New turner, new wood

[Larry Hammer]

I'm rather new to woodturning and have acquired some wood from a few sources, but I'm not sure on just how to handle it.
I've used wood glue to seal the ends. I've read about it and money is not easy to come by right now. The lengths are what is bothering me at this time. I have about a dozen from 5 to 8 inches in diameter and 15 to 53 inches long. I also have many 4 inches and less diameter and less than 26 inches long. I have some more at my brothers which I haven't had time to examine, and we're working on my late brothers house and will be cutting wood there.
As I'm still learning how to use the gouges, the time it will take to dry them is not a worry. I'm also do not have any idea exactly what type of turning I want to get into, but free wood is free wood, and I'll not walk away from it.
My questions are, what is the best length to cut them too? How is the best way to store them? Where is the best place to store them?
As to storing them, I have a kinda damp basement, a very warm attic (if they are cut to short lengths) and a tool shed.

 

[hockenbery]

You did not mention species
If you can’t turn it for many months I would suggest drying it for spindles.

if you have a bandsaw cut the larger pieces into 4, 3, 2, and 1 inch squares the length of the pieces.
leave the as long as you can. When dry and inch or two on each end will be discarded to eliminate cracks.
a 3 foot pierce will usual have 32” of good spindle in it. A 12” piece will have 8” -10 inched of good spindle in it.

if you don’t have a bandsaw you can split the with a froe. A freind of mine splits allot of his walnut with a froe. he has made over a hundred child size rocking chairs using the splits for the turned Parts. if you don’t have a fror you can usually find them a flee markets or you can make one from an old leaf spring.

No pieces should include the pith(center growth ring of the log) the corners can have round edges of the log if they still allow a round to be turned. These pieces can be used for boxes, pepper mills, ornaments, jewelry, gavels, pens, bottle stoppers tool handles....

3 inch rounds have usually dried crack free. I dry a lot of Holley this way for. 2.5- 3”ornament balls
4” usually crack.
larger diameters almost a always get radial cracks because each growth ring wants to shrink more than the one inside.
store out of the weather stacked with stickers for ventilation. You could use the 1” pieces for the stickers

these are some slide I use in my working with green. Wood demos.

http://aaw.hockenbery.net/WORKING%20WITH%20green%20wood-HOcompressed.pdf

 

[Larry Hammer]

Species... ya..... I know an Apple tree has apples, an Oak tree has acorns, maples have the whirly seeds.. you get the picture...

I have a bandsaw with a 6 inch height. I have some 8 to 10 inch logs (?) about 12 to 16 inches dia in my back yard. I drug a couple in and broke them down with my table saw and bandsaw. I got some good stuff out of that.

So, cut to a length I can handle if need be, split into squares and let dry.

I have some pics of the wood I acquired from two neighbors. Maybe someone can identify them.

The first pic I got from the neighbor across the street. He gave me the name, but I tend to lose things in my mind.

The 2nd was a tree next door that started chewing up the gutter and roof. I put those in my basement on their ends and the next day there were 6 - 8 inch puddles of sap.

The 3rd I got from my late brothers house. It looks familiar, but I can't quite fit the name.

There is some vine I want to mess with too. I have a branch off of my Lilac that was growing at a 40 degree angle into the yard, so I cut it. It runs from 2" to 2.5"

I don't think I'll be ready to turn bowls for quite a while, and green turning looks a bit frightening right now.....

 

[Kirk Amidon]

Agree with previous posters, keep the pieces as long as possible, until you are ready to turn them. at that point, cut off each end to remove the cracks.

Probably an overreaction here, but do not use a table saw to break down logs, just asking for trouble. I've had good luck with ripping logs in half using a standard chainsaw through the pith for smaller stuff or on either side of pith for larger rounds. This goes pretty well, but be careful not to jam the saw with the longer shaving from ripping. Easy to get them sized for your bandsaw this way.

 

[hockenbery]

don't think I'll be ready to turn bowls for quite a while, and green turning looks a bit frightening right now.....

safety is important. The best way to get started is with classes or workin with a mentor.
there are lot of bad videos on utube And even the good ones can‘t help you like a mentor can.

a great preparation for bowl turning is building a competency with gouges on spindles.
when I do a beginning bowl class the first project is a carving mallet.
.

 

[Aaron Harris]

safety is important. The best way to get started is with classes or workin with a mentor.
there are lot of bad videos on utube And even the good ones can‘t help you like a mentor can.

a great preparation for bowl turning is building a competency with gouges on spindles.
when I do a beginning bowl class the first project is a carving mallet.
.View attachment 37812

I hear that on the spindles. I just started turning around last July 4th, and my 1st turn was a shop mallet; in fact, I'm about to turn a bigger one. Then I went on to shaving brush handles, duck calls, pens, pizza cutter and various other spindles. And even after 8 months of all that, learning bowl turning is pretty intimidating, but I'm slowly getting there. Larry, I'm kinda where you are with lots of free wood, now what to do with it. These guys have been a big help to me as they will no doubt be to you.

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

I cut the pith out and then seal the ends. I make mostly bowls. I have cut and sealed pieces that have been sitting around for over a year and they have no cracks.

 

[Larry Hammer]

I've got a small rack of pieces I've been gathering for the last couple of years Kirk. I've just been working on the Shopsmith 10ER I acquired with half of a 2nd one. I only really got started with the actual turning last fall. I've spent a lot of time watching videos.

I split an 16" dia X 12" log with a wedge and axe head, and then did some trimming with the table saw, then finer cuts on the band saw.

And safety is my number one concern. I respect my tools, they tend not to care what they cut!

Classes and mentors may be a bit hard, central Illinois is a lonely place, and without a license.... I've watched classes from utube, and have more downloaded. I've done the roughing gouge, messed with a gouge and am working with the skew right now. I'm using 2x4's for practice. I bought a bowl gouge right after I started. Figured turning would be simple... Boy was I wrong!

There's a business that cuts logs for hauling on trucks just outside of town. The guy said they have short end trims that I can have. Now storage......

I'm using wood glue for sealing right now. It's been doing OK for the last 3 or 4 months. Any opinions on using it?

 

[robo hippy]

There is a thread here on once turned bowls, so you can turn wood as soon as you get it, a couple of methods. I do like to seal the ends of log sections, and I just use wood glue, mostly titebond 3 which is the thinner stuff, even elmer's glue works. Lilac can have some purples running through it, but loves to crack. Excellent for small spindles and finials. You have a fair supply of 'practice' 'FOG' wood, found on ground. Have fun with it!

robo hippy

 

[Dean Center]

Larry, you are quite right about Centralia being fairly out of the way for woodturning clubs. Your closest ones in Illinois are Springfield (llwonline.org) and Champaign (flatlandwoodturners.com), but the very closest one may be south of St. Louis, in Festus, MO. (showmewoodturners.org) There are likely to be experienced woodturners much closer than the clubs, and you might find them by contacting the clubs and asking if they have members in your vicinity.

IMHO, a few hours with a woodturning coach will give you a solid base of safety knowledge and move your turning skills along more than 6 months of doing it on your own. As the pandemic winds down, this should be feasible again soon.

(Found AAW members in Carlyle and Mt Vernon, and a good number of others a little farther away in Southern Illinois)

 

[Larry Hammer]

robo, I found another source, one that a lot of you may find interesting for small stuff, Hobby Lobby. In the wood craft section they sell a package with Basswood, Maple, Walnut, Mahogany and/or Cherry for $9 and $10. I've picked up 4, but I'm NOT ready to mess them up right now...
The 'FOG' wood I have in my back yard is a good size and has been there for over 20 yrs. Hard to split, but solid.

Both those locations sound good Dean, I'm right between them both! I have 3 lathes, with a 4th that can be set up, so teaching should not be to hard. I'll have to look into those clubs too.
I just looked into the Show me Woodturners. with a bit of a search I found it as showmewoodturners.com. The .org gets you a can't find screen!

 

[Mike Johnson]

If you are cutting logs into bowl blanks you should cut them a few inches longer then the diameter of the log and then cut it in half down the length of the pith.
Sealing the end grain on all of the pieces you process is critical in stopping the cracking and checking of the end grain. Cutting the pieces several inches longer
then the diameter of the log provides some waste wood to be cut from the bowl blank to reduce the potential of any checks or cracks in your blank. Your green
wood will require a minimum of 1-year for every inch of thickness in the wood blank. A 2-inch thick slab will require about 1-year of air drying time. You also want
to label or mark your wood blanks and logs as you build up your inventory, if not you will forget over time what the different pieces and logs are.

 

[Larry Hammer]

Until a few weeks ago I figured, by what I've read, that I only had to wait a year or so for any to dry. I've since learned different, and got kinda depressed.... The year per inch is something new. Thanks for the info.
I've got some wood that I know is ready, and 2 2x4's glued together make good practice material, and that is available for little or nothing at most any place selling lumber. They cannot sell the warped lumber so they either toss it or sell it to people like me. Cut it into lengths, glue it together and good cheap practice material. A local yard said he'd sell it to me, but this COVID thing has a shortage in lumber, so fewer warped pieces.

As I said in my first post, I'm lousy in identifying cut trees, and few live ones. There are a lot of Sweet Gum trees on city property, and they have been cutting trees, so I might have to get ahold of the street department and see just what they are doing with them.....

 

[hockenbery]

Until a few weeks ago I figured, by what I've read, that I only had to wait a year or so for any to dry. I've since learned different, and got kinda depressed.... T

get optimistic! 1 year per inch of thickness is for lumber. turning squares and roughed out bowls dry much faster.
plus you can turn wet wood. For most of us the wetter ther better because it won’t be cracked or have faded color.

1. Most folks on this forum turn some wet wood. Many turn little dry wood
2. In 50% humidity : 1x1 will dry in 4-6 months, a 2x2 in 5-8 months 3x3 in 10-12 months, a bowl with 1” wall thickness will dy in 8 months using paper bags or 12 months when coated with anchor seal.
3. check out the working with green wood thread. My first post has slides, video of bowl turned for drying, video of returning a dried bowl

Working with green wood

The August 2015 AAW JOURNAL has great article by David Ellsworth on working with green wood. This is followed by 11 marvelous ways turners turned cracks into features. One of David's themes is that the deck is stacked against newer woodturners successfully working with wet wood. Might be a nice...

www.aawforum.org

all is not less than a year. If I am drying 2” thick platter slabs that does take 2 years.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

Larry, the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in southern IN offers basic wood turning classes. It's not cheap, and you said you weren't tripping over sacks of cash, but it's another option out there. There may be some other class opportunities in the bigger near by cities, too. Maybe the clubs in the region would know.

 

[Doug Freeman]

Dont be afraid to turn wet wood. Can be done in spindle or face plate orientation. You dont have to be making anything, just try it. The wood cuts much easier. Most of the time people say they are cutting “dry” purchased wood blanks, they are not dry, as in equilibrium with local environment . The surface checked with a pin meter might say 10-12% but an inch down its a more wet than that. Just start small at lower rpm and work your way up in size and speed over time as skills and confidence build. AAW site has all kinds of approved videos and articles on all kinds of subjects.