Chris H Posted November 14, 2012 Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 I have noticed that many of the companies selling blanks say that the wood is "Stabablized". Is that a specific process or is it just a reference to being dried to a consistant moisture content? Does all turned wood need to be "stabalized"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guillaume Breton Posted November 14, 2012 Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 not all wood needs to be stabilized. most of the time, its small blanks for pens, coming from spalted wood which would be to fradgile to turn as is. they inject a resin in a vacuum chamber and "bake" it so all the soft spots become hard and can be turned normally. you can see how they do it in this small video Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 if you have enough super glue you can dip your wood in a bucket of it and let it soak in to the core of the board. then you take it out and let it harden. i dont sugest you do this as its expensive plus your likely to end up ruining a big batch of super glue and get stuck to your entire lathe. a second way to do it is to buy wood stabalizer and soak that in but it does not make the wood as hard as super glue or resin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbarton22 Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 There is a more tedious method. Turn a little, then apply some CA glue. Let it dry, then turn a little more. At the end of the day, all you are looking to do is to stabilize the thing you are cutting. Lots of the times I have a curious piece of burl, say for a pen, I will rough turn it to round. There is plenty of meat there in case something chips. I then use THIN CA glue (very important to use thin). It will soak in and harden. Then I turn a bit and check the status. I might need to apply more thin CA. It isn't the best or fastest method, but it requires no extra equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 s barton another slow method is to use oil or water with each pass. the oil lubricates the cuting edge so that it slide through the wood rather then chops through it. but then again you puting oil on cuting oil on cutiing ect... thats why green wood cuts with longer cleaner ribbons of wood rather then chips. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris H Posted November 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 Interesting, thank you. I tried turning some figured walnut I had laying around and about half of the blanks just exploded off the brass tubes when I started getting it down to appox size. I wasn't sure if this was just my inexperience with the tool, or the wood just being too fragile. I am guessing it was a combination of the two. Thanks for the information! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandSWoodcraft Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 Some other things to check because I used to have the same problem, especially with thin walled pens. Are you squaring the ends all the way to the brass tube? if you have extra wood on the end you will put strain through the wood instead of through the tube. Is your brass nut too tight on the Mandrel? I usually back mine off one I get the blank turned to round. Lastly, are you getting full adhesion area between the tube and wood? I used to use gel CA's and would basically adhere in a little strip. I've switched to Gorilla and/or medium CA and have a lot better results with full adhesion around the perimeter of the tube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris H Posted November 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 Some other things to check because I used to have the same problem, especially with thin walled pens. Are you squaring the ends all the way to the brass tube? if you have extra wood on the end you will put strain through the wood instead of through the tube. Is your brass nut too tight on the Mandrel? I usually back mine off one I get the blank turned to round. Lastly, are you getting full adhesion area between the tube and wood? I used to use gel CA's and would basically adhere in a little strip. I've switched to Gorilla and/or medium CA and have a lot better results with full adhesion around the perimeter of the tube. 1) I am squaring to the brass tube, so I don't think that is the problem. 2) My brass nut was possibly too tight. If I didn't have it as tight as I could turn it, the blanks would just stop spinning when I was knocking down the corners. Not like too much chisel in the wood, barely touching the wood would stop the blank (mandrel still spinning, blank stopped). I have since gone to the "Mandrel saver" type system from PSI, which eliminates the brass nut and instead the tailstock pushes against the bushings. 3) Adhesion. If it wasn't the nut, it is very likely poor ahesion. I am using medium CA and I try to quickly spin and slide the tube back and fourth during insertion to try to spread the CA out. I have found it to be a tricky gamble though because the CA sets up very quickly. Finally, it could have just been the density of the wood. I had a walnut explode on me, but only 1 of about 5 I turned. I was practicing with some a.cedar. This is where I noticed a lot of problems. It was a really old scrap of cedar, so that could just be damaged wood I didn't notice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 cedar is soft and it tends to shred a little you need realy sharp tools try just using a realy sharp skew and slice it at an angle takes some practice but it shears the wood rather then scrapes or cuts it. problem with figure wood if it is like tiger figure guessing thats what your talking about, what your hiting is long grain/end grain/long grain ect... and some tools will just catch on the end grain and cause your wood to rip out. try using a sharp scraper or bowl gouge and keep them sharp. take light cuts a heavy hand can cause all kinds of problems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jHop Posted November 17, 2012 Report Share Posted November 17, 2012 I had an experiment running with OSB on the lathe. It's currently sidelined right now, as I'm dealing with other issues, but I'm planning on rebooting it this summer. There are several methods I'm looking into using to stabilize materials, including a recipe I received from one of the fine folks at Highland Woodworking. What I can safely state is that my results with the CA glue were less than what I expected. Not saying you should skip it, as I was trying to stabilize a grain pattern that is completely different from what you were trying to do. I do also have a blank sitting on top of my dryer, where it has continually experienced temperature swings of at least 10 degrees (highest I've seen has been 80 degrees, but I don't watch the dryer work.) The CA glue has held up just fine in two years. I'm almost ready to start turning it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbarton22 Posted November 17, 2012 Report Share Posted November 17, 2012 s barton another slow method is to use oil or water with each pass. the oil lubricates the cuting edge so that it slide through the wood rather then chops through it. but then again you puting oil on cuting oil on cutiing ect... thats why green wood cuts with longer cleaner ribbons of wood rather then chips. I had no idea. I might give that a shot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbarton22 Posted November 17, 2012 Report Share Posted November 17, 2012 I had an experiment running with OSB on the lathe. It's currently sidelined right now, as I'm dealing with other issues, but I'm planning on rebooting it this summer. There are several methods I'm looking into using to stabilize materials, including a recipe I received from one of the fine folks at Highland Woodworking. What I can safely state is that my results with the CA glue were less than what I expected. Not saying you should skip it, as I was trying to stabilize a grain pattern that is completely different from what you were trying to do. I do also have a blank sitting on top of my dryer, where it has continually experienced temperature swings of at least 10 degrees (highest I've seen has been 80 degrees, but I don't watch the dryer work.) The CA glue has held up just fine in two years. I'm almost ready to start turning it. Oh man, I completely forgot about that!! You were going to solve the OSB puzzle. I wonder if one of those stabilizing machines from the video about would get you there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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