About 2 years ago a 12 inch diam. branch from my maple tree came crashing down in a storm. (Almost hit the house.)
I just got around to getting the chain saw out and cut it up into some big logs and noticed it's beautifully spalted.
What the best way to cut and dry this wood to use it for some little woodworking projects. I was thinking of getting a lathe and doing some bowls. I really enjoyed that in high school shop class.
Any recommendations on how to cure this wood? Thanks.
Dan,
Go to the archives on Google at:
It really depends on a lot of factors:
- What you plan to do with each piece
- How much time, $$ and effort you want to invest in the drying process
- How quickly you want to work with the wood
- How willing you are to pre-determine what a given piece might be (so you can rough-turn the pieces and let them dry)
-- Chuck *#:^) chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com Anti-spam sig: please remove "NO SPAM" from e-mail address to reply. <
September 11, 2001 - Never Forget
Evenin' Dan:
Since you said that you wanted to make bowls out of the wood, the first thing you will want to do is split the logs lengthwise through the pith, then painting the ends as suggested is good, however to air dry wood, it takes about a year per inch of diameter. To speed up the process, you can rough out the shape and they will dry quicker. You can make a templet of the circle diameter you want for the bowls, cut them out with a band saw, then let them dry. If you can't wait, you can always turn them wet/green. Check google search for references to green turning. That should help.
"Just one OLD man's opinion."
The Other Bruce
Thanks a lot for the advice, guys. This should be enough to get me started.
By the way, just finished my little javascript calculator for the trigonometry impared, see what you think:
PMFJI
Leaving the pith in greatly increases the chance of checks/splits/cracks. While you can certainly leave it in your turnings either partially or completely for many different types of turnings, you still have to deal with the higher odds of these problems. Of course, you might be wanting the cracks for whatever reason and leaving the pith in there will help.
Many (most?) bowls are made with the bottom of the bowl facing "outward" toward the bark. This is not, however, the only way to do it. It just depends on what effect you're going after. Preparing a bowl blank in the manner that you mention below makes nice looking pieces. It just takes a lot of care and a whole bunch of luck to avoid cracks IF you're going to leave the pith in. See, you could just turn it with the pith in and then take out the pith at the end of the process and replace it with whatever you choose. Many different choices here and it all depends on the effect you're after and who you are making the piece for (yourself, customer, general marketplace, etc.)
- Andrew
On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 06:35:55 -0400, "Dave" hurled these words of wisdom into the ether:
Well, working with your wood still in the round, you can be fairly sure of it splitting as it dries...that's pretty much the nature of the beast. The way to avoid that is to find a bitter tree and use half of the trunk. You'll still not avoid all of the splitting, but perhaps a lot of the larger ones.
- Chuck *#:^) chaz3913(AT)yahoo(dot)com ANTI-SPAM Sig - Remove NOSPAM from email to reply <
September 11, 2001 - Never Forget
Evenin' Dave: Most "Chainsaw carvings" I've seen have cracks in them. As to drying the trees, the rule of thumb is 1 year for each inch of diameter. So to llow your trees to dry out completely, you would have to seal the log ends and then let them set, protected from the sun and off the ground for 20 years.
Or, just accept the cracks as natural.
The Other Bruce ===============================
Hello Dave
Drying large wood in the round will always end up splitting, I grew up in Europe and I have seen life size sculptures in Europe that had almost no splits or cracks in them and they where made up from smaller pieces of wood like 4x6 etc. and left without a center in the sculpture except the very top. I do think that you should go a similar way if you do want to have larger sculptures that have no splitting in them. Have your logs milled, dried and then use large dovetail or glue, etc. Or work the logs like the native woodcarvers do, basically split the log in halve and take out the pit, you will still have some splitting but a lot less than if you attempt to work a whole round log, hope this is some help to you.
Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo
Dave wrote:
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.