sealing ends of fresh cut maple?

[Brent Dowell]

A neighbor of mine that does tree work dropped off some maple he just cut fresh this morning.

Some of the pieces look to be pretty nice sized that I could may do a little turning with, i.e. 12" across (big enough for my little lathe).

What should I do to keep the wood from splitting at this point?

 

[Jim DeLaney]

Most turners use Anchorseal®. You can use thick coats of latex paint if you can't get the Anchorseal®. Do it right away. In your dry climate the checking will likely start almost immediately.

 

[Brent Dowell]

Too big for my little lathe, but I reckon I can cut them down to size.

 

[Jim DeLaney]

Man - you smear paint even messier than I do!

 

[Brent Dowell]

I'm a horrible painter, lol.

 

[Don Baer]

gee Brent I got some anchor seal I couda let you have you shoulda called me...

 

[Brent Dowell]

First opportunity I've ever had to get freshly cut wood suitable for turning. Not enough time to to head your way to pick it up, lol!

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Nice haul! Even though you've already sealed the ends, I'd recommend cutting the pith out of those chunks. Even with the paint slowing down the drying process, the wood's gonna want to split, starting at the pith.

Here's a video I found in a quick look on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZjOCBN4T7Y

 

[Dave Hoskins]

I've used Anchorseal in the past. Had just as much luck using thick coats of latex paint. Wood doesn't usually sit around long enough for me to get too worried about that. But, with me slowing down a little, I might start doing it again. But, I'll just use the paint. And, yeah. I can make a real mess with it. Fun!!!

 

[Brent Dowell]

Nice haul! Even though you've already sealed the ends, I'd recommend cutting the pith out of those chunks. Even with the paint slowing down the drying process, the wood's gonna want to split, starting at the pith.

Here's a video I found in a quick look on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZjOCBN4T7Y

So, cut the pith out and then reseal? I'll check the video out. Would be fun to make a bowl and give it back to the guy that gave me the wood. He's a real good kid that has been working on getting his business running the last couple years and helped me yank out all the junipers int he front yard when we had a bunch of wild fires.

 

[Kerry Burton]

You shouldn't really need to reseal after cutting out the pith; the end grain is already sealed up, and there's no need to seal the side grain.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

You shouldn't really need to reseal after cutting out the pith; the end grain is already sealed up, and there's no need to seal the side grain.

I agree with Kerry. Although I have been known to seal side grain as a "belt & suspenders" kind of thing. Don't know if it made a bit of difference, though. It's always a bit of a roll of the dice. I've had sealed wood crack and unsealed wood not crack.

 

[Chuck Ellis]

I'm a little on the lazy side about the sealing... I stack my wood and cover it with a tarp... if it does crack, I can usually cut the cracked portion away and use the rest of the log. I also rarely cut out the pith, I'll split the log through the pith and if it needs to be turned away, turn it away as I turn the bowl... most of my logs aren't that big around anyway, except the one my son brought... it's almost if not over 3" diameter and I haven't figured out how or if I can cut it.

I guess I'm really a lazy wood turner.

 

[Chas Jones]

Only seal the endgrain, don't seal the cut faces, In future you can use just about any old paint to seal the ends, good chance to empty all those old part used paint tins before you recycle them.

I dip end grain areas in melted wax when working on a batch of blanks. planks or thicker slabs, but often go the paint route if sealing freshly cut felled trees and logs to seal end grain and trimmed branch scars before I can get round to sorting them out.

In fact different colour paints help keep a track of various batches whilst in drying store.