I have been trying to learn how to do hollow forms. I put the wood between centers, got it round and put a tenon on one end. This I put in my Vicmarc chuck. Everything was going ok, The Malaluka I was turning had some cracks in the pith, but I hoped to turn them away. I got a half decent shape to the outside (as I am artistically challanged, it is a miricle if it looks ok) The wife called me to dinner and I figured I would not get back to this green wood. What to do with it?? I had read to cover it in shaveings to hold the moisture loss in. I packed the inside with shaveings and got a grocery plastic bag and stuffed more shaveings in it. I twisted the ends to keep the shaveings in and went to dinner. Time slides by and it is next weekend when I get back to it. Here is the lesson learnding part. My Vicmarc chuck looked like it was 50 yrs old with all the rust and pitting. I had sealed it up with the hollow form and shavings not even thinking about it. I spent the next several hours with WD-40, 400 grit sand paper steel wool and a wire brush. I got the rust off swearing all the while, but could not get rid of the pitting. Now it looks 25 years old, just like I bought an antique off of e-bay.
Lesson learned: take it off the lathe if you pack it in shaveings mark the piece by one of the jaws so you can remount it the same way.
Ohh, the Malaluka??? It did fine, matter of fact the few cracks around the pith that were not turned away closed completly up, so I put a little CA along them. hope this helps some one in the future.
Bruce