First try with microwave

[orraloon]

Hi,
The other day I had a roadside find. Loppers had cut up some Sheoak and left the logs for anybody to pick up. I got a few home and just had to rough turn a bit. My first intention was to turn the bowl about 20mm thick and put it away for months. The wood had good red colors and I decided to try the microwave. With permission from her indoors of course. I gave it 5 x 6min turns on low wrapped in paper towel and let it cool a bit between turns. Steam to start with and the wood made a crackle kind of noise for up to 10 mins after a session. The weight was reduced quite a bit also. I put it back on the lathe for a sand and wax and found it was a bit out of round but looked not too bad for something that was growing two days ago.
The result is sort of ok if you are in a hurry but I have sealed the other logs and put them away for later.

Regards
John

[Allan at Wallan]

Good pick up John.
Lovely tonings and distinct possibilities of a
nice bowl in the future. Will check in a few months
time for final result.
:2tsup:

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

With practice and some of refinement of technique a microwave works surprisingly well for doing test runs of an unfamiliar timber. :thyel:

However, if I have ample timber I'll also turn a green piece as well, as I've found that nuking can change the colouration a bit and having the other, un-nuked piece to compare it to makes any changes easier to pick.

Pittosperum, for example, develops a nice "caramel and vanilla" swirl when nuked that has nothing to do with grain orientation. I've no idea why this happens, nor do I particularly care. But I was very disappointed when I turned my first air-dried piece of Pittosperum and it didn't have those swirls... it took me a while to twig to what had caused them. :-

[TTIT]

You've done well John! :2tsup: I really would have expected sheoak to crack like buggery in the zapper - wouldn't have even bothered trying it to be honest! Might have to rethink my 'intuition'! :;

[orraloon]

Hi,
Thanks for the replys. The good tiing about this site is the information shared. I had read a few bits on the process but at some stage you just have to give it a go. Not the best bowl I ever made but ok as an experment. Some colour did leach out on the paper towel but the end result was almost the same as the fresh cut log. I will have to try some other timbers as I expect they all react different. I may not get away with nukeing camphor in the kitchen but some timbers with little smell to them.

Regards
John

[soundman]

I've done a few bits of sheoak in the microwave.... quite a bit more gently though.
I've found no real problem with it cracking.
Bear in mind though you have to split it thru the middle first.

sheoak has huge radial shrinkage but if you split it up the middle it most times wont split but it will bend like a banana

I turned one bowl with the standard 55mm recess on the base after drying the recess was about 45mm x 50mm and that bit wasn't all that wet.

Sheoak is great stuff isn't it:2tsup:

cheers

[Rance]

Bear in mind though you have to split it thru the middle first.

SM, so are you saying cut the slab off the log so you are cutting away the pith? I'm one of those that have NEVER dried any wood.

Guess I better change that if I want to earn my worth as a new woodturner. :D I have acquired a food dehydrator and might investigate that method too.

Rance

[Alastair]

I have found that each timber type behaves differently in the MW, and can need a different technique. Jacaranda performs well, and can be hit quite hard, without cracking problems, as can Syringa. Silky Oak on the other hand was a b*****d, with major warping, and cracking throughout, and once dry, a tendency to char internally in seconds. Camphor seems to work well, treated slowly, with some micro cracks showing early, but then closing up.

I would tend to proceed slower than you described, as I have found that if done to 'steaming and hissing' it can expand and disrupt the grain, making it difficult to get a good finish. I also am less methodical, and don't do the weighing bit to constant weight. I have found that most of the distortion takes place when the 'intracellular' water is lost, ie in the final stages of drying. I watch the shape, which changes little for most of the early cycles. Then almost all the warping seems to take place in one or two cycles. once this has happened, I stop, rechuck and return the piece. Have generally had good results like this.

A

[soundman]

our trees have some different structures than you might expect.
Sheoak dosn't have a pith as such, nor does it have a well defined sapwood or heartwood as such (oh I supose you could call it a heart wood)

sheoak tends to be denser in the centre and less dense toward the bark.
The outer parts shrink a lot more than the inner... thus the problem.
If you split the log straight up the middle you reduce the logs tendancy to split hugely.
Once split the flitch will tend to shrink pivoting arround the centre if you get me
It is not uncommon for sheoak to split while it is alive and standing.
I have had pieces of sheoak arround 8" across that have a single split an inch wide open up full length.
I have found two options
Let the bugger split where it wants then put the wedges in and help to finish the job
or
split it straight up the middle as soon as possible.

Generlay sheoak dosn't gett all that big a 12" log isn't common ( at least not round here) the borers get em & the die or fall over befor the gett to much size on them unless they are in real good country.
So 4" 6" 8" or if you are very lucky 8 or 10" logs are the best you can hope for and usualy not all that long.

I agree that going easier with the microwaving is the go.
I have yet to have a failure, but I tend to go at it quite gently and take up to a week to get the job done.
Usualy in 30 sec bursts.

cheers

[OGYT]

Never nuked any wood since I put in some aromatic cedar and it decided to disguise itself as something other than what I put in the nuker. 5-6 min cooks seem a might long... what power setting was it on?
However you did it, must have done a bang-up job (that's very good, in the upover), cause it's beautiful.
Sheoak... do they make a heoak?
Fine work in grain orientation, too. Gorgeous Bowl. Well done, John.

[soundman]

Sheoaks do come in male and female, only the females have the cones on them.
Some do refer to them a heoaks and sheoaks... but the serious botanists frown on this sort of foolishness:D

cheers

[soundman]

I microwaved some mouldy mango a little while ago..... smeled like I was cooking mushrooms:whatonearth:

cheers

[TTIT]

............ Sheoak... do they make a heoak?
Actually Al, we have a male one and an each-way bet - Bull-oak and Hairy-oak! :;

[robynmau]

I managed to ruin my microwave experimeting with nuking a branch from a ruit tree.

I only did it a bit at a time on defrost but still managed to burn it, and it didn't matter what I did I couldn't get the 'burning' smell from the microwave. Gave me a good excuse to go and buy a new microwave and I now have a 'wood' only version too, so there might have been method in my madness :B

cheers

Robyn

[Cliff Rogers]

....nuking a branch from a ruit tree.....
That'll do it every time. :D

[Tornatus]

Actually Al, we have a male one and an each-way bet - Bull-oak and Hairy-oak! :;

Actually, Al - as you may have already guessed - none of these trees have anything remotely to do with real Oak (Quercus spp), but belong to the native genus Casuarina. The early settlers here were so confused by the variety of Australian native trees and their timber, that they tried to compare them to familiar European woods - hence Casuarinas were regarded as "like " oak, but not as hard/strong, so being "softer" in character, they were called "she-oak" - sort of a more feminine version.

Apart from being pretty silly, this does a great disservice to the Casuarinas, which display much more colour and character in their woods than boring old Oak! If you have ever seen examples of the beautiful Flame She-oak (Casuarina inophloia) , for instance, you would know what I mean.

BTW, Hairy Oak is also a Casuarina, but Bull-Oak can be applied to a Cardwellia - just goes to show how unhelpful common names can be.

[TTIT]

....... real Oak (Quercus spp), but belong ........Off topic but it looks like you do your homework Tornatus - can you tell me what the 'spp' is - always wonder about it when I see it?:confuzzled:

[Groggy]

spp = species (plural)

[Tornatus]

:whs: It's just an academic tradition, going way back, that originally had something to do with abbreviations for Latin plurals, such as "pp" for "pages" in a reference quote like "Bloggs, 1996, pp 45-47". Like a lot of other things, it's just done that way because it's always been done that way .....