Turning green wood

[germdoc]

I am gradually getting my skills to speed--turned a nice goblet last night out of box elder. I am using green wood--basically logs or branches that were cut for firewood. We recently had 3 large trees--a birch (partially spalted), an elm and a box elder--cut down, and now I have LOTS of wood for turning. It is very easy to work with the chisels--lots of fun, and I find it especially neat to take a piece of firewood with the bark on, mount it on the lathe, and convert it to a nice goblet or candlestick.

I'm interested on your recommendations for working with and drying green wood. Ideally, from what I've read, one should rough-turn the wood and let it dry for awhile before finish-turning. (How long?) I've also read about rough-turning, putting the piece in a plastic bag with shavings for about 2 weeks to dry, or drying the piece in an oven or the microwave (?!?).

What experience have you had with this?

[Ken Massingale]

Jeff, I am far from an expert on this, or much else, but I have pieces in a trash bag of dust collector dust. I just forget about the bag for a few months then check for dryness. I've had less warping and checking by putting pieces in the shop vac. Seems the frequent moving air made them dry faster and have less damage.
Turning that green stuff is fun, isn't it?
ken

[Maax]

You might want to go over to www.woodcentral.com and look into the turning forum and also check out the articles about drying woods.

[jl]

Here is a site where you'll find some information about turning green wood, as well as making tools, etc...

http://www.aroundthewoods.com/firewood.shtml

[gerti]

The new 'in' thing seems to be to soak the rough turned bowls for a few hours in alcohol, then let them dry by securing some brown paper bag material just to the outside of the bowls. I got the alcohol and containers, but did not get to try that yet. Supposedly it keeps warping to a minimum, allowing you to rough turn closer to finished dimensions, and it dries quite fast (couple weeks).

The theory behind it is solid: Alcohol is hydrophobic (water loving) and displaces the water in the bowl. The water and it's interaction with the wood fibers/cells is what causes the usual problems while drying. Apparently the alcohol does so much less. And due to it's lower boiling point it dries much faster than water.

Gerd

[RayintheUK]

I found an article on "CedarShield" - no experience of it in the UK, but might be worth a look.

I've tried the soaking-in-denatured-alcohol method and have had varied results with it, depending on the wood - beech was OK, cherry a disaster.

Ray.

[jl]

Here is a link about drying with alcohol that some member posted here some time ago:

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/r...cles_473.shtml

Jean-Luc

P.S. to Gerd
Hydro-phobic = hating water

[RayintheUK]

Jean-Luc,

The link needs to be entered all on one line, like this:

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/r...cles_473.shtml

otherwise it won't work.

Ray.

[gerti]

quote:Originally posted by jl
P.S. to Gerd
Hydro-phobic = hating water

Right you are, I guess that should have been hydrophilic? Not sure, English is my third language...

[RayintheUK]

Jeff,

There's always going to be an element of compromise involved when working with green wood. OK, it's easier to turn - but the finished article is going to change shape, warp, split or crack as it dries out. This could be used to advantage, if your supply of wood is fairly large - turn to the thinnest possible finish you can, then wait and see what happens. Sometimes, because of the thinness, the surface dries without cracking, although a degree of warping is still likely. This can lead to some interesting shapes, both in bowls and goblets.

Rough-turning is also a compromise - thin enough so that it doesn't take forever to dry, thick enough so that any warping can be finally turned out when re-mounting - 3/4" on medium-sized bowls is about right.

I'd recommend using a spigot rather than a dovetail recess when preparing rough-turned bowls. These are more forgiving when re-chucking and unlikely to worsen a developing crack in the way a dovetail recess will. Also, it's easier to re-true a spigot than a recess.

Without artificial methods, air drying takes between 6 and 12 months per inch of thickness. Cracks can be minimized by sealing the end grain with wax or other proprietary product.

The links above should give you plenty of options to experiment, which is all part of the fun. Remember to give your lathe and turning tools some TLC immediately after a session of green turning, or they could rust between sessions. Quite a bit of spray will come off and it gets everywhere. [:0]

Don't forget to post some pictures of the results when you can.

Ray.

[germdoc]

Thanks for all the advice. I don't think I have the gumption to do any kind of chemical treatments. However, I did come across this article on microwave drying--think I'll give it a try.

http://www.wntx.org/tutorial/tutorial.html

I have 4-5 cords of wood which I will not burn this year, at least, so I have a pretty endless supply. The birch I'm currently working with is partially spalted, so it's got a really dramatic grain pattern.

I will say that the learning curve for turning is much steeper than anything else I've tried in woodworking, but I'm having a lot of fun learning.

[jl]

Thank you Ray for correcting the link. I don't know what happened since I used cut and paste.

Gerd: in regard to English, we are in the same boat!

Jeff: I too have an endless supply of wood! Last Spring I turned about two dozens of blanks. (Good turning practice!) Sealed them with ankerseal and let them dry in the shed. I plan on keeping an ample supply of blanks and let time dry them for me!

I agree with your statement about the steepness of the learning curve for turning. I'll add that my learning curve for sharpening is just as steep.

[germdoc]

I reread an article by master turner Rude Osolnik who says that seasoned firewood is generally dry, but if the wood is wet he will rough turn it then leave it in a plastic bag for a week before working it.