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CA glue procedures

M

MICHAEL GOLD

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Dec 29, 2011
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ARCATA,CA
Hi,... working with green turned oak. The bowls are raw oak finish sanded. A few acceptable cracks every so often. some 1/125"+/-(which I would like to minimize), a few wider @ 1/32"+/-(which I would like to show off). I would appreciate any help with procedures/techniques using CA glue for filling/stabilizing such cracks....thank you for any assistance........michael
 
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MICHAEL GOLD said:
Hi,... working with green turned oak. The bowls are raw oak finish sanded. A few acceptable cracks every so often. some 1/125"+/-(which I would like to minimize), a few wider @ 1/32"+/-(which I would like to show off). I would appreciate any help with procedures/techniques using CA glue for filling/stabilizing such cracks....thank you for any assistance........michael
Click to expand...

First if the bowl is not dry, get the surface damp with a plant mister, and put it in a paper bag with the top closed. Small cracks may close up with slow drying.

When I get an even wall thickness less than 1/2" on a bowl with curves and no sharp edges. They almost never develop cracks if I slow the drying.
First thing I do off the lathe is wash the bowl in water to re- wet the endgrain. Then I put it in a paper bag to slow the drying. This acts like a humidity chamber.
Change the bags if they get damp.
Bowls under 1/4" - I open the top of the bag the second day, on the third day they go on a shelf, 4th day they can be finished.

Below is link for a demo on green wood turning:
http://aaw.hockenbery.net/greenwood-HO.pdf
I use three laurel oak bowls as examples near the end to show the effects of design on drying success.
A natural edge bowl and 1" thick bowl for re-turning that has decent curve have no cracks. The 1" thick bowl with poor curves has a couple large cracks.


As far as CA. it is difficult to get it in the crack and not in the bowl. Getting it on the bowl will make a discoloration in the finish.
I would would use thin shellac or thin lacquer as a sanding sealer. Then put the thinner line of thin CA in the crack you want to stop ( this also prevents the crack from ever closing). The sealer should keep the CA from wicking into the wood.

As for filling the cracks. I usually just detail them a bit with a woodturner. Removing any fibers that are in the crack.

I generally avoid using CA on bowls. I dislike what it does the finish more than I dislike the crack.

Have fun,
Al
 
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I live in the post oak belt, a variety of white oak, that covers much of central Texas and have turned some things out of it as well as cutting a lot of it for firewood. It loves to split as it dries which is great if you are cutting firewood, although it might be a problem for turning. I generally turn dry gnarly pieces of post oak because it has beautiful character and it isn't going to move or crack more than it already has.

Here is one remedy for CA staining -- spray the area around the crack with lacquer before applying the CA and then hit it with accelerator. The lacquer can then be turned or sanded away. Another solution if your final finish is lacquer is to apply the CA and not worry about staining adjacent wood because it will match the lacquer finish -- at least that has been my experience with Deft lacquer. If you use water based lacquer then this probably won't work.
 
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