Questions about bowl seasoning of rough turned bowls....

[odie]

Questions about seasoning of rough turned bowls....

As I understand it, water is eliminated from rough turnings at a greater rate from the end grain. So, (theoretically speaking) I should be able to end my practice of storing rough bowls with spacers between each.....in other words, just stack one inside the other. My usual habit is to turn bowls using a waste block, so one side of the bottom does not eliminate water because of that. The only exposed surface is the bottom/interior of the bowl, which when stacked will have another bowl resting on it. See what I'm getting at?

Since my recent purchase of a 35# postal scale, I've been weighing weekly, and it would be much more convenient to just stack the bowls.

I'm still using the moisture meter to get an initial %h20 content from the bowl blank.


How often do you weigh?

Is the fact that I use waste blocks going to be problematic for me, if I season them stacked one on top of, or inside of the other?

I've been seeing a bowl or two with %h2o content over 10% that seem to be stable with successive weighings, but I'd rather see them 6-8% before I finish turn. The fact that it's cold in my garage may have effect on some of these bowls. I usually maintain a temperature of about 40 degrees F out there.

How does the season of the year effect your seasoning practices?

odie


The pic shows bowls using spacers between each. If I can get good results by not using the spacers, I'd save on shelf space, as well.

 

[john lucas]

If those are side grain bowls you also have end grain on 2 of the ends. On curly wood or fruit woods I seal these areas with anchorseal. I don't use a wasteblock so I stack my bowls inside each other kind of like you've done. I will also seal the endgrain on the insides of the bowl as well.
I start out with my bowls on the shop floor and then move them up to the shelves after a few weeks. My shop is noticeably hotter and has more air movement at the shelf level than the floor level.
I weigh them whenever I think about it. Usually about once a month. If I'm in a hurry for one I'll weigh them more often.

 

[dkulze]

Odie, I think the way you're doing it is about as good as it gets. I'm not a waste block user and I anchorseal the outside of my blanks (not inside cause I don't mind if that shrinks) but I don't stack them inside each other. Don't like mold/mildew that can cause.

Temp and humidity are a huge factor and if your garage is only about 40, it will take near forever for them to dry. Cool and dry or warm and mildly humid are my preferences. Both combos will slow the drying enough to limit blowups.

Personally, I passed on the weighing and moisture meter a long time ago. If I do a slow and steady supply of roughs, I always have some that have been sitting long enough to stabilize (a year or so) and finish. I also do alot of green to finish bowls and let them move wherever they want to. Makes them interesting.

Dietrich

 

[Steve Worcester]

turn them upside down, that way the bugs can't live in them.

 

[Hugh]

Odie,
Drying wood properly is an art in itself. I like the way you do it now except I think I would start on the floor level for a month or so. I read somewhere that wood looses the highest amount of it's moisture in the first 3 weeks (makes sense). Then things slow down. I like the spacers for a month or so, then I just stack them inside one another. I go through and move them around about once a month also. When I rough out a bowl - I seal all the surfaces. If I leave any uncovered, I get cracks. The bowl takes longer to dry - but I save more bowls by sealing it up. I am with Dietrich about the weighing. Too much bother unless I am in a hurry to get to that bowl. Dry them slowly and you will end up with more bowls to finish.
Hugh

 

[MichaelMouse]

I leave mine on their bottoms for the first week or two, then set up on their edges in my racks. Since I leave a pillar in for beginning the dry turn, I can't close-stack, but I don't think I would, because you'd get some moldy rings around where they touched, or moldy bottoms from the restricted or nonexistent airflow. Even a chance, if one fit pretty snug in the other, they might get jammed together as they shrunk. There was a warp panacea in vogue a number of years ago that had you putting a brace across the long grain to control shrink. I used some plywood disks and molded the bottoms all to death. Even the board braces were very tough to remove, though they regularly caused the end grain to blow out.

I weigh a week before I use them. If it's the same the next week, good to go. I go by the development of the differential shrink to determine when I want to check weight. Either that, or if I need one now of a certain species and size, I stick it in the microwave for 4 minutes on low and see if I'm drawing steam.

 

[David Somers]

Storing your wood?

Hey everyone...

I noticed in people's pictures of shop shelves for drying roughed work or displaying finished work that no one seems to use a fid or netting or other block to prevent all that work from falling to the ground in an earthquake or other accident?

We had a pretty decent sized quake here on the Big Island of Hawaii in the fall and many of the wood turners who lived up near the epicenter lost both a ton of work that was stacked on shelves around the shop drying, or worse yet, lost finished work or valuable collected works that were displayed on shelves. I do not want to think of the $$ land precious work lost in either case.

So.....for those with stuff stacked and drying on shelves, think about getting some cheap netting to string in front of your shelves, or using a fid of some sort, basically an item used on bookshelves in boats that locks the contents of the shelves in place against rolling seas but can be removed for easy access. Something as simple as a rope or length of bungy cord strung across the length of each shelf would do the trick cheaply and easily.

For those with finished or collected works displayed on shelves, give some thought to using a small pinch of museum tack, a non staining putty museums use to anchor valuable objects to a shelf to prevent accidental damage. It is cheap and easy to use and does a great job holding your stuff in place. A local stationary store or a big box like Office Max would carry it, or you can do a quick search on the web for museum putty or quakehold and you will get a bunch of mail order sources. For most bowls a small piece of putty the size of a pea or less would be more than adequate to protect you.

I know most of us don't live in earthquake prone areas like Hawaii (I feel several a day normally, but then I am silly and live on the summit of an actively erupting volcano) but a neighbor doing some blasting work nearby could nail you, or a child with an errant ball, or worse yet, a moment of carelessness on your part moving a piece of long wood around the shop.

Hope this helps someone!!

Dave

 

[odie]

Thanks to all who responded.

As a result, I will continue to use the spacers for drying.

Also, I will clear a space close to the floor for the first month of drying. I assume this is to further slow down the seasoning process. Since heat rises, the floor would be the coolest place in the shop.....right?

It has been my habit to completely cover the entire roughed bowl with a wax green wood sealer that I get from CS.


Once again, thanks for the input. I've been plugging along for years, not knowing if the methods I've developed could be improved, or not. Well, the short answer is.....yes, I've made some major changes to the way I do things....all, as a result of participating/reading in this forum.

Some have suggested that I belong to a local club....but I'm just not the club kind of person....so that's out!

....odie

 

[rightuppercut]

Whats wrong with storing em in a brown paper bag? I write the species, date, and weight on the outside of the bag. Throw em on the shelf, and forget about em for a year. BTW 1st post, good to be here
Paul

 

[odie]

Whats wrong with storing em in a brown paper bag? I write the species, date, and weight on the outside of the bag. Throw em on the shelf, and forget about em for a year. BTW 1st post, good to be here
Paul

My first thought is the paper bag would breath too much.....but, I've never tried it. It all might depend on the moisture content. Roughed bowls with a high moisture content may loose water at too fast a rate.....but, you tell us your findings.

I have heard that some turners use a plastic bag.....and this is the method I first used before I started using the wax green wood sealer. The plastic bag would be similar to covering with a wax coating.....would definitely restrict the rate at which water would go into the atmosphere.

One advantage to using the wax coating or anchorseal, is you can see the bowl without opening up a bag.

....odie

 

[John Nicholas]

Bagging Rough Turned

Plastic Bagging is not the same as sealing with an anchorseal type product. Plastic bags will allow the moisture loss from the rough turned item to condense inside the bag, on the item etc etc. Mold - Mildew. You have to religiously take the item out of the bag a couple of times a week. Let it dry off and turn the bag inside out. Try some maple, it might spalt, one of mine has.

I seal the endgrain. I paper bag when it will fit. Then watch the weight.

You have to seal those open straw ends. You have to slow the end grain moisture loss and come closer to the moisture loss through the side (face) grain.

John