Replies

1. 
   BG | Aug 01, 2003 02:17am | #1

   Derek,

   Put it in a plastic bag and seal it up.....its got to dry out slowly.

2. 
   ehrichweiss | Aug 01, 2003 06:40am | #2

   I'm new to turning, but one tip I learned from a friend in town had to do with turning green wood.

   He actually prefers turning green wood because it cuts so nicely.  What he does is turns a piece about 80 percent while its green, and leaves only the finishing touches for after he dries it.

   The way he dries it is as follows:  First stop by a pawn shop/garage sale/used appliance store and pick yourself up an old microwave.  20 bucks should get this done.  Next put your piece in a paper grocery sack, then put that inside a second one (double bag it).  Roll the paper sacks tight on the top and put them in the microwave.  The key to drying the wood properly is to do it slowly so the wood doesn't crack.  The way he does this is by turning the microwave on high for 2 minutes, then he lets the bag sit for 2 hours.  He repeats this for a couple of days (not necessarily non-stop, but the more you do it the faster it dries).  He says you can eventually up the time to say 3 or 4 minutes, then wait 3 or 4 hours respectively, but he never cooks the wood for longer than 4 minutes at a time.  Apparently the paper sacks will feel damp as you dry the wood out.  When the wood is dry, or as dry as you can get it, the sacks will feel brittle.  Then he finishes turning the piece.

   I hope to try this soon to see how it works, but if you beat me to it and try it with this goblet or the next one, please let us know how it worked.

   ~EW

   ps can you post a picture of the goblet?

3. 
   Telemike | Aug 01, 2003 07:24am | #3

   Ernie Conover's book "Turn a Bowl", a very good book to learn bowl turning, said to turn a green chunk to a bowl blank with a heavy wall thickness - I go about one inch or maybe less with a small bowl.  Then, put the bowl inside two or three paper bags and leave it to dry for three to six months depending on the humidity you store the bowl at.  Then, It'll be dry enough to finish turn and sand and finish.

   This allows the bowl to distort and leaves enough material to get a round bowl (if you've left enough), but the final turning is dry turning.

   He also talks about wet turning to finished as fast as possible.  Then, the bowl distorts as it drys.  Sometimes the effect is pleasing, sometimes the bowl gets axed into kindling to start the wood stove.

   I've had very good luck with the wet/dry (paper bag) method with walnut, olive, and pistachio from the homestead.  Neither wet turning nor wet/dry turning has worked well with blue gum eucalyptus.

4. 
   gpwest | Aug 01, 2003 08:28am | #4

   Derek,

      If you haven't already done so, you should wrap your goblet up in damp sawdust, towel, or something else to keep it from drying out too fast, or it will crack.

    Here's my recipe for drying green turned bowls which I've used on local trees (willow, cottonwood, birch) (being that your goblet has a stem makes it different from a bowl, so don't know if it will dry the same.)    Turn the bowl so the wall thickness is no less than 10 percent of total bowl diameter. Take the still damp shavings that came from the turning, pack them around the bowl and put it in a brown paper grocery sack and fold the top over. Put that sack in another sack, and repeat till the bowl is inside about 6 to 8 grocery sacks. (I live in the desert so this would probably be overkill for other parts of the country.)  Store it inside my house, which is not quite as hot and dry as my workshop.  Weigh the sack every 2 weeks and write the weight on side of sack. When the bowl has stopped losing weight (about 6 weeks or so), remove from sacks and finish turning.      GP   

5. 
   GeeSeaWhy | Aug 01, 2003 08:39am | #5

   Since you say you've finished it, I assume the goblet is as thin as you want it to ever get. So rough turn, dry, finish turn to get the warp out is not an option. Your best shot may be the microwave - dry it fast (real fast!) and hope it warps in an interesting/artistic way. Just be careful - it will burn if you cook it too long in one go.

   Another alternative is liquid dishwashing detergent (do a search on LDD, there's lots of discussion on this). Mix up some detergent with water, maybe around 1:3 ratio. Slather it on or dunk the goblet in it. I use this technique often and it seems to prevent cracking, but I have had problems sanding afterwards - it gums up the sandpaper instantly.

   I would use an oil-type finish, Formby's Tung Oil Finish is one I use a lot.

   HTH

   Graeme