moderate the airflow around the pieces, and not do ANY of these other
things, which is the way all of the (productive, successful, long time)
turners I know go about it. A little knowledge will go a long way toward
solving your drying problem. It can be simple, or complicated. :-)
Good luck,
John Jordan
--
formatting link
I tried sneaking this message via private means to avoid scorn and > castigation
> by the "unwashed" in the newsgroup. Unfortunately, I could not ravel your
> email address. I am herewith sending this to you using an alias I am going
> to suggest a revolutionary
> approach to your problem that does not involve boiling and any high degree > of wood
> science to accomplish your objective. This may sound Al Kyderish to you but
> I swear I have no connection with that looneytune! *G*
>
> The answer to your enigma is: [drumroll here!) LDD!!! [trumpets join in].
> If my good fortune was to have access to such a marvelous supply of oak. I
> would buck it up into logs and store them in a relatively cool, dry place
> after slathering the ends liberally with Endseal. When you want to turn an
> oak vessel, cut off an appropriate length for your project, re-seal the end
> of the log you are not going to use and re-store it. Take the prospective
> vessel chunk and trim off the Endseal (could have been whacked off with the
> chainsaw earlier) and plunge it into a vat of LDD (1 part LDD
> to 1 part water). Since the oak seems so brittle, I think I would soak it
> overnight. The following day, rough turn it to your desired degree. Now:
> The choice here is to plunk it back into the LDD until you are ready to
> finish turn or work a bit more on it. The main thing to remember is if you
> are not working on it, return it to the LDD. If you have finish turned,
> finish sanded -- then get the finish coat on asap.
>
> I would liked to have appended a copy of a world-famous treatise on LDD;
> however, the NG doesn't allow attachments nor appendments, so you will have
> to send me a request via normal email channels.
> P.S. Be prepared for the scorn and castigation from the NG. There are some
> unforgiving guys there! *G*
>
> LDDman
>
>
> > I'm acquiring 2 live oak trees (white oak) from 2 separate neighbors who > are
> > removing them. Does anyone have good experience drying white oak rough
> > outs??? Because I sure don't. Thanks in advance for all advice on this. > >
> > The archives for rcw include a lot of info about drying turnings and about
> > drying oak. I reread 3 years of postings last night on this topic. It's > a
> > lot of good info including the boiling articles from Steven Russell and
> > others; and I have Steven's CD as well. I've been applying the > techniques -
> > mostly boiling and bagging. But white oak just doesn't like me :-( > (Red
> > oak is worse).
> >
> > My drying process:
> > I roughed and boiled 24 white oak bowls and vases in late March and > early
> > April.
> > 1) While roughing out, I try to create a consistent thickness. Each > piece
> > has a 1/4 inch foot for rechucking.
> > Some have the pith and some do not. Some are bowls, and some are
> > natural edge vases.
> > Most are 1 inch thick and the larger pieces are thicker (1 inch thick
> > per 12 inch diameter).
> > 2) I overboiled them - about 1.5 hours per inch.
> > 3) Most of them are paper bagged - and some are 2-4 pieces per bag.
> > They are in my garage (Austin, TX) where it hits 100 degrees most > days.
> > (When it hits 95 I usually call it quits for that day - so I really
> > need to air-condition it).
> >
> > Some of the 24 oak pieces are cracking. Plus I get black and yellow
> > mold/fungus on some of them.
> > - Should they be individually bagged?
> > - Should they be spaced out to get plenty of air?
> > - Should the bags have a small opening left on them or totally sealed?
> > - Should I wax the pithed bowls (I have Woodcraft sealer) or all bowls? > >
> > The 2 trees I'm getting should yield 100+ bowls/vases. So it would be
> > really frustrating to put in all the cutting/roughing time and get a bunch
> > of cracked and split results. I also get some cracks in other roughouts,
> > but have had excellent luck with Texas Ash. Any and all advice will be
> > greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Jeff Jilg
> > Austin, TX
> >
> >
>
>
> by the "unwashed" in the newsgroup. Unfortunately, I could not ravel your
> email address. I am herewith sending this to you using an alias I am going
> to suggest a revolutionary
> approach to your problem that does not involve boiling and any high degree > of wood
> science to accomplish your objective. This may sound Al Kyderish to you but
> I swear I have no connection with that looneytune! *G*
>
> The answer to your enigma is: [drumroll here!) LDD!!! [trumpets join in].
> If my good fortune was to have access to such a marvelous supply of oak. I
> would buck it up into logs and store them in a relatively cool, dry place
> after slathering the ends liberally with Endseal. When you want to turn an
> oak vessel, cut off an appropriate length for your project, re-seal the end
> of the log you are not going to use and re-store it. Take the prospective
> vessel chunk and trim off the Endseal (could have been whacked off with the
> chainsaw earlier) and plunge it into a vat of LDD (1 part LDD
> to 1 part water). Since the oak seems so brittle, I think I would soak it
> overnight. The following day, rough turn it to your desired degree. Now:
> The choice here is to plunk it back into the LDD until you are ready to
> finish turn or work a bit more on it. The main thing to remember is if you
> are not working on it, return it to the LDD. If you have finish turned,
> finish sanded -- then get the finish coat on asap.
>
> I would liked to have appended a copy of a world-famous treatise on LDD;
> however, the NG doesn't allow attachments nor appendments, so you will have
> to send me a request via normal email channels.
> P.S. Be prepared for the scorn and castigation from the NG. There are some
> unforgiving guys there! *G*
>
> LDDman
>
>
> > I'm acquiring 2 live oak trees (white oak) from 2 separate neighbors who > are
> > removing them. Does anyone have good experience drying white oak rough
> > outs??? Because I sure don't. Thanks in advance for all advice on this. > >
> > The archives for rcw include a lot of info about drying turnings and about
> > drying oak. I reread 3 years of postings last night on this topic. It's > a
> > lot of good info including the boiling articles from Steven Russell and
> > others; and I have Steven's CD as well. I've been applying the > techniques -
> > mostly boiling and bagging. But white oak just doesn't like me :-( > (Red
> > oak is worse).
> >
> > My drying process:
> > I roughed and boiled 24 white oak bowls and vases in late March and > early
> > April.
> > 1) While roughing out, I try to create a consistent thickness. Each > piece
> > has a 1/4 inch foot for rechucking.
> > Some have the pith and some do not. Some are bowls, and some are
> > natural edge vases.
> > Most are 1 inch thick and the larger pieces are thicker (1 inch thick
> > per 12 inch diameter).
> > 2) I overboiled them - about 1.5 hours per inch.
> > 3) Most of them are paper bagged - and some are 2-4 pieces per bag.
> > They are in my garage (Austin, TX) where it hits 100 degrees most > days.
> > (When it hits 95 I usually call it quits for that day - so I really
> > need to air-condition it).
> >
> > Some of the 24 oak pieces are cracking. Plus I get black and yellow
> > mold/fungus on some of them.
> > - Should they be individually bagged?
> > - Should they be spaced out to get plenty of air?
> > - Should the bags have a small opening left on them or totally sealed?
> > - Should I wax the pithed bowls (I have Woodcraft sealer) or all bowls? > >
> > The 2 trees I'm getting should yield 100+ bowls/vases. So it would be
> > really frustrating to put in all the cutting/roughing time and get a bunch
> > of cracked and split results. I also get some cracks in other roughouts,
> > but have had excellent luck with Texas Ash. Any and all advice will be
> > greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Jeff Jilg
> > Austin, TX
> >
> >
>
>