How do you dry the wet wood after the rough turning? I found the time I tried it cracked badly.
Rich
The more you turn greenwood the more successful you will get at drying.
There is a thread on working with green wood has more details & videos of a demo
http://www.aawforum.org/community/index.php?threads/working-with-green-wood.11626/
From my observations new turners tend to loose lots of bowls to cracking and experienced turners almost never loose a bowl.
The reasons are new turners:
often start with older wood that has hidden cracks,
work slowly allowing the bowl to dry out on the lathe
don't turn even wall thickness
don't turn nice curves
All successful drying starts with the turning. Even wall thickness & flowing curves produce bowls that almost never crack because the wood can move as it dries.
Start with fresh cut wood that has no cracks,
Work relatively quickly, mist with water if you work slowly
Curves, even walls, control the drying.
I turn NE bowls 1/4" thick or less. Wash them off in the sink, put them in cardboard box, close the flaps. Next morning, open one flap, day 3 open both flaps, day 4 set on a shelf. Day five sand and finish or stack for finishing later. The box is a humidity chamber. This keeps the endgrain ends of the bowl moist while the long grain dries.
Bowls I will turn twice
My method is wash them off in the sink, towel,dry, put the bowl in a paper bag, put another paper bag over the opening to make a humidity chamber. Put the bag in a room kept at 50% relative humidity. Change the bags every day formdrynbag if they are damp. About 5 days on average. Then leave the bowl a bag for 4 months. Take out of the bags put on a shelf form2 months then check with moisture meter. When below 10% MC I return them.
Coating with anchor seal works great too. But it is messy and the bowls take months longer to dry.
