Blank storage now completed

[Random Orbital Bob]

After the mammoth job of cutting all my blanks from various logs I realised there was nowhere to store them so I've just built a bunch of shelves out of literally what I had lying round the shop. It had two objectives: Must be sturdy enough to support quite heavy blanks and must cost me nothing.

Bit of a heath robinson I grant you. In the end I used some inch mdf I had spare for the shelves and an ancient scaffold board on the top. The mdf is held rigid by a brace underneath which is fixed to the wall. The braces are made from salvaged fence posts with the rot cut out and whizzed through the planar a few times. The uprights to the right are two old pine bed frame members and to the left some ply I ripped in two. The shelf supports are an old pub table I rescued from a skip. Now I have the hideous job of end sealing everything, letting it dry and then store away. I began that today and found the fastest way was to fill a small vessel (French pate tin) with my diluted pva solution and just dip the end grain in. Much faster than painting it on with a brush. Once I've completed this housekeeping I might actually get to turn something!

 

[Grahamshed]

You have been a busy boy haven't you

 

[winemaker]

nice bike as well

 

[CHJ]

Get that end grain sealed ASAP, else you will be storing a load of split blanks within a few weeks if not days.
The bought blanks you see on a suppliers shelves are not sealed just for the look of it, it costs money.
I roll my round blanks in a shallow bath of hot wax but old paint or PVA is better than nothing.

 

[MMUK]

I thought we were going to have a game of

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

=D> =D> =D>

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Get that end grain sealed ASAP, else you will be storing a load of split blanks within a few weeks if not days.
The bought blanks you see on a suppliers shelves are not sealed just for the look of it, it costs money.
I roll my round blanks in a shallow bath of hot wax but old paint or PVA is better than nothing.

Not to worry Chas....most of them have been in my garage since before the summer. There are some newer oak ones that I've chainsaw'd for this exercise but the others were already past the major split stage. There are one or two shakes which will definitely grow but its not like most of them are really green. I got about half sealed today after I finished the shelves and I'll finish them tomorrow.

One that was seriously green was a piece of spalted holly. I popped it on the lathe to true it before sealing and storing and it proceeded to give me a shower it was so full of water. My moisture meter just came up with a pointer that went off the scale

I've found that the really bad shakes and splits come when the timber is felled in the summer. I guess the relative heat and dryness shock the timber due to the speed of water loss. Its about 6 deg in my garage at the moment and what with all the moisture in the air from the rain. They seem much more stable so it takes some of the stress of sealing them away. But you're right not to take chances so they will be done by close of play tomorrow.