I purchased a piece of Granadillo (2x6x 18 long) about 6 months ago.
It was sold as a piece of kiln dried wood and excellent for turning.
I have a jet Mini so I cut the slab int three 6 inch long pieces and
put it up on the shelf. I recently decided to use the wood to turn a
small shallow bowl. I found all thee pieces with a number of checks
in them and basically useless for anything but firewood. As I am new
to wood turning and the use of this type of wood I am wondering if I
would be wrong in asking the place I purchased the wood to give a
refund or replace the wood with something of equal value. I am not
sure If I didn't handle the wood properly or should I not expect any
compensation. Any comments will be greatly appreciated as I am not
sure where to go with this.

The wood which I know as granadillo is hard, heavy, brittle and turns
lousy. All exotics are difficult or impossible to kiln dry and the
problem compounds with the thickness. I've used 1.25 x 1.25 blanks for
tool handles but wouldn't to anything else with it.

I'd crack it up to experience. People in stores are there to sell you
stuff. Most don't turn. Few turners buy kiln dried stock. We've
learned to rough turn, dry the wood and then re-turn.

Bill

Bob Beckwith wrote:
I purchased a piece of Granadillo (2x6x 18 long) about 6 months ago.
It was sold as a piece of kiln dried wood and excellent for turning.
I have a jet Mini so I cut the slab int three 6 inch long pieces and
put it up on the shelf. I recently decided to use the wood to turn a
small shallow bowl. I found all thee pieces with a number of checks
in them and basically useless for anything but firewood. As I am new
to wood turning and the use of this type of wood I am wondering if I
would be wrong in asking the place I purchased the wood to give a
refund or replace the wood with something of equal value. I am not
sure If I didn't handle the wood properly or should I not expect any
compensation. Any comments will be greatly appreciated as I am not
sure where to go with this.

"Bob Beckwith" wrote in message
...
I purchased a piece of Granadillo (2x6x 18 long) about 6 months ago.
It was sold as a piece of kiln dried wood and excellent for turning.
I have a jet Mini so I cut the slab int three 6 inch long pieces and
put it up on the shelf. I recently decided to use the wood to turn a
small shallow bowl. I found all thee pieces with a number of checks
in them and basically useless for anything but firewood. As I am new
to wood turning and the use of this type of wood I am wondering if I
would be wrong in asking the place I purchased the wood to give a
refund or replace the wood with something of equal value. I am not
sure If I didn't handle the wood properly or should I not expect any
compensation. Any comments will be greatly appreciated as I am not
sure where to go with this.

Where it came from and where it is differed too much in humidity. You may
also have helped it by opening up new end grain to promote checking. Get a
bit of why under your belt at:
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fp.../fplgtr113.htm , where
chapters two and three will certainly give you insight into the problem.

Some woods come from such bad neighborhoods that they never amount to much.

Bob Beckwith wrote:
I purchased a piece of Granadillo (2x6x 18 long) about 6 months ago.
It was sold as a piece of kiln dried wood and excellent for turning.
I have a jet Mini so I cut the slab int three 6 inch long pieces and
put it up on the shelf. I recently decided to use the wood to turn a
small shallow bowl. I found all thee pieces with a number of checks
in them and basically useless for anything but firewood. As I am new
to wood turning and the use of this type of wood I am wondering if I
would be wrong in asking the place I purchased the wood to give a
refund or replace the wood with something of equal value. I am not
sure If I didn't handle the wood properly or should I not expect any
compensation. Any comments will be greatly appreciated as I am not
sure where to go with this.

I'd add, to what the others have said, that if you're going to cut
to length, you'd better invest in some end sealer, anchorseal is a
common brand. In Fact, you need to have a gallon of it anyway.
You are going to want to collect green wood and you'll need to
seal it on the ends to keep it from cracking. The alternative is
LDD. Let the games begin.

Dave in Fairfax
--
Dave Leader
reply-to doesn't work
use:
daveldr at att dot net
American Association of Woodturners
http://www.woodturner.org
Capital Area Woodturners
http://www.capwoodturners.org/
PATINA
http://www.Patinatools.org/

I haven't found Granadilo to check any more or less than other exotics
that have been kiln dried. I turn a lot of granadilo and find it nice to
turn. Much of the kiln dried exotic woods will get hair line checks in a
dry climate, like a heated shop. If the checks are fine just fill them
with super glue befor turning. Chances are that the glue won't even be
noticable in the finished product.

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 04:47:45 GMT, Bob Beckwith
wrote:

I purchased a piece of Granadillo (2x6x 18 long) about 6 months ago.
It was sold as a piece of kiln dried wood and excellent for turning.
I have a jet Mini so I cut the slab int three 6 inch long pieces and
put it up on the shelf.

Bob,

Your first mistake was cutting it up before you were ready to turn it.
Second was putting it up on a shelf (HOT!).
Third, don't expect wood to behave any certain way. Being a natural
material, wood does what wood wants to do, sometimes __regardless__ of
what we mere mortals may do to coax it to do otherwise.
"Kiln dried" doesn't mean diddly anyhow. A wood might be dried to 12%
moisture level in Guatemala, then sit in a wood yard somewhere until
it is figuratively soggy as a wet sponge. When it got to your dealer
it might have had twice the moisture it did when it left the kiln, and
if your dealer had it in a relatively cool place it likely didn't dry
out much until you stuck it up on that shelf.

Your retailer likely won't refund your money or replace your wood for
all of those reasons. Hang onto it and use it for smaller projects,
inlay pieces, knobs, finials...don't scrap it, just learn from it.


--
Chuck *#:^)
chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
Anti-spam sig: please remove "NO SPAM" from e-mail address to reply.


September 11, 2001 - Never Forget

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

What is LDD?
"Dave in Fairfax" wrote in message
...
Bob Beckwith wrote:
I purchased a piece of Granadillo (2x6x 18 long) about 6 months ago.
It was sold as a piece of kiln dried wood and excellent for turning.
I have a jet Mini so I cut the slab int three 6 inch long pieces and
put it up on the shelf. I recently decided to use the wood to turn a
small shallow bowl. I found all thee pieces with a number of checks
in them and basically useless for anything but firewood. As I am new
to wood turning and the use of this type of wood I am wondering if I
would be wrong in asking the place I purchased the wood to give a
refund or replace the wood with something of equal value. I am not
sure If I didn't handle the wood properly or should I not expect any
compensation. Any comments will be greatly appreciated as I am not
sure where to go with this.

I'd add, to what the others have said, that if you're going to cut
to length, you'd better invest in some end sealer, anchorseal is a
common brand. In Fact, you need to have a gallon of it anyway.
You are going to want to collect green wood and you'll need to
seal it on the ends to keep it from cracking. The alternative is
LDD. Let the games begin.

Dave in Fairfax
--
Dave Leader
reply-to doesn't work
use:
daveldr at att dot net
American Association of Woodturners
http://www.woodturner.org
Capital Area Woodturners
http://www.capwoodturners.org/
PATINA
http://www.Patinatools.org/

Sherfey's wrote:
What is LDD?

Liquid Dishwashing (hand not machine) Detergent. Preferably
Costco's Kirkland brand clear to amber, but other types have been
used, coloring may transfer to the wood. It is mixed, in a large,
bucket, 1:1 ratio, with water, and the freshly cut piece of wood
is kept immersed until turning. You wipe off the wood, DON"T try
to dry it, and turn it to completion then finish it immediately.
If you have to stop before the turning is done, you re-immerse it
until you are ready to continue turning. Since you will be
turning a recently soaking-wet, chuck of wood, you may want to
stand to one side when firing up your lathe. The line of liquid
that appears on the wall will clean up easily, it's mainly soap,
after all. The idea is that since the wood doesn't dry out, it
doesn't crack. The alternatives are boiing for long periods or
nuking and weighing repeatedly to dry and de-stress the wood. OR
turning to rough shape, bagging and waiting 1/2 a year to see if
it cracked before you can turn it the rest of the way. I prefer
to turn it all the way at once and finish it then and there.
Deferred pleasure isn't high on my list. You can store the wood
in the mix for a long time. I've got some that came down in
Isabel that I'll get around to at some point. If you want the
official documentation and blesssing, Leif will be along shortly.
%-)

Dave in Fairfax
--
Dave Leader
reply-to doesn't work
use:
daveldr at att dot net
American Association of Woodturners
http://www.woodturner.org
Capital Area Woodturners
http://www.capwoodturners.org/
PATINA
http://www.Patinatools.org/

"Dave in Fairfax" wrote in message
...
The alternatives are boiing for long periods or
nuking and weighing repeatedly to dry and de-stress the wood. OR
turning to rough shape, bagging and waiting 1/2 a year to see if
it cracked before you can turn it the rest of the way. I prefer
to turn it all the way at once and finish it then and there.
Deferred pleasure isn't high on my list.

How about using the known properties of the wood to your advantage?

For example, discard the 10% "rule" for turning, and the 1" per year "rule"
for drying. Turn to worst case plus - for instance, if you have a 10" bowl
cut tangentially out of fairly normal soft maple, take the 9% average
tangential shrinkage and your desired wall thickness of 1/4" and turn it to
leave a _total_ of 1 1/2 inches of wood between the two sides (3/4" each).
This will greatly diminish both your drying time and your checking problems
with a modicum of care.

As you have seen on your woodpile, and may confirm through empirical
information obtained from FPL, end grain loses water 10-15 times as rapidly
as face grain. There being no point on your bowl more than 1" from open air
along the endgrain, you can examine the average time to EMC from the same
data source - 3-5 months in the plank - and divide by ten. If two weeks
isn't short enough - try whatever else you think works.

You've already noticed that turning to 3/8 or less wall thickness will
provide moisture from the interior rapidly enough to keep surface checks
from forming during drying of bowl-shaped objects in almost all domestics.

With the really squirrelly stuff, you might want to have more patience and
thickness if you want circular. Odd grain angles make for strange warps.

George wrote:
How about using the known properties of the wood to your advantage?
snippage
try whatever else you think works.
more snippage
With the really squirrelly stuff, you might want to have more patience and
thickness if you want circular. Odd grain angles make for strange warps.

I was responding to the OPs' question of "What's LDD"? Which I'd
recommended due to his problems having cut some wood to turning
blank size and then let it sit, wherein it cracked. Had he cut it
fresh and then had a choice of ways to deal with it, the
conversation might have gone elsewhere. Anchorseal was
recommended, most anything but leaving it to crack as it dried. I
make my blanks from a variety of different angles and agree with
your feelings about odd angles and strange warps, between that and
natural edges a lot of fun can be had, but that doesn't really
apply to his question.

Dave in Fairfax
--
Dave Leader
reply-to doesn't work
use:
daveldr at att dot net
American Association of Woodturners
http://www.woodturner.org
Capital Area Woodturners
http://www.capwoodturners.org/
PATINA
http://www.Patinatools.org/

"Dave in Fairfax" wrote in message
...
George wrote:
How about using the known properties of the wood to your advantage?
snippage
try whatever else you think works.
more snippage
With the really squirrelly stuff, you might want to have more patience
and
thickness if you want circular. Odd grain angles make for strange
warps.

I was responding to the OPs' question of "What's LDD"? Which I'd
recommended due to his problems having cut some wood to turning
blank size and then let it sit, wherein it cracked. Had he cut it
fresh and then had a choice of ways to deal with it, the
conversation might have gone elsewhere. Anchorseal was
recommended, most anything but leaving it to crack as it dried. I
make my blanks from a variety of different angles and agree with
your feelings about odd angles and strange warps, between that and
natural edges a lot of fun can be had, but that doesn't really
apply to his question.


Uh, it was meant to answer the impatience you indicated with wood in your
post. Which is why I quoted it, not the original.

Wood is "fresh" as long as it is above the EMC. It is "green" above the
FSP. Through it all, it is wood, and responds to proper care predictably.

My recommendation is knowledge, which is much more likely to produce
consistent success than chickens, dishwater or Stolichnaya....

Thank you all for your informative and helpfully information on this
subject to a new turner with limited knowledge about wood. I must say
though that I recently bought the book "Understanding Wood" so this
should help. I was also to the store that sold me the piece of
Granadillo. (Windsor Plywood here in Red Deer) and they great fully
acknowledged my problem with the cracked wood and the fellow cut me
off a beautiful piece of 2x8 by 16inches long walnut and gave it to
me and advised I should wait until I am ready to turn it before I cut
it into turning blanks. I purchased my Jet Mini there as well as also
other materials over the years so they are very good to deal with.
Beauty of dealing with a smaller shop and someone you know. Thanks
again all.

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 04:47:45 GMT, Bob Beckwith
wrote:

I purchased a piece of Granadillo (2x6x 18 long) about 6 months ago.
It was sold as a piece of kiln dried wood and excellent for turning.
I have a jet Mini so I cut the slab int three 6 inch long pieces and
put it up on the shelf. I recently decided to use the wood to turn a
small shallow bowl. I found all thee pieces with a number of checks
in them and basically useless for anything but firewood. As I am new
to wood turning and the use of this type of wood I am wondering if I
would be wrong in asking the place I purchased the wood to give a
refund or replace the wood with something of equal value. I am not
sure If I didn't handle the wood properly or should I not expect any
compensation. Any comments will be greatly appreciated as I am not
sure where to go with this.