I was just wondering if any one has dared take over part of her sacred airing cupboard to dry the roughed out bowls!
I'm thinking of it, maybe she will let me have one tiny wee corner!

Mark

A. I am the cook, not my wife so any airing cupboard would be mine.
B. You do not yet have the turning bug if the airing cupboard would be large
enough, unless of coarse you have a humungous cupboard. At any one time I
would have over 75 bowl blanks drying, at a conservative guess.

--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS Canada
www.aroundthewoods.com

Sniperborg wrote:
I was just wondering if any one has dared take over part of her sacred
airing cupboard to dry the roughed out bowls!
I'm thinking of it, maybe she will let me have one tiny wee corner!

For all you left-pondians out there, an "airing cupboard" is a kind of
built-in closet in most homes in the UK where the hot water tank (often
known as an "immersion") is kept. Usually the tank itself occupies a
good portion of this, but above it there are usually wooden, open
slatted shelves which are handy for keeping sheets, blankets, towels
etc. in. And, although, said tank should be so well insulated that no
heat escapes, it often does thus making said cupboard an ideal place for
the final stages of drying out blanks. BTW, in Ireland (just to confuse
matters) they call it a "hot press"
--
Alun Saunders

[quote=Darrell Feltmate]A. I am the cook, not my wife so any airing cupboard would be mine.
B. You do not yet have the turning bug if the airing cupboard would be large
enough, unless of coarse you have a humungous cupboard. At any one time I
would have over 75 bowl blanks drying, at a conservative guess.

I do about 50% of the cooking, but the laundry is her deptment :-)
Having only just started about 1 month ago its going to take a few weeks to rough up quite a few bowl blanks. So i have now put my first six in the airing cupboard.
How long do you think i will have to wait till there ready to finish?

If i finish on average three bowls a weekend, how many blanks would you need to have in production, allowing for drying time?

It seems that getting started in wood turning seems a like a lot of waiting. First waiting for the delivery of your first lathe, then having played with a few pieces of aged wood found in wood pile, taken in doors to show all and find next day its warped. Now its get in green wood, rough turn and put in a store to dry, the wait begins. All i want to do is play with my new lathe arghhhhh.......

"Alun" wrote in message
...
Sniperborg wrote:
I was just wondering if any one has dared take over part of her sacred
airing cupboard to dry the roughed out bowls!
I'm thinking of it, maybe she will let me have one tiny wee corner!

For all you left-pondians out there, an "airing cupboard" is a kind of
built-in closet in most homes in the UK where the hot water tank (often
known as an "immersion") is kept. Usually the tank itself occupies a good
portion of this, but above it there are usually wooden, open slatted
shelves which are handy for keeping sheets, blankets, towels etc. in. And,
although, said tank should be so well insulated that no heat escapes, it
often does thus making said cupboard an ideal place for the final stages
of drying out blanks. BTW, in Ireland (just to confuse matters) they call
it a "hot press"

Don't use it early on. If you need to know why "dumb Polack" is considered
redundant by many, consider the following:

While finishing up the medium cherry log between chores, I roughed this
out - thought I had detected and removed the heart check put it on the
table - and went upstairs to serve dinner last Thursday.

Saturday, as I go to turn a piece before Norm, I notice what's pictured.
Damn! Did I really miss the crack? Did the soft spot in the center hide
it? Not usually that inept, even when I'm hurrying because the wife's
already coming in the door, and the table's not set.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...e/f2267132.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...e/844aab66.jpg

Then the light flickers, albeit dimly. If you leave the piece up on top of
the secondary table near the hot air duct, you get a bit of drying boost.
Only the end facing the duct was damaged, but the count is 13 out 0f 14
pieces for that log. Rest are safely drying on shelves away from the forced
air. Do I feel Polish!

The fruit woods do this a lot more than most other woods. I never leave
cherry more than 3/8 inch thick. The softer rotten part on the top of
your bowl will heighten the risk, as will any sap wood. To make sure
that you have removed all of the radial cracks off of the pith, a drop
or two of the thin CA glue will wick down and highlihgt any existing
cracks.
robo hippy

"robo hippy" wrote in message
ups.com...
The fruit woods do this a lot more than most other woods. I never leave
cherry more than 3/8 inch thick. The softer rotten part on the top of
your bowl will heighten the risk, as will any sap wood. To make sure
that you have removed all of the radial cracks off of the pith, a drop
or two of the thin CA glue will wick down and highlihgt any existing
cracks.
robo hippy


It's quite a stretch from our local black cherry and choke cherry to
"fruit," that's for sure. They grow unstressed and unstunted by the pruning
hand of man, and therefore behave pretty much like the soft maples that grow
around them. Never have treated them any better, nor received any worse
from them than other stuff. Sapwood is not a problem, especially on old
pieces like this, where the heartwood color has percolated into it already.
I prefer it fresh and bright for contrast, but you can't get everything in a
firewood delivery.

Anyway, you need to examine the second picture to understand what took me a
bit to catch on to. The crack does not go through and through, and is
therefore the result of drying stress placed on it by yours truly who left
it in the downwash of the heat duct, not from the heart check I excised.
The standard heart check would have separated as the long sides dropped.

I use a similar measure to yours to detect a crack that may have closed,
using mineral spirits.