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Hollow Forms: Wet or Dry

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So far I have only turned dry wood for hollow forms. Can/do you turn wet? What would be the process for wet wood? I generally make abou 6-10 inch wide and 7-12 tall forms.
 

hockenbery

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I use only wet wood for hollow forms.
The process I use is to turn the form with a wall thickness of 3/16” or less. This allows the form to dry nicely.

I do almost no sanding on the lathe. The exception being some part that would be difficult to sand off the lathe such as a bead or a detail at the foot etc.

The wet form goes into a carboard box close the flaps. Day open the flaps leaving one flap closed so half the box is covered. Day 3 open all flaps. Day 4 put the form in a shelf. Day 5 or later sand and begin applying finish...

Drying success depends on shape. Curves can move and not crack. Shape angles of then crack. If you are hollowing end grain -a narrower base will be less likely to crack. A squared off base is likely to crack.

This trio of box elder forms. Two end grain hollowed one face grain hollowed. The curves allow them to dry crack free.
The face grain hollowed is about 10” diameter and 6” high
EA95463C-D7FF-441D-81CE-68927DF8817A.jpeg

Have fun
 
Last edited:

john lucas

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I have turned them both ways but prefer wet simply because it turns easier. On some of my forms I leave the walls 1/2" thick for later carving. Because of that I use paper sacks to dry them. It takes a lot longer than Al's procedure but slows the drying down enough that I don't usually lose any. It might take 3 or 4 weeks. I will often open the sacks up at night when I have the heat off so they can dry a little faster. It's a little easier to blow all the shavings out of dry vessels but you create a lot more dust and have to wear a mask.
 
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