mixture of dishwashing soap and water to help with turning. None of the sites mention how long to soak the wood?
that it will depend on the size/thickness and the type of wood as well as how dry it is.
For the real deal on LDD, Google Ron Kent.. His work is just stunning, and he has (or at least had, a few years ago) quite a bit of info on the process..
I soak almost all of my green turnings. I turn to final thickness, soak, dry and then sand and finish. There were claims about both the LDD and DNA (denatured alcohol) soaking methods helping keeping wood more stable and reducing cracking. With the thin turned bowls, with my experience of drying maybe 8,000 or more bowls, they do nothing in this respect. I even did a test with 3 sets of bowls, 2 were soaked (LDD and DNA), and one was just air dried. I weighed them till they were dry. The results were exactly the same. It may have an effect on thick turned bowls that you are going to return later, but I have never turned that way. I continue to do the LDD soak. It makes the wood a lot easier to sand out. Nothing more. Use cheap brown soap (not the green or blue), mix 50/50 with water, soak for 24 hours, rinse off lightly (you will never get all the bubbles out, but it doesn't make any difference, and if you leave the soap mix on the wood, it can clog up your abrasives, but that comes off with the eraser sticks), and let dry. I do wrap the outside with a couple of layers of newspaper and secure it to the rim of the bowl with some of the plastic film that you use to wrap around boxes on a pallet. Stretch the plastic over the rim about an inch, and put some pressure on it as you wrap. Cut out the paper on the inside of the bowl, then dry as normal. I usually start with the bowls on the floor for a day or 2 (cooler there), then move to a wire shelf. Most are totally dry in about 10 days, depending on your local weather. robo hippy
I don't soak Norfolk Island Pine bowls in liquid dishwashing detergent, but I do 'paint' green NIP turning blanks liberally with the cheapest LDD in 1:2 solution. The blanks almost never crack and neither do the objects I turn from them. Maybe they wouldn't have cracked anyway, but I believe there is something special about NIP and LDD. I think Ron Kent's work was with NIP.
If my ignorance works for me, I may as well enjoy it. But I'll try not to bore y'all again with my same ole same ole NIP/LDD refrain. Well maybe just a litte less often. :)
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