

Jim in ID

If you want better tools, you might consider M42 tools from D-Way

One of the reasons I left the bottom as thick as it is because I don't have a bowl gouge yet so I quit while I was ahead and had all my pieces and parts of my body. :>) Jim