Mac:
I see Leif has answered, but my personal experience is somewhat different.... I'll
reply in-line below:
mac davis wrote:
Ok, tried it on 3 bowls this weekend, after reading your post and studying Ron
Kent's page...
Questions:
Have you used it on soft wood, or only hard woods?
I use it almost exclusively on softwoods, norfolk pine is my favorite.
Does the LDD/water combo tint your work?
(with pine and fir, it turned them the same apple yellow as the LDD)
I don't notice any tinting of the wood when done...
If you finish turn all the color (see above) off when thinning walls, etc., do
you then have to dry it conventionally, or can you still
stain/seal/buff/oil/whatever ?
Was my procedure roughly correct:
Rough turned very green, wet bowls and soaked them in 50/50 LDD over night....
I rough turn as wet as possible, depending upon the wood. For clear wood, right
away after cutting, if not, let it spalt some, then cut it (the water percentage
will usually be a little lower after spalting). Either way, there is water flying
around during the early part of turning, at least. I don't use LDD until I'm done
with the rough turning. If I need a break (hours or days) I just cover the bowl
blank with a plastic bag, sealing it up with spring clamps. I use faceplates for
rough turning, then turn a foot for a chuck for my sanding process. Yep, the
faceplates do rust a bit if I wait too long to get back to them, but not enough to
be a problem... I've never lost a bowl because I stopped turning part way through,
though sometimes, the spalting has changed (continued) while the blank was
bagged...
I use a mix of 4 parts water to one part LDD, and have about 30 gallons of solution
in a big plastic barrel (vat). To this, I add a half gallon of isopropyl (rubbing)
alcohol. The alcohol mostly keeps things from growing in the LDD vat. Some other
fellows think it may help the penetration, but I haven't run definitive tests yet
to really find out.
The rough turned wood goes in the LDD vat for a few days to a week or so, depending
upon how much I'm turning. If I'm turning a lot, then I push the oldest piece out
in about three or four days. If I'm turning less, I'll let them soak for a week
(or until I remember they are in the vat).
After removal from the LDD vat, I put them on a rack and let them dry. Mostly
"upside down" so they drain. After a few days, I'll flip them upright and leave
them that way until Dry... This means anywhere from a few weeks to months,
depending upon how thick the rough turning was. If there is any significant
moisture in the rough turned bowl, I wait before sanding.
Put them on a drying rack, flipping them occasionally, until dry to the touch..
(Ron's method?)
Mounted on lathe and finish turned and sanded them..
Once they've dried, I sand. If I didn't do such a great job with the roughing, I
tend to drag out the "50 grit gouge" (I can go down to 24 grit in an emergency) to
finish shaping and such before proceeding with sanding. (I've taken a 5/8" thick
bowl down to 1/8" in little time, and don't have to worry about chatter or blowing
it up with a catch in the "final shaping" phase. Sanding is done with the bowl
mounted in a chuck and using power sanders (Sioux/Milwaukee angle drills and PS or
Hook and Loop paper on appropriate pads.) All sanding is done dry. The residual
LDD makes for easy sanding, the paper doesn't have any build up, but you have to
wear a mask because you can get some really fine dust in the air (and it does tend
to taste like soap, DAMHIKT). I typically sand to 600 grit, alternating the spin
direction of the lathe with each grit change along the way. On that really special
object I might go to 1200/1500, but it's a rare day I do something like that.
Wet sanded 1st one with mineral oil... didn't seem to pick up the luster that
this process usually does..
Once sanded, the bowl is cut off of the chuck, the bottom finish sanded, then it
goes into the "soup" which is a modified vat of danish oil until the bowl
saturates. (about 20 gallons of it) At first, the bowl floats, and needs to be
held down, but after awhile, it no longer floats. The process can vary from a
week to two or more, depending upon thickness before the object saturates. Here's
where you can really tell if it had any residual moisture, because you can see the
difference. After saturation, a dip and dry, buff and repeat process builds up a
surface film that helps protect the resultant object. A coat of wax and the bowl
is off to a gallery.
Stained and waxed the other 2, they seemed to be very nice, but all three still
felt slightly heavier than they would/wood have if dried "naturally... maybe
because it was soft wood???
If it's heavier, it's still probably wet, and no matter what finish you put on it,
it will eventually look bad... (once the water eventually gets out it will make the
finish dull, at the very least).
I think Leif mentioned he thought that the LDD is only one cell deep, but I can
tell you it's a lot deeper than that, because as I sand, I get soapy sawdust all
the way down to where I stop. Perhaps if you are only in the LDD vat for a few
hours, it may only go one deep, but that's not why I use LDD in the first place.
HELP ME, MARGE!!!!
mac
Please remove splinters before emailing
Good Luck!
-_Rick
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