Turning blank question

[Jeff]

I have a few red maple (soft maple) end grain turning blanks which have been turned to about 3.5" d x 13" l without any pith wood.
Both are end coated with AnchorSeal and they look good without checking or splitting so far.

I have a mini-Ligno E/D pin meter so I can't read the core MC. The long grain face reading is 16% MC, but the end grain is reading 32% which I think is the more reliable number.

The plan is to turn these into a couple of tapered candlestick holders, but they could be cross cut to shorten them to about 6" high for each pair. Frankly, 13" tall for a candle looks a bit out of proportion for the intended use.

I'm using a friend's lathe and this turning stuff is a whole new world for me, but fun and interesting too. Advice, suggestions, critique are always welcome and thanks in advance.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showp...k-hold&cat=500

[Truefire]

you might want to attempt to dry the wood out a little more either in a bowl kiln belonging to a friend or via air drying allowing the piece to reach atmospheric equilibrium inside the shop where you are working. The percentage of moisture is still too much to successfully turn without the wood splitting. Maple is wet wood anyway as we both already know. You could however turn the piece down a little bit at the time and leave it inside the shop in between the turnings until you have reached the desired outside diameter needed for the candle holders. After doing so in increments, the wood may be successfully finished for the 'fine tuning' of the turning process without splitting, hopefully.

Turning it down in increments and leaving the ends coated with the anchor seal could potentially allow it to dry through the sides of the wood's cells which might benefit in slower drying. Although working with Maple is difficult to prevent from checking if not dried in a bowl kiln or other type kiln for that matter. IT can be done, but you would have to go about it slowly and extend the project over some time (months).

As far as roughing the piece down to smaller and smaller diameters...
- chuck it between centers on the lathe- Using a roughing gouge, take your time in the advancing of the tool, having the piece turning approximately mid speed of lathe's settings....just roll the gouge on either side as you make an advancement and slide the tool along tool rest which should be set approximately 1/2"-3/4" from the turning stock.
The roughing gouge is slid along the tool rest as it is advanced longitudinally along the piece, there are a bunch of good videos out there on youtube to assist you in getting started correctly.

i know...i know...trying to read words and phrases describing this is not the best route to learn the practice. There are some videos out there on youtube that could be highly beneficial, sure you have already watched some of them and I am certainly not trying to insult one's intelligence with such elementary information describing the process.

just 'chew up the meat and spit out the bones'...tid bits along the way in many areas of my life have prevented me from experiencing major emotional events. Thus the reason for throwing some of this stuff out there.

Watch some of those videos, after developing a base knowledge for safety's sake, get out there and practice on some other wood scrap pieces first. Just remember 'tight is right'. Always make sure your piece is tight between centers, your tool rest is snug in lathe bed as well. Before turning on the lathe for the first time after chucking a piece of wood, give it a hand spin to ensure spinning stock will not strike the tool rest when the lathe is turned on.

-roughing- Nothing wrong with holding the tool steel of the gouge itself while one hand is on the wooden handle and the other on the tool steel, just keep hands behind the tool rest while doing so. provides much better control on of the tool when engaging

really the only way to learn is to get out there and work on it...know the safety aspects first and foremost, watch some videos and develop a base knowledge, then go after it...wear a protective face shield

Chris

[CarvedTones]

I have dried a fair number of red maple spindle blanks and had very little trouble with checking, but they do go oval after being rounded. If I wanted 2" final diameter, I would rough them to about 2.75". I would wait to shorten them until after they are rounded after drying. As a practical matter, you want the centers (the spots where the spur drive and live center hold it) to be there to use for rounding after drying. Then if you do get any drying abnormalities, it will likely be near the end or ends and you can choose the best portion to trim.

I definitely prefer rounding before drying it I am sure it will be a spindle blank. Less wood dries faster and the thicker it is, the more chance of trouble. Also, rounding a wet blank is easier and less likely to cause a split IME. I have had a few dry blanks split on me when knocking the corners off.

[Jeff]

Many thanks for the tips and advice.

I have been reading and exploring the information out there directed at "beginning" turners. Safety, tool selection whys and hows, and proper ways to enter and exit a given cut. Just got an ebook from FWW by Ernie Conover titled "The Lathe Book, A Complete Guide to the Machine and its Accessories". It's pretty comprehensive and a good starting point for about $18, but maybe a bit dated (rev. 2001).

This little side trip in the woodworking world has the potential to become a second mortgage and I don't know if I want to go there for a few potentially one-off projects. My space is limited so that's a factor too.

The Delta 46-460 got a "Best Overall" rating in a 2010 review by FWW. Current price is about $680 without a stand. It's not a Mercedes, but far from an Edsel as well.

http://www.deltamachinery.com/produc...es/item/46-460

[woodArtz]

Come see me just down the road in Hillsborough one weekend. You can try the Delta 46-460, a Jet mini, and a PM 3520b. I've got some dry ambrosia maple if you want to spin some.

PM me if you're interested.

[Jeff]

Come see me just down the road in Hillsborough one weekend. You can try the Delta 46-460, a Jet mini, and a PM 3520b. I've got some dry ambrosia maple if you want to spin some.

PM me if you're interested.

PM sent.

[Jeff]

Carved Tones noted that the red maple blanks tend to go "out of round" after some initial turning and further drying. Hmmm...so I started thinking...which is dangerous in any event.

Voila! The tangential/radial ratio is 2:1 for red maple so it began to make sense that the tangential movement is gonna distort it. A Sketch Up enhanced view helped me to visualize what was happening.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showp...-round&cat=500