LDD Consisdency

Do a small batch at the correct ratio and check the specific gravity with an antifreeze tester. Make a note of it and check it against your working solution from time to time. Top off as necessary.

Mark: Good to hear that you are having success with a method that is not supposed to work!*G*

In situations that you mention, I just occasionally turn the bowl over to recoat it with the solution. Of course, I have a covered "vat" to preclude/slow down evaporation from the solution. If you are having luck with a 3:1 ratio, go for it. I recommend 1:1. As to a way to determine if you have the correct ratio, I started off with a fresh solution of 1:1 and measured the specific gravity. I found that over time, the solution lightened closer to the specific gravity of plain tap water (.999 @ 60F). IMHO, there seems to be a loss of LDD when that occurs, so I add more LDD.I still have the vat I started and ended with 2 plus years ago. After a bit of time, I stopped measuring the SG and just eyeballed the level of the solution and topped it up with LDD -- not water!!

Keep the faith,

Leif

Mark: Good to hear that you are having success with a method that is

not supposed to work!*G*

In situations that you mention, I just occasionally turn the bowl over to recoat it with the solution. Of course, I have a covered "vat" to preclude/slow down evaporation from the solution. If you are having luck with a 3:1 ratio, go for it. I recommend 1:1. As to a way to determine if you have the correct ratio, I started off with a fresh solution of 1:1 and measured the specific gravity. I found that over time, the solution lightened closer to the specific gravity of plain tap water (.999 @ 60F). IMHO, there seems to be a loss of LDD when that occurs, so I add more LDD.I still have the vat I started and ended with 2 plus years ago. After a bit of time, I stopped measuring the SG and just eyeballed the level of the solution and topped it up with LDD -- not water!!

Thanks Leif for your comments but i was just wondering what you mean when you said "I started and ended with 2 plus years ago". Does thi mean you have another storage method or that you've lost the faith an moved onto another method of making green wood useable?

Mar

Nothing that sinister,Mark. Since I had reached the pinnacle of fame with national and international acclaim in preaching the gospel of LDD, I decided to rest on my laurels instead of turning them!*G*

Actually, I had two back operations that didn't succeed all that well, and the pain of standing, sitting, bending working in the shop (turning or woodworking) has pretty well put the kibosh on much work in the shop. I was down there the other day, and the last piece of work was still mounted on the lathe. I had turned, sanded and shellaced it and was just needing to part it off, but back was hurting too much. Just left it there. And didn't return to complete it. 8^(

Hope you are reassured about the efficacy of LDD!

Leif

Leif Sorry to hear about your back. I have had pain before but never needed an operation. Is there any word on recovery time?

Lief, that's sad. My heart goes out to you.

TomNie

Leif

Also sorry to here that you can't turn at the moment, but i ver greatfull for you still spend your time helping us newbies out. Hope you can reTURN soon Mar

Not until the 12th of Never, I am afraid, Darrell! I am planning on getting some cortisone shots in the back and maybe that will give me more relief.8^(

Leif, the 12th of Never seems a long time coming. Here's hoping the cortisone helps and some prayer too. I never liked it when my back "went out" whatever that means. Pain mostly. Hang in there. We are all pulling for you.

==================== Leif, The steroids will probably help for a while. This may give the underlying problem time to resolve. If not, following injections will give lesws and less relief time. At least that was my experience; hopefully, your experience will be better. Good luck.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX.

"Leif Thorvaldson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Leif, So sorry to hear about your back. I know you are getting advice from everyone you talk to about your back (I did). I hate to chime in but this might help you, depending on what type of injury you sustained and how sucessful your surgeries were. I hurt my back about ten years ago and it went untreated untill I could not stand upright. I was sent to a surgeon and he says: will you switch jobs after I operate, and I said no. He said, I will not operate cuz you will tear it up again lifting heavy refrigeration compressors without proper tools. We cannot get cherry pickers and the like in the small convienience stores we service and these are cast iron compressors, starting @75# and go to #475. It's two men and heave-ho. Always has been always will be till an architech(with a bad back) designs the compressor rooms. To make a long story short, I did everything from chiropractors to physical therapy. Nothing worked. Insurance required me to see a sports physician. He hears my tale hands me a book called treat your own back by Robin McKenzie. It took months to see the results, but I got my back to where I can deal with it. I have good days and bad but I havn't lost work in 5 years. I changed a 15 HP compressor yesterday (with one helper) and yes my back hurts, but I am doing my excercises as soon as I type this. The link for the book @ amazon.com is below. Feel free to contact me on or off list if I can help. Good Luck Lyndell

P.S. Bascially the excercises deal with bending the lower back, backwards to compensate for all the time we spend leaning forwards. These are done like womens pushups(belly flat on floor-back arched as far back as possible) and a standing version of the same. Also someone here posted about a knee bending excercise for turners. You put your back against the wall and bend you knees. I thought I saved it, but I can't find it. If whoever posted it reads this, please repost I was wanting to try it.

Thanks for all the kind words gang and suggestions. Have tried everything except acupuncture. Enough pins and needles from my back!! Also, the exercises. I used to use an inversion table and that helped keep the back lined up right, but then I went on blood thinner and ended up getting a ministroke from the inversion. Aarrrgh! I have been through various exercise regimens including physical therapy, which seemed to exacerbate the problem rather than help! Still very much interested in woodturning though, so you'll still have me and LDD to poke fun at! Leif

How is your back when sitting? We've had the wheelchair turning thread a few times. Is there some way you could work from a chair or stool?

Good luck with the back.

LD

Yeah, I followed those threads. Each back injury can vary as to its limitations. I have tried sitting at the lathe and it still requires flexing the back which in a very short time becomes an untenable position. Standing or walking doesn't not alleviate the pain. Thanks for the suggestion and concern!

Leif

Leif:

Keep the faith, man. I broke both my wrists in a car accident three years ago. My left hand had three nasty fractures, and the right had two. So many tendons and leaders were torn that my arms turn purple from my knuckle on my palms to my elbows.

I am a full time woodworker, and make my living with my hands so you can imagine how this was for me. And the prognosis was that I would never be able to work "in the field" again. However, after about a year and a half of hard headed, nasty self rehab, (no insurance you see) I am back at it. There are good days, and there are some really bad days, but I can saw boards again, and after a couple of years of no turning, I am grinding away.

My wrists swell and hurt, but they work.

I blew out two disks in my back about 10 years ago, and the good doctors told me 1) I would never walk without a cane unless I had an operation to fuse the disks and 2) couldn't stay in construction. Period. I went to three doctors, all specialists, and all the same thing. Then I found another guy, someone that specialized in non invasive healing for sports injuries (which mine wasn't) and he told me that he thought he could get me better, but it would take a lot of work. In three months time, I could walk almost standing straight up. In six months I could stand up straight. At the end of a year's work, I could work carefully, but hurt a lot. But I was happy to stand up straight, and not look like Quasimodo.

So I still have back pain (like yesterday it was terrible) but I can deal with it with a handful of ibuporfen, heating pads and stretching exercises. The hardest thing for me to get over was the fact I was so screwed up, and then I was in so much pain I didn't want to do anything at all that would give me more. And the exercises and conditioning I had to do for my back HURT. A LOT. I felt the way you did, that they seem to make things worse, rather than better. I went to a therapist for about six months three times a week, and I swear I was in more pain when I left here than I started with. And it would just start to feel a little better, and it was back to see nurse Diesel again. But hey... after six months they cut the therapy to two times a week!

I only write this as encouragement, and indeed every back injury is different. You may never heal. It may never get better. But for me, I was lucky enough to finally get all the pieces put together to move forward towards a workable solution. I am not healed, but I am in a workable situation now. It is much more than I was led to believe would ever happen, but it took a lot longer to get there with a lot more effort than I would have ever believed. Someday I may have to have some fusing done, but I'll deal with that when I absolutely have no other way out.

So best of luck, keep looking for answers. As the champion of the LDD method, you are the torch bearer for all things smelling springtime fresh!

Robert

Heckovastory, Robert! Just about the only thing you left out is that you are now back to performing piano recitals!! I imagine a lot of the guys on the wreck have similar stories to retail, so I imagine that I am green bean in the injuries department. Thanks for the encouragement, and I would hope that I can put forth as much of the effort towards "recovery" that you have!!

Leif