Oil Soak and Outboard Question?

Dan Mosley

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Palm Springs, Ca
I have used a protocol that Ron Kent uses for soaking his turnings in a oil bath. It has always worked very well with great results. So i got ahold of some Eucalyptus wood the other day (so i think its Eucalyptus anyway) and turned a few pc's to see what it would look like when done. I finished turned the pc's and submerged them in oil. Usually they would float and i would place a rock on them to help hold them under. With this wood they sunk to the bottom of the oil container. Then 24hrs later take them out and oil sand them and let dry for 24 hrs and repeat the process 3-4 more times.

However, with this wood (pictures below of the latest one pulled out of soak) both pcs cracked during the first 24hr trial period. One thought of why is that they are very dense and heavy type of wood maybe i should have let them soak for a longer period of time. i have another test pc soaking and im going to let it stay submerged for 48hrs this time and then test it. If it cracks ill try another small pc and soak longer adding 24hr periods onto the protocol.
Any thoughts on this ?????? I am aware of the DNA, Microwave, Brown-Bag etc but i perfer the look and feel of the oil soak method - I just need to get a grip on the soak time / drying i think.............Thanks in advance

Last question: I got a few very large pcs that im going to anchor seal up - I am going to need a outrig -out board turning for my Jet Evs1642 to turn the larger ones and would like to get the kind that attaches to the lathe. I read where some bought the Powermatic attachment and put it on their Jet lathe and works very well. I no longer have the link or who wrote it but would like to hear how others are doing their outboard turning. Or if anybody has a Jet that has completed this setup? I would like to ask what you got....and how its working?

Thanks ahead of time to all that respond...............Dan
 

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Dan, how thick are the walls of the bowl that cracked? I've never used the oil soak method, so I don't have any advice in that regard, but if your walls are pretty thick, I think the chances of the oil soaking very far into such dense (or wet) wood are pretty slim.
 
Eucalyptus is only really any good turned really really thin and allowed to warp as it is so full of water. However hard you try the chances are that it will split like crazy before and after turning. DAMHIK

Pete
 
Vaughn..........walls are 1/4" or a bit less with the bottom at 1/4 or just a tad thicker but fairly consistant......

One Comment is as follows:
but if the bottom is quite broad, you'll have more trouble holding things together. Wood shrinks a certain percentage of saturated dimension, so if you have a 5" wide bottom shrinking 7 percent it will undergo twice the dimensional change and put more angular strain on the end grain than a bottom of maximum 2.5" dimension. Bring a couple open type pieces up on a bit steeper slope and see if the survival rate improves. Still, as in the book of Wisdom, "time and chance happen to them all." NO guarantees.

Its not real clear to me that making a steeper slop to the bottom and making the base at 2.5 max is going to work because the end grain is still there just less on the very bottom.

The one in the pic was soaked for 24hrs - wet sanded and soaked again for 48hrs -wet sanded and now will dry for 24hrs.........then back to the oil submerge one more time........ill let you know how it goes.............Thanks
 
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IT'S NOT EUCALYPTUS, ITS MESQUITE!!!! After seeing the turned piece, there is no doubt in my mind. Never heard anything about oil soaking, but generally with mesquite you can turn to final in the same day, may deform a little, but shouldn't crack.
 
When I emailed Ron Kent he told me the walls need to be thin. He said thin enough to see a light thru it. He said he turns them thin and then soaks them. I have used this method a 3 or 4 times but the walls on my turnings were 1/8" from top to bottom. For me that is scarey thin but never had one crack.
 
Barry---Thanks for letting me know the kind of wood

Bernie---- Yep spoke with Ron myself and discussed how he soaps/sands/oil submerge his pc's.......says he can lose up to 50% of what he is doing and i would guess because of his very thin turnings.....further i agree that turning that thin is a scary thing for me to. I am using hand tools at the moment and not a hollowing rig or anything so turning that thin starts to get very touchy. But i thought that if i just lengthened the soaks (soap and oil) in his process i could get the same results....i am currently trying it now with longer soak times whereas before i didnt.......ill let you all know and thanks.....Dan
 
Dan, after seeing this discussion, I read Ron Kent's bit about soaking in liquid soap. Sounds interesting. He claims it does wonders for stabilizing and making green wood turn smoothly. I'm curious if you or anyone else here has tried this? Also, I noticed that he seems to turns Norfolk Island Pine exclusively, but speculates that the technique (oil treatment) will be effective with other woods. Im sure certain woods lend themselves to the process better that others. Mesquite: (dry climate hardwood) NIP: (moist climate softwood) seem quite different. I'm thinking results may vary.
 
Bill - Im using Teak oil because i had quit a bit of it around for my soaking. I also have added some lemon oil to but not much. I know Ron uses Danish but the cost would be high to fill a container for soaking so im just using what i have on hand. I know it works well because i have used it many times but on other types of wood. So Im using Ron's protocol with some tweaking i guess you could say.

Barry - I pretty much did what the website of Rons states - What i use is a large tupperware container with 50/50 liquid dish washing detergent and water. I rough to 1" and soak for 24hrs or longer. I have soaked longer and it does not hurt anything. The types of wood i have tried this on is: Pine,DF,and grapefruit. It works for stabilizing and makes turning and sanding much easier from what i have experienced.
I know Ron just uses NIP so like Ron im not sure about other woods but i wanted to try it and seems to work well. The woods i have tried this on have not cracked or checked so far.
But i have also taken alot of the rough outs from the detergent soak and let them air dry for a day and then done one of two things:
Experiment Time
1). Sealed the end grains with Anchor seal and set them aside for now. They have been sitting now for almost a month in my garage/shop.
2). Mounted after the soaking and finished turn them and put them straight from the lathe to oil submerge. This has worked well for me on the woods i have used up until i turned this Mesquite i was talking about. But i am now letting a test pc soak much longer as i mentioned and will post the results to let you know. My guess is that this type of very dense wood needs a much longer time with the oil.......soak/dry/sand....soak/dry/sand.....etc....like the website says its not the length of soaking it is how many times.....so im going to keep at it and see............
 
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