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- May 16, 2005
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Been a year since I lost a piece, and this one may not be a total loss, but there's a lesson attached, so thought I'd bring it up.
Waterlogged red oak, not the friendliest of woods, but cut with the heart down to get the greatest number of pieces out of my gift chunks. While downstairs putting the wash in, I noticed this big check across the bottom. Since I'm generally pretty good at noticing preexisting heart checks, even in very wet wood, I'm going to discount that as the cause. What caused it was a combination of making the base pretty broad, which means more wood to pull against, this being a 3.3 in mortise, and my own stupidity in stacking it base up to the open air rather than base down, where the compression from the sides against the wetter wood should keep anything closed. Don't know why I did that, save for convenience, but it cost me. If I hadn't needed the floor space, it would still be sitting on its bottom in the shop.
Last failure I had on a blank was a year ago when I dummied up and left a cherry blank under the heating duct in the downrush of hot air. Needed a fire, so I built one, and never thought about where I had the roughs sitting.
So don't dummy up and be your own worst enemy. I'm going to try and turn for bottom on this check in hopes of saving the bowl in a shallower form.
EDIT: Double brain f*rt. Of course, with heart down it would not be under compression, but tension. Noticed that the eccentricity diminished as I went up toward the rim while cutting. About a quarter inch deep, and opened along the rays, of course. Going to have to be careful on the bottom of this one, because it's already thinner than the sides. Wish me luck.
Waterlogged red oak, not the friendliest of woods, but cut with the heart down to get the greatest number of pieces out of my gift chunks. While downstairs putting the wash in, I noticed this big check across the bottom. Since I'm generally pretty good at noticing preexisting heart checks, even in very wet wood, I'm going to discount that as the cause. What caused it was a combination of making the base pretty broad, which means more wood to pull against, this being a 3.3 in mortise, and my own stupidity in stacking it base up to the open air rather than base down, where the compression from the sides against the wetter wood should keep anything closed. Don't know why I did that, save for convenience, but it cost me. If I hadn't needed the floor space, it would still be sitting on its bottom in the shop.
Last failure I had on a blank was a year ago when I dummied up and left a cherry blank under the heating duct in the downrush of hot air. Needed a fire, so I built one, and never thought about where I had the roughs sitting.
So don't dummy up and be your own worst enemy. I'm going to try and turn for bottom on this check in hopes of saving the bowl in a shallower form.
EDIT: Double brain f*rt. Of course, with heart down it would not be under compression, but tension. Noticed that the eccentricity diminished as I went up toward the rim while cutting. About a quarter inch deep, and opened along the rays, of course. Going to have to be careful on the bottom of this one, because it's already thinner than the sides. Wish me luck.
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