Thread: Storing Turning Blanks

Ummm.... why are the green ones fully waxed? :confused:

How is it ever going to dry out?

If the timber is dry, in a cupboard away from moisture & vermin is fine.

If it is still wet, then it needs room around it for the moisture to get away.

Hi Russell,

I would say that with dry blanks you only need to allow air around the unwaxed faces so they reach or stay at EMC. Stagnant air might start spalting.

With green, wax is a pretty good tho not perfect sealer. They can sit any which way, tho my approach with these is to rough turn them to speed up the drying, or fully turn them in one session.

With rough turned, there are several approaches to drying, and that's another story.

Hope this helps

Thanks Cliff & Ern!

Thanks for your replies.

I am thinking of putting some air vents in the cupboard doors it aid air flow which will benefit the dried blanks.

The green blanks are as received from Tassie and I will take your advice and rough turn them progressively in the coming months.

Cheers!

So feel free to gloat here! Tell us about the green Tassie stuff.

Originally Posted by rsser

So feel free to gloat here! Tell us about the green Tassie stuff.

Hey Ern!

The Tassie stuff is mostly green Myrtle figured & burls, Euc figured of various sizes and larger Blackwood dried squares. I have not made my mind up about the future of the Blackwood yet but I think I have time for these.
As per your recomendation, it looks like I have to do something with the green wood in the near future.

Beware the Blackwood!!!! It can cause nasty reactions.

Russell

The Tassie blanks in the wax is better off left with the wax on while storing them rather than rough turning a whole stack of blanks to shapes that you don't want in a few months or years from now. You cannot put the shavings back as solid wood, however those wax covered blanks should still be 100% in a few years from now. Although they are covered, they still loose moisture but very very slowly, which protects them from splitting. I have seen guys roughing out blanks to the favourite shape/stile but in a year when they come to turn the roughies, there techniques and ideas about the perfect shape has changed and now they are stuck with stuff that is not 100% what they want. I just picked up about $800 worth of Tassie blanks from my favourite woodwork supplier in Balcatta, Perth. The blanks arrived on Monday!

I have once or twice had mould start under a green waxed piece; the spores had obviously settled before waxing.

And with plain green Tassie myrtle, drying a rough turned piece can be chancy, even with end grain resealed. It tends to crack readily. Myrtle burl on the other hand seems more stable.

If you've got a heap of blanks, then you can play around with varying the rough turned forms as you would with dry blanks.

Fully turning green blanks has to be done pretty much in one standing (tho you can wrap the piece in plastic while you have lunch) taking care to minimise heat/drying until you're ready to finish. It'll normally warp out of true afterwards and some turners make this a feature of the piece. Some microwave the piece dry.

I only get dry ones !!
No hassles.
Thats why i live here.
got to get some benefit for living here.
my problem is getting dry for the woodheater.

Lucky sod. Some of that myrtle burl is gorgeous.

Ern
you missed this one.
Myrtle 10yrs drying .
280 by 100 (28cm x 10cm)

Thanks Joe, Ern & PTC,

I 'll take all this good advice on-board, It seems from what you are saying there is no great urgency to rough turn the sealed myrtle burls as they will keep for some time in suitable storage.

PTC, Sorry to here about your heating problems, there is always some down-side to living in the beautiful parts of Oz.

Originally Posted by ptc

Ern
you missed this one.
Myrtle 10yrs drying .
280 by 100 (28cm x 10cm)

Dry myrtle burl of that size - fantastic.

Ah well, can't complain ... have a decent highly figured dry Tassie blackwood piece on the go at the moment. Tho it's taking all my skill to keep the grain tear out down.

... Russell, all your fully sealed green pieces should be good to sit for a while; just check them out weekly for cracking or fungus under the wax.

Store waxed blanks flat as standing them on their side can lead to the moisture all going to the bottom of the blank and creating a bad balance problem when you finally get it onto the lathe.

This is a common problem that most turners just plow on through not thinking about it being the moisture content that is causing the balance problem. They usually blame either the timber or the lathe.

Cheers - Neil