I have an 8 inch section of walnut I would like to turn into a bowl. If I mount the whole log I'll have the pith on either wall. Is this doable or is it sure to crack?
If you leave a heavy enough wall to 2nd turn, the chances of cracking go way up. CA is not a structural adhesive in my opinion, it won't prevent cracking.Thank you for that. BTW do you finish turn a bowl like that or leave the tenon on and finish turn when drier. Also do you think CA over the pith will prevent cracking?
Thank you for that. BTW do you finish turn a bowl like that or leave the tenon on and finish turn when drier. Also do you think CA over the pith will prevent cracking?
That calabash deserves to be on the picture gallery. Nice one!I did a few calabash bowls (not natural edge) this weekend from whole walnut crotches.
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Wet turned to finished thickness. These have a bit thicker walls than I might normally do, because I'm leaving thickness to experiment with pewa patches for any cracks. They're in paper bags now for a while. After they dry a bit I'll expose them to open air - have had success with that process on other pieces from this log.
I won't be surprised if I get some cracking around the pith, but even if I wasn't planning on the pewas, it would just add to the character of these pieces IMO.
I've got a couple walnut hollow forms I did around the pith (so the pith is in the bottom, but removed by the hole in the top). These are now a couple years old and no issues with the pith in the bottom. I've also done quite a few aspen and beetle-kill ponderosa pine hollow forms around the pith - no issues with those either. The type of wood (and to some degree the individual tree) does matter I think.
I don't have a list of what woods work and what doesn't. I just try it and if it works, it works.
If not, it's just wood, it'll still burn.