Safety issue with wood?

[John Torchick]

I'm still a novice or beginner with wood turning. I have built a bunch of pens but looking to take my skills up a notch. Our AAW chapter has a "Bring Back Box" which is given to a member by drawing their name. I got it. The box is about 6x6x6. We are to turn something that fits in the box and can have something from the demo. I got a piece balanced by trimming it on the bandsaw. Mounted it and started turning. My first time turning something like a "log." The grain is beautiful, seems to be spalted. However, there is a crack that runs about 2/3 the way of the piece. Fill it with lots of CA glue? Keep turning and eliminate the part that is past the crack? Don't want to have it fly off the lathe. That might ruin my whole day. Posting photos for you- shows crack and grain. Not sure what species it is. Thanks for reading and your help.

 

[Richard Coers]

"Life is too short to turn crappy wood" Firewood in my opinion. You'll end up with a pen blank if you turn all the way through the half dozen drying cracks that are showing. I want to see the wood and the form when I get a piece done. I don't want my eye drawn to a bunch of filled cracks.

 

[Jerry George]

I think Richard is right. Not able to see how far down the crack goes but appears too large for CA. No sense taking chances, be safe and find something else.

 

[John Torchick]

I did like the grain but will go with the idea of pen blanks.

 

[Dean Center]

or bottle stoppers or sewing needle cases or light pulls or other small items. Might even be busy enough for a reel seat insert. Nice looking wood, kind of a shame.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

I would not turn that...

 

[Mike Johnson]

I had a piece with a crack like that where I used a band saw and cut the piece in half along the crack and sanded both halves flat and then glued a piece of 1X board between the two pieces and clamped them and let them dry and then finished turning the piece on the lathe. Kind of a segmented piece with a layer of wood between the two halves with the spalted grain.

 

[robo hippy]

Well, you do have it mounted in bowl grain orientation. It might make a nice sphere and with cup chucks, you could probably finish it. I would have taken it and split it once along the big crack, and probably a few more wedges for box blanks, or pen blanks, though I don't turn pens. Good for small blanks only, too much work to do anything else with, along with the risk factor...

robo hippy

 

[Bill Boehme]

Th safety discussion in this thread seems to be a very appropriate topic for the Woodturning Health and Safety forum so it is being moved to that forum, but a permanent redirect will be left in the Woodturning Discussion forum to make it easier to find.

I agree with the comments about the wood being unsafe to turn in its existing condition. I'll also confess that I have attempted to turn wood that really was beyond salvaging with any dignity. Fortunately, my judgement has (usually) improved over the years. I think that I might still have some pieces like that in my "When Pigs Fly" scrap box of odds and ends.

 

[John Torchick]

Bill, thanks for monitoring the thread. I now have a good supply of pen blanks.

 

[Perry Hilbert]

I turn some crappy wood and that is still at least 4 steps below my crap. I have the good fortune to be able to just walk out the back door and find decent turning wood. I would not spend the time or money trying to salvage something only to have it look like it was salvaged. Maybe if the wood came from Old Ironsides, or Mt. Vernon after a preservation project. Otherwise it is fit only for small trinkets. Also be careful. some spalted wood is an invitation to a lung infection.

 

[John Torchick]

I posted this on the IAP website but will post here, too. My bunny rabbit grain from that piece on the lathe. The wife noticed this when I was showing her the blanks.

 

[Mike Johnson]

I don't see the bunny, but I do see a Pterodactyl.

 

[John Torchick]

This bunny is running to keep from being turned into a pen.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I hate to get all technical on you, but that's not grain ... it's a fungus "wall" (or maybe it's a fence) to keep the other fungi off its turf.

 

[John Torchick]

Great, now I have fungi fighting for territory? Nothing wroung with being tecknickel.

 

[Perry Hilbert]

Though uncommon, the fungus in spaulted and rotting maple in particular can cause severely debilitating lung disease. I have a respiratory condition. Whether from baling hay, cutting punky firewood or Walking through a livestock market, what ever cause, the tests have not revealed. I have to watch my oxygen stats carefully. New meds have helped, but it is not reversible. I am told eventually I will be on oxygen and may need a lung transplant. I never smoked, always ate lots of veggies and fruit. I did work in a shop for 7 years that had asbestos on the pipes. Part of my duties was sweeping up every other nite. But I also heated my house with an outdoor boiler for 12 years. Cut a lot of dead falls here on the property to burn.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Perry,
Did you ever get checked for this Histoplasmosis, this is a fungal infection caused from inhaling spores released from disturbed soil that has infected bird droppings in the ground. This was originally confined to several geographical area's across the United States but has been identified in other regions that have heavy concentrations of bird roosts. This ailment requires heavy doses of antibiotics for weeks at a time to kill the fungus that can migrate to different organs of the body if untreated. Nasty Stuff!

 

[Perry Hilbert]

I have had some blood tests and a few cat scans. I had tests down last week and another group coming up next week. A biopsy is apparently the next step. I have been dealing with this cough for 7 years. The first pulmonologist I went to, blamed it on a sleep disorder. . That wasted several years of time.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Perry,
A transbronchial biopsy or swabbing from the lungs will usually provide enough culture material needed to identify the culprit. I don't practice medicine but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, hopefully it is a fungal or bacterial infection that can be treated. The medical industry has morphed into a pill pushing business with little time devoted to researching the cause. I would enter your symptoms onto Google and see what comes up, many times you will find reference to a specialist that is familiar with what ails you which is better then someone just guessing what is wrong.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Fungus which causes spault (and there are several) is not where problems come from. The wood we turn is just a receptical for some spores. The spore are everywhere and yes even the air we breathe. Sometimes some susceptible individuals do get fungal infections but not necessarily from turning spaulted wood.

 

[John Torchick]

I found, years ago, that I am highly allergic to work. I am basically allergic to anything that blooms. Pollen season isn't my favorite time of the year. Love winter!

 

[Glenn Lefley]

I’m highly allergic to work also!

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

Though uncommon, the fungus in spaulted and rotting maple in particular can cause severely debilitating lung disease. I have a respiratory condition. Whether from baling hay, cutting punky firewood or Walking through a livestock market, what ever cause, the tests have not revealed. I have to watch my oxygen stats carefully. New meds have helped, but it is not reversible. I am told eventually I will be on oxygen and may need a lung transplant. I never smoked, always ate lots of veggies and fruit. I did work in a shop for 7 years that had asbestos on the pipes. Part of my duties was sweeping up every other nite. But I also heated my house with an outdoor boiler for 12 years. Cut a lot of dead falls here on the property to burn.

Sorry to hear about your health. I hope you find some relief and hopefully get better soon Aloha.