Time to Finish My Cracked Green Turned Bowl – Part 3
Now it’s time to finish this bowl — years in the making because I was distracted by work and family.
But it’s also scary to finish turn a large bowl like this one. A large blank like this one is rare, very hard to come by. I rough turned it years ago and waited for it to dry. It should have been a wait of about a year to a year and a half (the walls were quite thick).
The bowl shrunk as it dried, distorting the bowl by 1/2 inch. I filled the crack with casting resin. I don’t recommend duct tape to seal the inside of the bowl before pouring the resin. The resin dissolved the tape’s sticky letting the resin leak out.
Fortunately, the original tenon was intact and suitable to remount the bowl. Ash is hard and with the distortion, turning this woodturning project was tough. This project stretch all my tools to the limit.
This was fun. It is beautiful. Watch the video and add your comment.
Natural Edge Maple Bowl From Green Wood
For this lathe woodturning project, I rough turned a piece of maple about three weeks ago. The maple was green which is very easy to turn. I wanted a natural edge bowl.
At the time, I considered finishing it in just the one mounting. However, wet wood clogs sandpaper very quickly. So, I thought I’d let it dry a couple of days to allow the surface moisture to evaporate. In the end, I waited 19 days. Meanwhile, the wood bowl lost 30% of its weight while drying. It felt very dry & I felt good about finish turning it. At least, my sandpaper would not clog as fast.
It has dried unevenly about 1/4 inch difference in diameter with the grain compared to across the grain.
The only challenge in finish turning was whether there was enough wood to true it up again. So, I was very careful to remove as little wood as possible. If it warps any more, that will be okay; it will not be much if at all. A little of the bark chipped off but it still looks great.
Not perfect but very nice. It’s a keeper.
Finish Turning Plum Wood Bowl From Green Wood
It’s long past time to finish this woodturning project. This piece of plum came originally from a tree in my back yard. Several years ago, I rough turned it, painted it with a wax emulsion, placed it in a brown paper bag and left it on my shelf.
During the drying process, it shrunk radically and almost randomly. It also opened a crack clear through the bottom and widened a rot or bark inclusion area.
The mounting tenon is definitely oblong. The difference in length versus width in the tenon was a full 1/2 inch.
The average of the difference falls into a no man’s zone in the capacity of my chuck. Too small for one set of jaws; too large for another set of jaws.
I repaired the crack with plum sawdust from the bowl itself stabilized with CA glue. The bark inclusion or rot was also stabilized with CA glue.
Although the intended lip on the bowl did not survive, I am pleased with the result.
Woodturning Projects – Help – My Green Turned Bowl Cracked – Part 2
Turning green wood is a pleasure. Shavings fly off in wonderful cascades. But, the challenge comes when the drying wood splits or develops a crack. Don’t throw away the bowl. Instead, turn it into a creative opportunity by concealing, accepting or emphasizing the crack. Creative opportunity just knocked.
Woodturning Projects – Help – My Green Turned Bowl Cracked
I rough turned this bowl on my wood lathe. Then I coated it with was, wrapped it in brown paper bags, and left it on a shelf in the shop to dry.
Then life intervened and it has been several years. I think it is a very nice woodturning project.
The bowl is now dry and ready for finish turning but developed a large split in the bottom while drying.
I want to salvage the bowl some way. I’m open to suggestions that will produce a nice result either by blending, complementing or contrasting.
Please leave your suggestion as a comment below.
I’ll make another video with the final result based on your suggestions.
While you’re at it, please register at right so I can keep you posted. Read More…
Woodturning Bowl Disaster – Green Maple to Finished Bowl in One Turning
Last week we had a late spring snow storm here. The very wet snow brought a maple limb down on a friend’s home. He cut the limb down from the tree and his house and gave me one of the larger limbs for woodturning. Now I owe him a bowl to give to his wife. Later, he plans to cut the rest of the tree down. I hope he’ll give me some of the trunk when he does.
In Star Trek, they have a “Prime Directive” having to do with not interfering with the development of societies and civilizations they encounter.
I’ve adapted this prime directive to woodturning: “Don’t tell what you’re making until it is finished.” In this case, the bowl will evolve as I see the bowl emerge or in some cases, as I make mistakes and have to adapt the design to compensate.
This bowl is green or wet maple. The limb had been cut from the tree on Thursday, I turned it on Friday. Very fresh and very wet.
I decided to experiment with grain orientation since it was not a large limb. The grain normally runs across the bowl but in this one, the grain runs vertically. The downside for this bowl is a log of eng grain which is harder to turn than side grain. I also planned to turn this bowl in one sessions. Then let it dry and warp just a little after it was finished.
Alas, in the end, this bowl was a disaster. At the last of the tooling, I wanted to thin the bottom just a little more. But, I lost focus on my gouge, nicked the bottom, and the bowl shattered. I should not have been terribly surprised since the bowl is almost all very short grain. Being wet and prone to warping anyway, no chance to salvage it.
Oh Well, better luck next time.
Register at the right & I’ll let you know with the next one is ready.
Woodturning Walnut Bowl – Turn Green, Dry Rough then Finish Woodturn Walnul Bowl
Some time ago, I obtained some walnut from a builder who had cleared some land for homes. I promptly sawed the wood into manageable chunks and sawed each piece into halves through the pith. I coated each cut surface with a wax emulsion. I turned much of the wood soon thereafter, recoated each piece with the wax and placed each into a paper bag on a shelf in my shop.
Then work demands peaked and I could not get back to the finish turning. Now several years later, I pulled it from its paper sack. It was a dry as it was going to ever be. And it was so beautiful even as a rough turning. The wax highlighted the walnut grain. I felt an urgency to finish it and see how it would really turn out.
Remounting it in my jaw chuck was easy and it had not warped too much. Afraid of a catch ruining the beautiful wood, I proceeded to finish shape the bowl both interior and the outer portion of the exterior. Even without finish, the grain showed great figure.
With finish on the interior and some of the exterior, I removed it from the jaw chuck, flipped it over, and mounted the bowl on a vacuum chuck.
Finally, the base was sanded and finished. I have a beautiful walnut bowl. It was worth the wait to start with the green trunk, let it season, and wind up with such a beauty. Nice!
Register at the right & I’ll let you know with the next one is ready.
Woodturning Apricot Bowl – Green Wood to Finished Bowl via Microwave Drying
Woodturning green wood is fun. But it is hard to have patience after rough turning a beautiful bowl while the wood dries. Here, I rough turn green apricot then dry the rough turning in a microwave oven. Finish turning was just a few hours later. All finished within 1 day.
My plan was:
- Rough turn the apricot blank leaving the bowl walls thick.
- Coat the rough turning with wax emulsion (Not sure this did any good)
- Place wood in zip lock plastic bag.
- Weigh rough bowl
- Microwave at 20% power for 2 minutes & let cool from 2 minutes to 10 minutes. (depending on what I was doing to keep busy)
- Dry any condensed moisture from plastic bag.
- Repeat #3 through #6 until weight stabilizes. Weight declined from 323 grams to about 170 grams.
- Finish turn bowl.
- Apply walnut oil finish.
- Continue seasoning by placing finished wood bowl in closed paper bag for 2-3 weeks.
- Reapply walnut oil or wax.
After the microwave drying there were a lot of end grain checks on the bowl. Some of the center pith had also separated somewhat.
Before finish turning, I applied CA glue to all risk points.
When finishing the bottom of the bowl, the long grain wood still felt very slightly damp after removing several layers.
After finish turning no end grain checks were visible. Some of the center pitch stilled showed some separating. However, stabilized by the CA glue, the grain adds wonderful character to the bowl.
Woodturning Apricot Bowl From Green Wood
For this woodturning project, I’m having some fun with a piece of green apricot from a neighbor’s tree. No midnight wood harvesting, he asked for help and I was only too happy to salvage the wood. Now I have a small pile of apricot for a lot of woodturning projects – some large and many small.
It’s your turn. Be safe and Have Fun
Initial Weight 1710 Grams
+21 days 1609 grams 5% change
+50 Days 1506 grams 12% change