What to do with wet oak?

[como]

Hi All,

I've just been offered an oak tree that has just been felled, apparently the tree was 35ft high so I'm guessing there must be some good pieces to be had.
Could someone please give me some advice about what I should do with all this wood, (the first person that says 'send it to me' gets a slap ).

As I see it I have 2 options:

1. Cut the wood into sizable blanks, seal with paraffin wax and leave for a year or 2 before turning.

2. Rough turn the bowls leaving a nice thick wall, wrap in paper bags, then finish turning them when they have dried out.

I have never turned any wet oak so I'm not even sure if option 2 is possible, however if I did rough turn the bowls and leave them what will they be like when I come to rechuck them, ie, will the spigot/recess distort when the bowl dries out #-o , if so how would I get them back on the chuck :? .

Any advice would be much appreciated

Mark

 

[geoff_tulip]

what to do with wet oak ?

pray alot and then pray some more. it is notoriously difficult to dry large pieces of green oak - and to be honest the work involved in cutting , rounding and waxing the blanks or rough turning may be in vain. the % losses may just prove to be high to make it worth your while.
if possible try a few pieces and check your success rate.

if you are going to go for it - try not to cut too much of the tree at once - if you ring up the whole tree and then bring it home to round on the band saw - you will find that you will have lost have before it even sees the lathe.

deal with a few blanks at a time - round them and wax them - i have found that giving them a chance to dry a little before roughing proves more successful.

spigots can distort when drying but are chuckable after (use your tailstoc for extra support). if you want to be sure leave a spigot in the centre of the bowl that will allow a small faceplate to be mounted back on. you can then true up your bowl and return the recess in the base (if you do it that way)..

perhaps someone has tried green oak in ethanol ? and had good results or the ldd method - but traditional ways prove difficult.

 

[como]

thanks geoff, I thought this may be the case.

I think I may decline the the oak because when I add up all the time, effort and logistics of getting the wood from the other end of town, preparing it, finding somewhere to store it, and then to find out when I come to use it most of it is un-usable, it just doesn't seem worth it.

 

[paulm]

Oak is notorious for splitting and developing shakes/cracks as it dries out as I know from experience

Still worth some effort though as long as you are aware and prepared for a lot of it to end up on the firewood pile, as you will always have some pieces that are useable. Well, usually anyway !!!

 

[Good Surname or what ?]

Cleave it and turn chair legs!

 

[treefella83]

i agree with every thing that geoff said.
if you rough out the bowls then leave them to dry you can use cole or button jaws to hold the bowl to true up the spigot.
or make a doughnut chuck to do the same or even make your own cole jaws if you dont have a set.
i find that roughing a bowl and wrapping it in several layers of news paper works well for me but i keep the timber cool and leave it for about a year and i get about 80% good bowls.
dont refuse good green timber and over the years you will have a steady supply of dry blanks.
good luck