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Going to the Darkside

Ned Bulken

Ned Bulken

Member
Messages
5,529
Location
Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
The other night I cut up some of that cherry I picked up last summer.. and cut off a couple of small pieces to try out the chuck. I drilled a hole, used the screw chuck and was roughing it out. I had a couple of catches, and stopped turning on it, about the same time the winds picked up on Friday night.
1stpiece8.jpg


nothing special about the piece, except look at what happened over the next two days...

1stpiece4.jpg


1stpiece5.jpg


1stpiece3.jpg


spigot.jpg
 
Bummer. You can still probably fill the cracks and carry on if you want to.

If I have to leave a green piece on my lathe for any length of time, I leave it on the lathe, but mist it with water and wrap it tightly in a plastic grocery bag. The downside is that you can get spots of rust on your chuck if there are any dings in the chrome plating.
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
Bummer. You can still probably fill the cracks and carry on if you want to.

If I have to leave a green piece on my lathe for any length of time, I leave it on the lathe, but mist it with water and wrap it tightly in a plastic grocery bag. The downside is that you can get spots of rust on your chuck if there are any dings in the chrome plating.
Click to expand...

Looks pretty wet already. You can see drops of water in the bottom photo.
 
I'm guessing those drops on the outside didn't come from the inside of the wood. Condensation, maybe? The cracks sure look like typical drying cracks, and keeping it evenly moist might have prevented them. The trick is to not have one part dry out before the other parts can catch up. It can be soaking wet inside, but if the outside gets too dry, cracks can happen.
 
Bummer

I guess you found out the hard way how quickly wet wood cracks if not sealed between turning sessions. Especially in this very dry winter weather. Fortunately the wood was free and there is more where that comes from. Good practice though. Keep working at it !:thumb:
 
You too!

It does crack fast, I had a maple 9" bowl I finished the outside. put the tennon on it. Turned it around and chucked it up to do the inside. Then I had to stop for the night. When out in the morning to finish ruffing it out , it had 3 radial cracks that went all the way across the piece. It is now a door stop. That was the last time I will ever start ruffing out a bowl and not finish it That is green. Oh well, live and learn. From then on I always finished the ruff out, put end Check on the outside. Wrap it in paper and let is sit till it is stable. I did have one in ten that has some small cracks there.

All God's best to yoiu and the family.

Joe
 
Ned

I have some cherry also that I want to turn - I have tried everything from freezing the projects in the freezer for months to anchorseal to soaking things in alchol to wrapping then with wet news paper to just about anything.

I even cut out the center of the log to reduce cracking - it seems that cherry hits the ground cracked.

Any other ideas?
Jack
 
If you cant finish the pc wet it and tie a plastic bag around it like what was mentioned.....works very good.........
Secondly if i cant finish a project (roughing it) and i have to work the next several days or so i take it off and put it to soak in a bucket with 1/2 concentrated dishwashing soap and 1/2 water (<--Ron Kent's idea) then when i take it out and turn it the wood cuts like a dream ....this holds true on wet or dry wood............if interested read Ron Kents website for more information on the topic............it is easy to do and the cost is small...
As for what you have...........fill it and keep on turning as mentioned i think it will work out for you

Dan
 
Dan

Thanks for the info - I went to Ron Kent's site and read the total write up on the dishwashing liquid. I have already talked my wife out of a bottle of the liquid to try. I have wood that I want to try that I have picked up around the area and previously didn't want to turn but I am going to try this theory. Thanks for you help.
Jack
 
Dan,
I'll hold onto it in its current state, as I was just fooling around with it on the lathe, trying out the new chuck. However I will try the dish soap and water routine in the future. Does that affect how the piece accepts finishes?
 
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