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roughing green wood: Cube Bias turning

Matt Meadows

Matt Meadows

Joined
May 13, 2005
Messages
171
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Location
Charleston SC
I have some 5" cube walnut blocks that are green, and I'd like to turn them as cube bias bowls (the type with the arches for the rim).

Anyhow, I've read up on the methodology to do this, but only for dried wood.

I'm used to roughing cross and end grain bowl blanks and drying them with alcohol (I use methanol, cheaper and a lot more dangerous :cool2: )

How can I rough this type of turning? The grain will be going in such a freak direction that I'm not sure I can rough it, dry it, and finish turn it. Can this be done? Or can I soak the 5" cube and dry it beforehand?

Thanks all!

Matt
 
I see you were in the thread over at Woodnet, so you've got the method. The wood's going to contract in predictable fashion, no matter whether you soak it or just let it dry, so avoiding strongly curved annual rings should be all that's required. Flatter and more consistent distance the better. FPL shows black walnut at 5.5 radial, 7.8 tangential, which is a good close ratio 1:1.4 compared to a lot of woods. Turn,dry,turn wouldn't be easy, and with the odd shape, I'm not sure anyone would notice that it was truly circular anyway.

I wouldn't include sapwood, because it does shrink a bit more, and if you've got a boxed heart, you're on your own in predicting. It'll probably warp in weird directions, though it might be attractive in the end. Been meaning to crank a few myself, but they're an unknown sale quantity, and they are sort of difficult to sand on the inside. I used the flex edge disks, as I recall, and got pretty good success.
 
Thanks, Michael. I haven't excelled to the point of turning such things thin enough to finish turn it on the first go 'round. Is this what you were suggesting? I've done a few but I'd rather not use these walnut blanks as "practice" lol, for obvious reasons as I have a hard time getting walnut in this area.

I'm lucky in the sanding department, so sanding the inside won't be to big of a deal. I have some very high solids catalyzed finishes that I can spray that will completely and totally disguise anything sanded 220 or higher. That, and it's the prettiest finish I've ever seen. It's a shame it doesn't show up well on camera photos. The stuff cures as hard as CA glue yet has the warm feel of lacquer. I love it. It's also very toxic and I have to wear an organics respirator, the catalyst is like tear gas.
 
I'm using a precatalyzed lacquer in the "dull" sheen, which is actually fairly shiney compared to, say, an oil finish. I love the stuff: no sealer needed and it has a wonderful warm feel to it. Just make sure it's a catalyzed nitrocellulose product (most are) and not a CAB-acrylic. The precats generally have a tint to it that varies from light yellow to outright amber: this really doesn't effect the final color much on a turning, as I don't spray hefty coats (I thin the stuff a good bit since it's nearly 40% solids)


I don't have anything in the gallery mainly b/c I haven't had time to do much of anything lately 🙁 🙁 🙁

I'm preparing for a move to go to seminary and I'm in the process of getting that move ready and all sorts of other craziness. The lathe just had to take a back seat for a while, but it's about time.......
 
Redfish said:
Thanks, Michael. I haven't excelled to the point of turning such things thin enough to finish turn it on the first go 'round. Is this what you were suggesting? I've done a few but I'd rather not use these walnut blanks as "practice" lol, for obvious reasons as I have a hard time getting walnut in this area.
Click to expand...

Doesn't grow here, so mine is stuff I brought from OK or CA, and the occasional gift. I did mean to go wet all the way, but it would depend on the grain of the wood as to the final shape assumed. No great skill involved in turning thin damp wood over thicker dry in these smaller sizes. Get up around 10-12" or more in bowl configurations, and the things practically flop if you cut to 1/4 or less. I'm not one to turn at high speed, but I imagine inertia might be some benefit after the effect of centrifugal splay was turned away.
 
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