Preserving green wood for future turning
maddylou
| Posted in General Discussion on
I have a question that I have not found an answer for yet in all the reading I have done on the subject of “turning green wood”.
I recently purchased a lathe and discovered the most fun way yet to make wood chips…turning green wood. I don’t get a chance to turn every day and sometimes a week or two will go by before I get another chance. During that time I need to do something to my green blanks to prevent them from checking. For that matter, with any of the 2 to 3 foot pieces of green walnut, cherry and maple I have stored up for future projects. The only thing I have done so far is paint the log ends with some old house paint I had laying around. Any other ideas or suggestions?
Thanks.
Replies
Keep them in water. You've seen the ads and articles about 150 year old wood recovered from rivers and lakes. Paint just retards the drying.
I had a friend who turned lotsa green wood. He would rough out a piece on the lathe and coat it with sanding sealer. It had to have been oil based because the latex types weren't around then. Sanding sealer slowed down the drying rate so that checking was controlled. When dry enough to stablize he'd chuck it back up and turn away the distortion. Then another coat of sealer protected it untill the next turnig session.
BJ
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled