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Kenny
26th January 2004, 10:26 PM
I have just purchased some Western Australian Timbers including a number
of burls. I plan to make Clocks out of some. One particular piece has a
small crack and although the timber has dried for nearly 2 years will
the crack increase? Should I fill and bond it? What would I use?

:)

Baz
27th January 2004, 08:07 PM
Kenny, I doubt the crack will get worse, you can use Araldite to fill it, you can colour the Araldite with paint powder to make a feature, you could also do a bit of sanding on the burl in question and mix the dust with PVA or Arladite and you could also use some thick crack filling CA glue. Personally if the crack is not too bad I would leave it.
Cheers
Barry

Christopha
27th January 2004, 10:37 PM
I am assuming that you know this is the Woodturning section of the forum so I would advise that you be very wary turning blanks with cracks as they could just come apart and "improve" your looks unnecessarily. Once again I speak with bitter experience having "improved" my looks noticeably on occasion:(

DarrylF
28th January 2004, 06:09 AM
If it's more of a split than a crack - as in it's reasonably long running across a corner or whatever, then don't try to fill or glue it, unless of course it's only a small piece that might come off. If it's right through the blank your only choice really is to split the blank in two. You don't want to end up looking like Christopha :D

If it's more of a void, or in the middle of the timber & not extending to the edge, then stabilise it with THIN superglue before you start turning, turn away most/all of it, stopping regularly to check it's gone/not expanding etc and to apply more thin CA. Once you've turned the piece close enough to size (basically ready to sand), hit it with more thin CA, let that dry, then make a judgement call on filling or not. If it's not huge, fill it with thick CA.

Make sure you let the CA dry before you turn the lathe on again - even almost dry and it's going to spray around like you wouldn't believe. Wear a full face shield. Thin CA will penetrate where thick CA won't, right into the timber.