Is it me or do others have problems with bowl blanks from WOODCRAFT. The
last threee blanks I have gotten from them have 1, warpped, 2 cracked, and
the last one just blew up as I was turning it. Just your basic 4" by 2-1/2"
blank, it still had a 3/8" wall when both cross grain sides blew out. This
was a Blank that I got about 4 months ago and it has been sitting in my HOT
shed for all that time.

On Aug 27, 1:26 pm, "Marty G" wrote:
Is it me or do others have problems with bowl blanks from WOODCRAFT. The
last threee blanks I have gotten from them have 1, warpped, 2 cracked, and
the last one just blew up as I was turning it. Just your basic 4" by 2-1/2"
blank, it still had a 3/8" wall when both cross grain sides blew out. This
was a Blank that I got about 4 months ago and it has been sitting in my HOT
shed for all that time.

Hello Marty,

Most purchased bowl blanks are not fully dried. They are generally
sealed to hopefully keep them from cracking. When you turn them into a
bowl, it is best to rough turn them to 10 percent of the diameter as
wall thickness and them put them in a paper bag for a couple of
months, hopefully not in a hot shed. Your bowl probably had a lot of
stress built up in it from storage in the hot shed. When you then
turned it, you released the areas that were holding it together and it
simply flew apart. It is not Woodcraft that is to blame. It is they
way you are handling them.

Fred Holder
http://www.morewoodturning.net

marty - fred H gave you one good reply, another possibility is that you are
turning too fast - but fred's answer is more likely the culprit - the sound
of a bowl as you cut it changes if there is a crack - if you hear the
change, stop, put some CA in the crack, wait a moment and continue. I
rarely have a bowl blow up now, though it used to be more common - I suppose
it has something to do with my learning something. I've also discovered
that I just don't get catches any more - well, maybe once, but very rarely -
again, I imagine I learned something
"Marty G" wrote in message
...
Is it me or do others have problems with bowl blanks from WOODCRAFT. The
last threee blanks I have gotten from them have 1, warpped, 2 cracked, and
the last one just blew up as I was turning it. Just your basic 4" by
2-1/2" blank, it still had a 3/8" wall when both cross grain sides blew
out. This was a Blank that I got about 4 months ago and it has been
sitting in my HOT shed for all that time.

In article ,
"Marty G" wrote:

Is it me or do others have problems with bowl blanks from WOODCRAFT. The
last threee blanks I have gotten from them have 1, warpped, 2 cracked, and
the last one just blew up as I was turning it. Just your basic 4" by 2-1/2"
blank, it still had a 3/8" wall when both cross grain sides blew out. This
was a Blank that I got about 4 months ago and it has been sitting in my HOT
shed for all that time.

Not particularly good storage conditions. As such, may not have much to
do with woodcraft. A dry hunk of wood is never bone dry unless it's been
cooked in an oven and not exposed to air after that - so even if this
was a "dry" blank, cooking it in a hot shed is likely to make it shrink,
move and possibly crack. If you have blanks from 3 other suppliers
exposed to the same conditions for the same time and they don't have
problems, then you might have a real issue with woodcraft - otherwise I
think you have an issue with how you store your stock.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

What the others said. Most of them won't be totally dry. Maybe dry
enough to turn and finish, but wet enough so that they will warp. Any
wood will move or 'adjust' as you remove bulk, even if it is dry. As
far as the one that blew up, 2 possibilities. One is that you had a
catch, and that caused the explosion. The other is that there was a
flaw/crack in the wood that you didn't see, and it was the cause of
the failure. I will inspect each bowl blank for cracks before and
after I cut it out, then again after I have finished turned the
outside. Most of the time if it is cracked, if I can't turn it out, I
will burn it. Just not worth the effort to try to fix it. The super
glue in the crack can help, but it still leaves a weak spot, so if you
'repair' it, still turn with extra caution. If you have a bark
inclusion, super glue will not hold it together.

robo hippy

On Aug 28, 3:26*pm, Ecnerwal
wrote:
In article ,
*"Marty G" wrote:

Is it me or do others have problems with bowl blanks from WOODCRAFT. The
last threee blanks I have gotten from them have 1, warpped, 2 cracked, and
the last one just blew up as I was turning it. *Just your basic 4" by 2-1/2"
blank, it still had a 3/8" wall when both cross grain sides blew out. *This
was a Blank that I got about 4 months ago and it has been sitting in my HOT
shed for all that time.

Not particularly good storage conditions. As such, may not have much to
do with woodcraft. A dry hunk of wood is never bone dry unless it's been
cooked in an oven and not exposed to air after that - so even if this
was a "dry" blank, cooking it in a hot shed is likely to make it shrink,
move and possibly crack. If you have blanks from 3 other suppliers
exposed to the same conditions for the same time and they don't have
problems, then you might have a real issue with woodcraft - otherwise I
think you have an issue with how you store your stock.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by