I have read posts where people say to partially turn bowls then store them in a brown paper bag for a few months, then finish turning them.

1) why store them in a brown paper bag and is the bag sealed, left open or folded over?
2) where do you store them? in the shop/garage, indoors?

Thanks
Ted

On Mar 1, 8:31*am, "Ted" wrote:
I have read posts where people say to partially turn bowls then store them in a brown paper bag for a few months, then finish turning them.

1) why store them in a brown paper bag and is the bag sealed, left open or folded over?
2) where do you store them? in the shop/garage, indoors?

Thanks
Ted

Hello Ted,

The paper bag helps slow the drying of the rough turned bowl. It
should be sealed and should be stored in a dry area out of the
sunshine. What I've found even more effective than placing the bowl in
a brown paper bag is to wrap the outside of the bowl with a brown
paper bag and tape the bag at the rim of the bowl leaving the hollowed
inside open. Store this bowl with the hollowed side down on stickers
so that some air can get into the inside. This seems to work about as
well as anything I've tried. Most of the time, I simply rough turn,
write on the date of turning, and throw them on the shelf to dry.
Sometimes they crack and most of the time they don't.

Fred Holder
http://www.morewoodturning.net

Ted wrote:
I have read posts where people say to partially turn bowls then store them in a brown paper bag for a few months, then finish turning them.

1) why store them in a brown paper bag and is the bag sealed, left open or folded over?
2) where do you store them? in the shop/garage, indoors?

Thanks
Ted
This is what I do when starting with green (wet) wood. When green wood
dries it warps. You can go ahead and finish turning it if you don't
mind oval bowls. Turning it down to a wall thickness of about 10% of
the bowl diameter seems about optimal and this makes for quicker
drying than if you left the blank un-turned.

The bag promotes even drying throughout and helps prevent cracking and
checking. I just fold the bag down and stack it in the un-heated part
of the shop. If the bowl is too large to fold the top down over it, I
use two bags, inserting the open end of the one with the bowl in it
into the other bag.

I write the date and type of wood on the bag. But first I weigh the
bowl. After about a month I start re weighing the rough bowls every 2
or 3 weeks and recording the weight. When the weight remains the same
for 2 or 3 weighings I consider it dry. I have a digital scale for
just this purpose.

If the wood is sopping wet, I let it sit out about a day to dry off
some before bagging. This helps keep the mildew down.

Note: there are many ways to do everything. I have tried boiling the
blanks without noticeable change in the number of spoiled ones. Some
woods will still crack often with bagging, and for these I may seal
the end grain with wax emulsion before bagging.

--
Gerald Ross
Cochran, GA

Ambiguity is the first refuge of the wrong.

And while my dear wife was gone on a trip - I microwaved
almost finished - final sanding done by hand - and when the
bowl - done on defrost or low power - the bowl comes out
hot - not much if any steam - and you use gloves - it is plastic -
and you can shape the bowl into an oval or other - gently
and as it cools it will become fixed.

Lots of tricks out there.

Martin

wrote:
On Mar 1, 8:31 am, "Ted" wrote:
I have read posts where people say to partially turn bowls then store them in a brown paper bag for a few months, then finish turning them.

1) why store them in a brown paper bag and is the bag sealed, left open or folded over?
2) where do you store them? in the shop/garage, indoors?

Thanks
Ted

Hello Ted,

The paper bag helps slow the drying of the rough turned bowl. It
should be sealed and should be stored in a dry area out of the
sunshine. What I've found even more effective than placing the bowl in
a brown paper bag is to wrap the outside of the bowl with a brown
paper bag and tape the bag at the rim of the bowl leaving the hollowed
inside open. Store this bowl with the hollowed side down on stickers
so that some air can get into the inside. This seems to work about as
well as anything I've tried. Most of the time, I simply rough turn,
write on the date of turning, and throw them on the shelf to dry.
Sometimes they crack and most of the time they don't.

Fred Holder
http://www.morewoodturning.net