Oak has a lot going for it, but one thing against - the medullary rays. If
you're not careful on thin work you can induce a crack along the ray figure.
One reason why I like it in the firewood stack is this ease of splitting.
Same for beech.

Avoid "bounce" is always good advice. You can get bounce as the bowl
changes shape while hollowing - steady is a good idea, though a hand or a
couple of tight wraps of duct tape around the rim can help. You can also
get bounce or squirm by pressing the gouge into the wood as you ride the
bevel. The end grain will run away, the face be cut, Here, light cuts,
referenced primarily to the toolrest, with a guide from the bevel work best
for me. If you don't smack, it won't crack. Listen, and strive for an even
sound.

One other thing about those rays - they can close after once opening. Often
this is invisible, though the separation is complete. When selecting your
chunk, be more generous with the end trimming, and unless you have some sort
of horrible lathe whine, leave your ear defenders off, so you can hear the
first "click" which presages disaster. Always a good idea on burls, too.
Seek and close the crack with CA or your flavor, and stay clear of the
disintegration zone.

As for sanding, best recommendation I can give is to power sand, or if hand
sanding, don't press. You're causing the problem by the same mechanism
which cuts face grain more easily with the gouge. With a circular sanding
motion you can work across or around the grain, and in my universe, by
choosing the side of the paper which engages, sand in either direction,
using the speed difference between the lathe and disc. My setup at
http://personalpages.tds.net/~upgeorge/pin%20two.htm is powered at 1725
with a quiet induction-run motor.


"harleydude" wrote in message
...
I do have a couple of question, though.

First....I have an unlimited supply of oak where I live and that's what
I've
been playing with mostly. When I'm sanding the oak, I seem to run into
problems where the grain bends over in the direction that I sand. If I run
my hand over it in the direction the lathe turns it feels very smooth, but
if I run my hand backwards across that grain, I can feel the roughness of
the grain. Seems like if I could reverse the lathe and sand in both
directions, it would be better. How do I handle this with my Mini being
able to run only in one direction. I'm not power sanding. Just by hand
with
the lathe running.

Second...When shaping my bowls, sometimes the oak grain has a tendancy to
break off instead of cutting or slicing. It always seems to do this when
the grain turn direction in ther wood creating an endgrain on the side of
the bowl. Not all chunks of wook do this, however, when one does, there
doesn't appear to be too much I can do to stop it. I make sure and
sharpen
tools and it continues to happen. What can I do?

Walker