Get tons of wood and rough out everything you can!
Rick, My method is to turn as many things as you can and have them setting on every flat surface in the shop! I have not counted lately but I know there are over 300 bowls vessels etc in different stages of drying. I guess I have the advantage of owning a sawmill and have sawn lumber for 25 years, that has given me many tons of wood to work with! I just brought home a truck and 12'x5' trailer full of Cottonwood and it has tons of crotchwood to work on! So some I seal some I bag for a day or two or however long I forget about it, some I anchorseal, some I put shellac on and on and on. Time is the only thing that is best for drying wood to make it the best it can be. It you dry it to fast you risk the chance of case hardening the outside and the inside is damp and will change shape very fast when the wood is cut or re-cut. If you can build a little kiln out of an old freezer like has been posted on SMC to speed up things or make a small solar kiln that you have a thermostatically controlled fan in so when the heat gets to high it removes it. The solar kiln is good because at night the wood cools and the moisture still in the wood satabilizes and the wood relaxes a bit. Then the next day the sun warms it again and dry starts again. This seems to leave the wood easy to work and stable.
So in the end if you want to turn it and finish in one day you will have to buy wood that is already dry or go Reeds way of turning it green to finsihed thickness and sand out when it is dry.
Patience is really what it takes, good luck and don't give up!
Jeff
To turn or not to turn that is the question: ........Of course the answer is...........TURN ,TURN,TURN!!!!
Anyone "Fool" can know, The important thing is to Understand................Albert Einstein
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