Woodturner--Les Roberts The Pen Turners Corner A Terrible Tool ...

Questions and Answers from the InternetAlcohol dippingQuestion: Ok, so I have this giant piece of green(WET!) box elder w/bark inclusion that someonegave me. I cut it in half and discovered the bark goesright down to the center. I began to turn one half, anddunked the other half into DA as recommended. SinceI’ve never done this before, the question is: Should theobject be totally covered, and for what time period?And, is it advisable to do a rough turning, then do thealcohol dipping?—Jim BreedenFred’s Response: I decided to use the AlcoholDrying of Wet Wood technique that Dave Smith developedand highly recommends. In the past I’ve hadexcellent results with it. Because of its size, I turnedan end grain vase out of a piece of the root. The roughturned wall thickness was about 5/8”. I soaked it inalcohol that we’ve used several times before for 24hours. I removed it from the alcohol and let it dry offfor a short while and then wrapped it in brown grocerysack on the outside and top rim, leaving the inside openand upright. I weighed it as soon as it was wrapped,here are the results:Date Weight (grams)5-4-06 4505-5-06 4005-6-06 3655-7-06 3205-8-06 3105-9-06 2655-11-06 2405-13-06 2005-14-06 1905-15-06 190After weighing on the 15th, I final turned it. Thefoot was still round so that I could use the chuck tenonoriginally used to turn the piece. There were no cracksor checks. The piece has lost 58 percent of its originalweight in ten days sitting in my shop. It was out ofround by less that 1/16 inch. The wood was very drywhen turned.—Fred HolderPage 10 More Woodturning July 2012Lyle’s Response: The alcohol process Fred describedworks well to speed up the drying time. TheDA replaces the water and the DA dries out faster thanwater. You must follow the process of double turningand stack pieces if you are doing multiple pieces. Realizethe wood is still going to shrink and warp out ofshape. The DA only speeds things up it will not stopthe shape from changing as it dries. I prefer to take theturning down to its final wall thickness and not have todouble turn it.I have never heard about anyone using DA on solidwood blanks. You want the moisture to stay in the woodto store it. To dry any thick solid piece of wood withany drying method will risk cracking. Drying a thinpiece of wood will relieve the stress so the wood canmove/warp without cracking.—Lyle JamiesonThread ChasingQuestion: I have been looking into doing somethread chasing and had a few questions of which youcould possibly help. If I want to get a good quality setof tools for thread chasing what would you recommend?What TPI would you suggest with which to start? Doyou recommend the armrest or is that not necessary?—John DekleFred’s Response: The best thread chasers to beginwith are the finer thread simply because the chaserdoesn’t have to moves as fast. I have chasers from about30 tpi (which is not much good for wood) to 3-1/2 tpiwhich works pretty well for fairly soft woods. However,I generally recommend 16 tpi chasers for most of thework the average woodturner will be doing. Of the 16tpi chasers that I own, my favorite it the chasers made byRay Iles in England and imported by Tools for WorkingWood, ww.toolsforworkingwood.com, in New York. Ithink they sell for about $90.00.I personally like to use an arm rest for the internalthreads. It makes it easier to control the cut of thethreads on the inside. However, it is not absolutelynecessary. What is absolutely necessary is good densewood, with English Boxwood being the best, especiallywhen learning to chase threads. If you don’t have really