Thanks for the advice on the new tools .It all makes sense so i will
hold off a bit longer before i go and get some new ones.My next question
is: I have access to a fair bit of green wood both cherry and red oak
..How to you guys go about using it on a lathe without it cracking or
splitting?Use a chemical to treat the wood or dry it somehow?
Thanks again for any help .

Hello Jesse,

If you rough turn it to about 10 percent of the diameter for wall
thickness; i.e., a 10 inch diameter bowl would have a one inch wall
thickness. You should be able to then put it on the shelf in a cool
dry place and it should be ready to final turn in three to six months.
There are many treatments that you can use to help prevent cracking
and minimizing warping, but none of them work on every piece of wood.

Steven Russell uses paper bags to dry his rough turned bowls with good
results. He sells a DVD that has his paper bag drying protocol on it.

I've used Cedar Shield (now Turner's Choice) with good results. I
generally soak the piece for a day or two and then let it set for at
least three days before turning it. You can also soak the rough turned
bowl and get pretty good results. The Hawaii turners have been
spraying it on the finished turned bowl and had very good results. It
is a bit expensive however.

The alcohol soak works pretty well and seems to help the wood dry a
bit quicker and with less distortion.

I've also had very good luck with Pentacryl, which helps stop cracking
and checking and I believe helps the wood to dry quicker. I turned a
wet Redwood salad bowl (14" in diameter) with a 1-1/2" wall thickness
that I treated with Pentacryl and it was dry enough to final turn in
three weeks and without any cracks and a minimum of distortion. A
second bowl of the same size was turned at the same time and treated
with Pentacryl. I waited two months to final turn it but is was very
dry. Pentacryl is about the same cost as Turner's Choice. Both help
prevent checking and cracking and reduce distortion.

Richard Raffan rough turns his bowl and throws them in a pile for a
couple of days and then puts them in cardboard boxes with the date of
turning, type of wood, etc. When he gets an order he selects boxes
that have been drying long enough and final turns them.

So there are many ways to handle wet wood, but rough turning is the
safest way to handle it and preserve it. If you don't have time to
rough turn it then seal the ends with something, Anchor Seal is pretty
good. So people use water base paint and one woodturner I know uses
Liquid Nail and claims it is the best ever.

If you do a search on this group, you'll find even more methods used
to treat wet or freshly cut wood.

Welcome to the world of woodturning and good luck.

Fred Holder
http://www.fholder.com

On Mar 29, 3:13 pm, Jesse wrote:
Thanks for the advice on the new tools .It all makes sense so i will
hold off a bit longer before i go and get some new ones.My next question
is: I have access to a fair bit of green wood both cherry and red oak
.How to you guys go about using it on a lathe without it cracking or
splitting?Use a chemical to treat the wood or dry it somehow?
Thanks again for any help .

Hi Jesse

I will give you a short and simple "how I do it" and then I will sent
you to Darrell's website for you to go and spend the rest of the
weekend, (yes it should take that long to absorb it all) going back
and forward all over his site that he has build up over a number of
years, and has kept it kind of simple and down to earth.
You also have to appreciate that he is not trying to sell anything, so
no snake oil BS as we see al to often on other sites.
Here it goes, and none of this is chiseled in stone, I improvise as is
needed.
The wood log blocked up off of the ground, I measure the Diameter, and
saw off a length that is equal or slightly more to the D.
Place that piece on a stump and decide where I will make the cut or
cuts and draw a line to guide me.
Place the piece on its side, and hammer two steel bars next to the
piece so as to keep it from moving, something like this, \O/, and saw
it in two.
Now I will remove at least one of the steel bars, and place one of the
halves with its newly cut face up, take a compass and scribe a circle.
Now I will cut the corners of the blank off, so it now looks like a
stop sign 8 sided.
Screw a face plate to the blank and turn the outside to the shape you
like, and incorporate a way to hold it so you can flip it over and
hollow out the other side.
Done with that, I will take a thick paper bag and put my new rough out
in it, close the bag and place if out of the way in a cool and
airstill place to sit for a few weeks, taking a peek once in a while
and when it feels drier I will take it out of the bag (like in 3 or 4
or 5 weeks) and set it again in that same spot to keep drying for a
while ( maybe a month or two or three) then I will give it a place
with all the other bowls that are waiting, but you could probably
finish turn it by then.
Here's a few pictures of what I just have tried to tell you.
http://homepage.mac.com/l.vanderloo/PhotoAlbum26.html
End of story
And here's the link to Darrell's site
http://www.aroundthewoods.com/bowls.shtml

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo




On Mar 29, 7:13 pm, Jesse wrote:
Thanks for the advice on the new tools .It all makes sense so i will
hold off a bit longer before i go and get some new ones.My next question
is: I have access to a fair bit of green wood both cherry and red oak
.How to you guys go about using it on a lathe without it cracking or
splitting?Use a chemical to treat the wood or dry it somehow?
Thanks again for any help .

Jesse
Try my site for an answer. More than you need to know, but it is fun.
http://aroundthewoods.com/bowls.shtml

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

"Jesse" wrote in message
news
Thanks for the advice on the new tools .It all makes sense so i will hold
off a bit longer before i go and get some new ones.My next question is: I
have access to a fair bit of green wood both cherry and red oak .How to
you guys go about using it on a lathe without it cracking or splitting?Use
a chemical to treat the wood or dry it somehow?
Thanks again for any help .

"Jesse" wrote in message
news
Thanks for the advice on the new tools .It all makes sense so i will hold
off a bit longer before i go and get some new ones.My next question is: I
have access to a fair bit of green wood both cherry and red oak .How to
you guys go about using it on a lathe without it cracking or splitting?Use
a chemical to treat the wood or dry it somehow?
Thanks again for any help .

Turn the wood green to overthick if you're going to re-turn it, desired
thickness if not. Let the water evaporate, but not too fast. If you have a
high humidity area like a basement, could be all you need to do is leave
them alone for a couple three months for an inch thickness. You can game
the system by studying wood technology at
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fp.../fplgtr113.htm where you
will find the average shrinkage numbers for various woods. Essentially, the
thinner you turn at the outset, the sooner it dries, so if you anticipate
the loss due to average warp, you can turn thinner than the 10% people keep
talking about.

All kinds of ways to push drying, but all carry a risk of loss greater than
the patience method. Even some absurd ideas and some snake oil out there
periodically. Some places are better than others, some otherwise great
information is interspersed with stuff you have to shake your head at. Get
the old turner instructions through the URL at Darrell's site and maybe
these for something to read while the wood dries.

http://www.woodturningonline.com/Tur...g_to_turn.html
http://www.a1studio.freeserve.co.uk/...o/wtintro.html
http://www.customwooddesign.com/turninggreenwood-1.html

Hello Jesse,

My website has an educational library that has several articles on drying
wood by various methods. The main educational library is located he

http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com...-articles.html

Welcome to woodturning and best wishes to you in all of your woodturning
endeavours!

On 3/29/07 6:13 PM, in article
et, "Jesse"
wrote:

Thanks for the advice on the new tools .It all makes sense so i will
hold off a bit longer before i go and get some new ones.My next question
is: I have access to a fair bit of green wood both cherry and red oak
.How to you guys go about using it on a lathe without it cracking or

splitting?Use a chemical to treat the wood or dry it somehow?
Thanks again for any help .

--
Better Woodturning and Finishing Through Chemistry...

Steven D. Russell
Eurowood Werks Woodturning Studio, The Woodlands, Texas
Machinery, Tool and Product Testing for the Woodworking and Woodturning
Industries

Website: http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com

Free Monthly Woodturning Newsletter * Your email is kept confidential
Sign up at: http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com/lathe-talk.html

Another method is to turn the green wood to final thickness, about 1/2
to 1/4 inch, and let it dry and warp, then sand and finish. Usual
drying time is one to two weeks. Turning thinner reduces the chances
of cracking, as long as you dry it slow. Sanding is a bit of a chore,
and it really helps to have variable speed (not a reeves drive), and a
power sander.
robo hippy

On Mar 30, 3:22 am, Steve Russell wrote:
Hello Jesse,

My website has an educational library that has several articles on drying
wood by various methods. The main educational library is located he

http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com...-articles.html

Welcome to woodturning and best wishes to you in all of your woodturning
endeavours!

On 3/29/07 6:13 PM, in article
et, "Jesse"

wrote:
Thanks for the advice on the new tools .It all makes sense so i will
hold off a bit longer before i go and get some new ones.My next question
is: I have access to a fair bit of green wood both cherry and red oak
.How to you guys go about using it on a lathe without it cracking or

splitting?Use a chemical to treat the wood or dry it somehow?
Thanks again for any help .

--
Better Woodturning and Finishing Through Chemistry...

Steven D. Russell
Eurowood Werks Woodturning Studio, The Woodlands, Texas
Machinery, Tool and Product Testing for the Woodworking and Woodturning
Industries

Website:http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com

Free Monthly Woodturning Newsletter * Your email is kept confidential
Sign up at:http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com/lathe-talk.html