Question on Fresh Cut Wood

[Bobostro61]

A neighbor of mine had a couple trees cut down today. One was maple, not sure what the other was. I grabbed some logs to use for turning on the lathe. A couple are about 12" round. Is there anything special I need to or should do prior to sticking it on a shelf in the garage for a couple years to dry? What about turning it green? Is that not good?

Thanks for any advise.

 

[robutacion]

Rough green turning, would be your best way, you would have some half done bowls/pieces, they would be ready in 6 months, little storage room compare with the full logs and you would have lots of fun turning them green while the wood is soft and moist so, no dust.

There are number of wood sealer's that specially made for soaking/coating the green wood, in Australia I use and suggest the Fungishield from Feast Watson but I don't think you can get it in the US.

If you are going to live the logs to dry, I would suggest that at least you seal or paint (acrylic paint) the ends of the logs, if you want them to dry a little faster, slice the logs in half after the ends are sealed and stored them in a well ventilated place, away from the ground/cement, etc.

These are my suggestions and how I do it...!

Good luck,

Cheers
George

 

[Jim Burr]

Green turning is great and fun too! But you will have to dry it. There are several methods; DNA soak, Anchorseal, paperbag with shavings and I'm sure a few others.
Wet turning will require that you turn to 10% of your finished size then finish turn when dry. I've had great luck wrapping the blanks with plastic wrap and poking a couple holes here and there so some moisture can escape.

 

[Ted iin Michigan]

Green turning is, indeed, fun. Couple things to consider: 1-If you are turning green, turn as soon as possible after cutting. If the end of the piece shows checking, don't do it - dangerous! 2-If you turn green, get ready to take a bath. It throws a lot of water! 3-Clean up as soon after turning as you can. Wet wood will rust bare metal and will create mold and mildew if you don't. 4-Turn the green bowl thicker than you intend, then wrap it in paper (newspaper works) and then put it in a brown paper shopping bag. Label it and hang it up to dry (3-6 months). Remount it and then turn the "dry" piece to final size and finish it. n

There are videos on You Tube. Watch a couple. And enjoy turning green wood.

 

[TellicoTurning]

Bob,
I have had good luck with turning green wood to near final size, leave it a little over sized for truing up after it drys, then I microwave the wood in 3-5 minute cycles, on low heat, allowing it to cool between cycles until it reaches a relatively dry state. I don't have a meter to check moisture yet, one's on my list to get soon, but I do have a postal scale that I weigh the turning until it stops loosing weight, then you can true up any warp and apply your finish... I have also turned pieces to a finished size and done the microwave bit and not had any really serious movement in some woods...

I do have an old microwave in my shop just for this purpose... you might not want to use the lady of the house's WM for your woods...

 

[David Keller]

I'd process sooner rather than later. You're probably not gonna have much luck drying whole logs that size. The whole 'year per inch' thing that gets thrown around is generally not valid with thicker timbers... In other words, you won't have dry wood at the center for a 12" log twelve years from now.

If you're looking for bowls and boxes, you're better off rough turning them then returning them after drying. If you want spindle stock, cut it slightly over size and wax the end grain at a minimum. I usually go ahead and round up peppermill blanks between centers before waxing the endgrain since it reduces the volume of the wood I'm trying to dry. Oh, and eliminate the pith from anything you want to survive.

 

[Wildman]

I harvest my own wood for turning. I try to determine bowl and spindle blanks as processing logs. Lot has to do with diameter of logs and lengths. Anything over five inches in diameter will split and end seal with caning wax or latex paint. I try to leave blanks at least twelve to eighteen inches long. Basically end seal both bowl and spindle blanks before storing in my wood shed. I store blanks with bark on whether bowl or spindle blank. I do try to take out pith when splitting.

You can buy commercial end sealers like Anchor seal & Green Wood sealer too.

I will rough turn bowl blanks and store on the floor in back of my shop. Depending upon time of year may or may not store in brown grocery bags. May or may not add chips. Live in zone five for mold and staining, so depends upon time of year and how wet wood is bags and or chips a temporary thing. Only time use plastic bags is when wood on the lathe and going to take a break. I do not end seal after rough turning.

I will finish rough turned bowl blanks in as little as three months or year or two. If want oval bowl will turn thin, sand, and finish same day.