Wet maple and Anchorseal

[David Warkentin]

Hi! Just rough turned the first bowl blanks I have ever ordered. They were really wet. Pegged my meter out wet. Anyway, I turned them down to about ten percent of width and coated them with anchorseal. Now the inevitable question; how long do I need to wait to finish them? I know there are a lot of variables, but could someone give me a general idea? First time I ever opened a can of anchorseal, also. David

[charlie knighton]

keep a log, weigh them once a week, when you get 3 weeks of same weight, you are close

1st week store them close to floor, then you can move them up

[David E Keller]

I'd guess probably somewhere around a year. Checking weight loss is probably the only reliable way I know of to see if they are really dry.

[Sean Hughto]

How big are they and how thick exactly (ten percent doesn't tell you unless you know of what)?

How important is it to you that the bowl stay perfectly circular after final turning? If you can tolerate a bit of movement, you don't have wait as long.

Given how wet you say, and assuming an average medium sized bowl rough turned to maybe an inch, I'm gunna say at least 6 months.

[David Warkentin]

One is 6 inches and the other 8. A year is a while to wait. Bring on the DNA. David

[David Warkentin]

And thanks for the quick answers. David

[David E Keller]

At that size, Sean's guess is probably closer than mine.

[David Warkentin]

Yeah, they are kinda small. They sell them as practice wood I guess. They aren't expensive, think I paid 5 dollars apiece for the 3x8 blanks from gotwood, IIRC. Shipping will get you though. If I lived close to those guys, I would have lots of blanks! David

[Ryan Baker]

You are probably looking at 6-12 months easily. Yours sound like less than an inch thick, which will speed up the drying. You can expect significant warping as they dry, so be careful to leave enough thickness to return later and have some wall thickness left (you should be OK). If you have the blank completely sealed with Anchorseal, it will dry VERY slowly. If you only seal the end grain, it will dry much faster, but with much more risk of cracks. It just depends on what works in your local climate. Also beware of mold forming under the Anchorseal if it is sealed too completely. A little surface mold won't hurt. I've had some of those really wet maple blanks trap too much moisture and create mold that went deep into the wood.

[David Warkentin]

Thanks Ryan. I did seal them completely. David

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have been doing this for a while now after watching and listening to Mike Mahoney. He uses this method. I have around 50 or 60 rough outs on the floor in a cool dry place with not much air movement. So far I haven't had any cracks and the ones I did about 8 months to a year ago are ready. He said depending on the wood it could be 6 months to a year. I weigh mine every so often and keep track of it. When they stop using moisture for at least a couple of weeks they are ready to go.

[Dan Forman]

I've had good luck just putting them on the basement floor in a paper bag for two or three weeks, then leaving them in the open for about another 6 to eight weeks. The time in the bag accounts for the most rapid water loss, after which there is very little danger of cracking. I have done apple bowls like this without mishap, and apple has a bad reputation for cracking.

Dan

Dan

[Mark Levitski]

Ditto to Ryan's post. Same to Dan's. We use a lot of Anchorseal around here, but not much on bowl blanks (only to cover some gnarly grain and on some species end grain). The brown paper grocery bags work for my bowl blanks. Anchorseal has proven, in my shop (+/- 40% RH), to slow the drying process down to almost stopping it--works too well! And the bags are cheap and easy to use. You can write on the outside to label. I completely coated some apple once that, when I went to finish after a looong time on the shelf, was still as green as the day I coated it. Didn't crack though

The Anchorseal bowls do look nicer though than brown bags waiting to be finished.

[Frank Kobilsek]

David

Time is your friend. I wait a year. When you have been turning a few years you will have hundreds of rough outs in various shapes and sizes. You only need patience in the first couple years. Rough turning is a great way to master your skills with the gouge.

I too gave up on Anchorseal on rough outs unless it is something of very high value. Most domestic blanks I rough and wrap in two layers of newsprint and punch a couple holes in the paper on the open side of the bowl. At 6 or 8 months I unwrap, relabel if nessecary, pitch the 2 or 3 in a 100 that crack or degrade, then pile them up again for another 6 or 8 months.

If you need to have some 'finished' goods to show friends and family try turning plates from 5/4 kiln dried wood. A nice little 6" dish is a great place to throw keys and change or eat a snack from.

Just keep roughing, a couple years from now you'll be wondering if the garage is going to cave in due to the load of blanks stuck up in the rafters.

Frank