Newbie Question: Green Green Wood

[moshe]

Hi,

Quick question... I live in Israel, and have access to all kinds of freshly felled timber. How do I keep them from splitting and catching those bad bugs...

I saw in several catalogs, wood sealers and such, but I can't seem to find any similar product here in Israel...

What would be the best thing to do, in order to let the wood dry in peace? (wood is carob, olive, palm, pine, poplar and others - whatever comes my way)

 

[dkulze]

Otay, here's the quick milling tutorial:

If you want to turn end grain vases that are the entire size of the log, cut it in sections as long as can be easilly transported. Paint the ends with a latex paint and cross your fingers. The extra length lets you cut off cracked sections before turning but any good wood left will have to be turned immediately and will still likely crack.

To store the wood long term, mill it straight down the center, cutting out the pith and about 5% of the wood on each side (you'll get a slab the length of the log and about 10% of it's thickness, with the pith right in the middle). The wood that's left will be less likely to crack but still would do well to be sealed on the ends with latex paint or a wax emulsion (check with a local wax supplier, yes, there is such a thing as a wax supplier). The sealed blanks (always longer than you think you'll need, to account for some cracking) will hold up for a fair while (weeks to months).

To fully dry stuff, go ahead and turn it green to roughly the shape you're looking for (bowl or vase), making sure to leave it at least 10% as thick as the entire piece. For example, a 10" blank that you rough for making a bowl should be approx 1" thick. Take this 1" thick rough version of the bowl it will become, coat it in wax emulsion (or not) and let it dry for about a year. In your part of the world, you can build a solar kiln pretty easy and drop this to 4-5 weeks. What you'll end up with after roughing out 100 or so blanks, will be, depending on the wood, 50-90 nice, dry bowl blanks that are warped all to heck and back but are thick enough to have the warpage turned off, and 10-50 cracked but still kinda cool possibilities.

Finally, for spindle stock, mill it right down to ready to go size and seal the ends as above.

Good luck and send me some olive,
dietrich

 

[Wilford Bickel]

Dietrich has handled the basics very well but I will give you a little more information on the wax product. I am a chemist and work with the type of product you need - the best products over here are an emulsified parrafin wax. This means that surfactants have been used to suspend the wax particles in water. They can come in various strengths but I find a 30% solids (70% water) emulsification works the best and is very common to find. Try hunting up a specialty chemical manufacturer or distributor and tell them you are hunting emulsified parrafin solutions. A company that sells specialty chemicals to the textile plants would probably have this in their product line or know who is making it.

Good luck and don't hesitate to let me know if I can help further.

Wilford

 

[MichaelMouse]

Control the rate of moisture loss. You can do it by covering endgrain, which dries ten times faster than face grain altogether, or by controlling relative humidity in a bag, box or other container. My personal option, leave alone in a cool damp place may not be available to you.

If you control the loss of moisture, you minimize the loss of pieces. I wouldn't put anything in a kiln, solar or other. One inch thickness turnings will dry in less than two months with no degrade if you monitor and control relative humidity. Pushing and risking loss of labor seems foolish.

This is about US timber, but only the specific numbers are going to be different. Wood is still made up of cellulose over there, and cellulose still binds water and shrinks as it's released. http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.htm Chapter three is especially pertinent. Look carefully at the shrinkage patterns produced by various growth ring orientations as you choose your desired rough thickness. You can certainly make your rough walls thinner than 10% in complete safety, sacrificing ony some opportunity for creative modifications on your dry piece in exchange for greatly shortened cure time. Thinner section makes distortion and loss from distortion phenomena much less likely as well. Perhaps you can get the tangential/radial figures for your timber from merchants over there to make a more informed decision.

 

[moshe]

Thank you all so much

I'll try to get hold of the required materials:

Just a few questions:
1. The emulsified wax - is in gel form? or do I have to melt a block before I apply? I happen to have access to beeswax (real raw form just one melted from the making of honey) - is melting this and applying to end grain good enough?

2. What about pests (wood-worms etc...) it seems to be quite a problem here - should I also paint the rest of the wood? and not only the end grain...

In any case, thank you all for the detailed replies, once I have a nice dry piece of olive I'll be sure to send it your way - dietrich, That's another problem turning here in Israel everything is double priced because of shipping costs - my lathe (JET MINI 1014) cost over $500 to buy and ship...

But one can't complain to much - after all some first rate wood is just there for the taking - so that can cut down expenses.

Just a small note, with my lathe and also my current interests I'm mostly into spindle turning so the procedure seems to be simpler - however I'm interested in saving some big pieces for possible future use (in a few years I will probably upgrade my lathe). So the advice is really appriciated.

BTW mastering the skew chisel is not easy :-(

Moshe

 

[Steve Worcester]

1. The emulsified wax - is in gel form? or do I have to melt a block before I apply? I happen to have access to beeswax (real raw form just one melted from the making of honey) - is melting this and applying to end grain good enough?
The Wax is in a liquid form and gets painted on. In a pinch, paraffin blocks would works, but it is a bit messier, having to melt it and such.

2. What about pests (wood-worms etc...) it seems to be quite a problem here - should I also paint the rest of the wood? and not only the end grain...
I don't know if painting everything would help. The paraffin provides a moisture barrier and not much else. It is fairly non-toxic (as far as the bugs are concerned). You may want to spray it with an insecticide for that problem

 

[Wilford Bickel]

1. The emulsified wax - is in gel form? or do I have to melt a block before I apply? I happen to have access to beeswax (real raw form just one melted from the making of honey) - is melting this and applying to end grain good enough?

The emulsified wax is a liquid - usually milky white in color. Some versions are thin enough to be sprayed on the log ends in the large lumber yards. Most of the ones used by woodturners are liquid with a viscosity similar to a thin latex paint. I use the cheap throw away foam brushes to brush/dab the emulsion onto the end grain of the wood and coat down onto the side of the piece for an inch or two - usually at least 2 coats. You are wanting to slow down the moisture coming out of the end grain (example - cut end of split log) but still allow it to slowly work out of the wood through the side grain. I don't like to fully coat the wood as this just traps the moisture in the piece and extends my drying times way too long.

I live in a very humid climate so coating just the ends gives me the controlled release I need. Your climate may be much dryer and you may find that you need to coat more of the piece (or all of it) - you will need to experiment to see what gives you the best results (least cracking).

The wax will not help with insects and I would suggest a good insecticide to spray on the wood for that control. I don't know what is on the market in Israel but you should be able to get advice from a store that sells insecticides.

Wilford