Turning blanks

Marc,

From my experience you should seal the ends of the blanks right now, then come back are read the rest of my reply.

Best sealant is wax emulsion which you probably don't have. OK is latex exterior paint, a couple of coats. Slightly less OK is any other paint.

You should turn the blanks within a year for minimum cracking. If you turn it right away, the wood will be throwing water wet. If you wait 6 months or so , you will be able to feel that the shavings are damp, but a lot of the free water is gone.

If you wait to turn them until they are dry, they will be cracked to he// and gone.

There's lots of information on the internet about turning green wood.

Have fun--and what was your friend's name again???

Old guy

Don't wait. Mount and turn now, with two options - 1 leave the walls thick, and then boil or soap if you like, and then pack in paper bags or shavings or nothing and wait for the thing to dry (or microwave if in a hurry) - remount and return. Option two, turn to final thickness and finish sand, slap some oil on, and wait for things to warp, hoping it comes out nicely. But this is mostly bowls...and I think you are not describing bowl blanks, but perhaps whole log sections.

If what you have are 6 inches round and a foot long, with bark all the way around, you are looking at a lot of splits whether you chuck them up as is or set them aside to dry slowly - whole log sections crack, virtually always, due to wood shrinkage, except sometimes in the sub 3 inch diameter range. You'd want to saw or split them down the middle, so that the pith (center of the log/growth rings) is not inside the remaining two parts. Then you either split/saw off more for spindle blanks (about 2-1/2 to 3" maximum from a 6" diameter log) or cut them down/round for bowl blanks.

For bowl blanks you typically want a log section 2-4 inches longer than it's diameter if you are going to dry the blank (or take a while to get to it, even if it's not really dry), or the same length as the diameter if you are going to turn the blank green and it won't have a chance to dry before you get to it. Saw the log section through the pith to make two blanks. Educate your tree service friend on this if bowls appeal to you and you might get better bowl blanks.

Hello Marc,

When working with green wood, most woodturners try to roughout their blanks as soon as possible and then let the roughout dry before finish turning. The longer the logs/limbs remain in the whole log form, the higher your chances of getting checks will be. You also need to seal the cut endgrain portions of the limbs as soon as possible to help prevent checking. Most of us use a wax emulsion for this, but since you probably do not have any around the shop, old latex paint will do in a pinch.

Here are a few articles from my websites educational library that will go into detail on how to work with and dry green wood, as well as working with wax emulsions that you may be interested in reading....

Turning Green Wood Bowls:

Paper Bag Drying of Green Wood Lathe Projects: Air Drying Wood with Endgrain Sealers: Boiling Green Wood, Effective Strategies to Reduce Drying Defects: Green Wood Boiling Protocol Tips and Tricks: Reducing Checking in Green Wood with Wax Emulsion Sealers: If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Take care and all the best to you and yours!

I have tried both of the basic methods and sub-methods suggested in all the replies. Turned green to rough, that is, get the basic shape of the bowl turned but leave thick walls. Then let dry and finish. Turned green to rough, slather the end grain with wax and let dry then turn to finish. I've packed the rough turned green bowls in shavings and then into a brown bag I've turned to finish size, well somewhat thinner than usual and let the bowl warp thereby transforming it from a functional piece to a piece of what might be termed art. I've ripped the logs I have to size, anywhere from 1 1/2' to 3" in thickness whatever length I thought was appropriate and painted the ends with latex paint. I've also ripped and then painted the ends with parrafin (candle wax used for things like canning). This latter seems to work rather well.

Thanks for all the good advice. I've now blanked up the pieces, sealed the end with 3 coats of exterior grade paint, and put them in a brown paper bag and covered them all with wood shavings. I'll check on them in a couple months and see how they have made out. Old guy...my friends name is Chris. Also...one reply made mention of using a microwave to speed up the drying process. Is there any truth to this?? Is there a temperature and time frame that I could put the blanks into a regular oven, and use it as a makeshift kiln?? I am not sure what temp and time goes into a commercial kiln to dry lumber??