Hollow forms

[Ray Ewing]

Sorry if this has been covered before. I did a search and could not find anything that answered my question. Almost all the threads I read on hollow forms seemed to refer to wet wood. What are the thoughts/ramifications on using dry wood to do a hollow form? All replies appreciated. Ray

 

[Bill Boehme]

Dry wood is a zillion times harder to hollow although carbide scrapers can make the job much easier. Generally speaking, hollowing is a scraping operation. Dry wood will dull a HSS (high speed steel) scraper rather quickly. You will generate mostly dust and small chips when scraping the interior of a dry hollow form. The wet vs. dry issue is much more significant if the piece is large. Just as you would do with a twice turned bowl, you would rough turn the green hollow form and then do the final turning after the wood has warped and dried.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

Sorry if this has been covered before. I did a search and could not find anything that answered my question. Almost all the threads I read on hollow forms seemed to refer to wet wood. What are the thoughts/ramifications on using dry wood to do a hollow form? All replies appreciated. Ray

Even if you think the wood is dry unless it was cut years ago, you will find it is not completely dry and or stable. I prefer to double turn a hollow form, just like Bill says. That been said, if you only have dry wood, it is perfectly OK to use it.

 

[Bill Blasic]

I prefer hollowing dry wood so I don't have to worry about wood movement, twisting etc. I use hollowing systems so it makes for easier hollowing.and can finish the piece without worry.

 

[hockenbery]

I much prefer to hollow wet wood.
Less dust, easier to cut, wood has better color- especially sapwood., easier to keep bark on a NE form.

very difficult to dry a large blank and it takes a long time.

I hollow mostly through the face grain. The forms dry in 3-4 days then sanding and finishing,
They do go oval viewed from the top but that adds to the forms beauty.

 

[john lucas]

I do both and to me the difference is more like turning hard wood vs soft wood. Neither is hard to turn I just have to take lighter cuts with the hard or dry wood. Most of my hollow forms.are.small.so.its.not hard to pick a piece.of wood that's dry or close to dry. I do agree if you pick wood that is say 8" in diameter it will almost always be wet near the middle even if its many years old.

 

[Stan Semeniuk]

I hollow both. Dry wood is a little harder but as John has said just lighten up on your cuts. I do hollow more dry would than wet as I work full time and a piece may sit till the following weekend.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

I am another voice for dry wood. The only time I "choose" to turn wet wood is when I attend a class or hands on demo and wet wood is what's being handed out. Most of my own turning has a hollow form component.

Wet wood is messy to turn, ill mannered in drying and problematic to sand when wet. Dry wood is not hard to turn per se. It may be damp in the middle, but only damp, and oddly enough that is what gets cut out in making a hollow form.

What are the thoughts/ramifications on using dry wood to do a hollow form?

Either way there are no particularly serious ramifications, so if you have a block of dry wood and a block of wet wood give them both a spin and see if you like where you get to and how you get there.

 

[Ray Ewing]

My thanks to all who replied. i can see each point if view and both make sense. I expect I will do both wet and dry wood at some time or another. Definitely willuse lighter cuts the dry wood. Thanks again.

Ray

 

[John Jordan]

I have turned only green wood for 35 years, and my pieces don't suffer from cracks or weird distortions. It just takes a little knowledge. Take a look at some of the articles on my website. www.johnjordanwoodturning.com Search my name in the photo gallery here and you can see some of my pieces-all turned from green wood.

Turning green wood gives you many more options in your choice of material, and its much more pleasant.

John

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Even if you think the wood is dry unless it was cut years ago, you will find it is not completely dry and or stable. I prefer to double turn a hollow form, just like Bill says. That been said, if you only have dry wood, it is perfectly OK to use it.

The bigger the piece is the less chance it will be dry throughout as an example I one was given a large walnut crotch the had been stored in a shed for 30 years and the sap wood was all rotten but the heart wood was still in good shape. I rough turned a blank for a pie crust table top about 20" diameter by about 1 1/2" thick and it was noticeably damp to the touch so I had to give it another year before finishing it. Doing a hollow form more than 3" in diameter from dried wood is not likely to be truly dry unless it is something like basswood. The only guaranteed exception would be segmented or staved.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

The bigger the piece is the less chance it will be dry throughout as an example I one was given a large walnut crotch the had been stored in a shed for 30 years and the sap wood was all rotten but the heart wood was still in good shape. I rough turned a blank for a pie crust table top about 20" diameter by about 1 1/2" thick and it was noticeably damp to the touch so I had to give it another year before finishing it. Doing a hollow form more than 3" in diameter from dried wood is not likely to be truly dry unless it is something like basswood. The only guaranteed exception would be segmented or staved.

30 years! Amazing....

 

[John Jordan]

The bigger the piece is the less chance it will be dry throughout as an example I one was given a large walnut crotch the had been stored in a shed for 30 years and the sap wood was all rotten but the heart wood was still in good shape. I rough turned a blank for a pie crust table top about 20" diameter by about 1 1/2" thick and it was noticeably damp to the touch so I had to give it another year before finishing it. Doing a hollow form more than 3" in diameter from dried wood is not likely to be truly dry unless it is something like basswood. The only guaranteed exception would be segmented or staved.

That's exactly right, Don. You have most of the problems and none of the benefits of green wood. LOL

John

 

[Doug Freeman]

Most of the bowls and forms I hollow are somewhat to dripping wet. I rough turn the form then let it dry, and finish turn. Yes dry wood is harder but turns fine - less depth of cut as mentioned.

I also find wet wood more pleasing to turn due to almost no dust and smoother cutting. I dont find the water or wet shavings much of a problem. I do a lot of finishing on the lathe so it certainly isnt pristine looking which is ok for me.