any wood turners here?

[sjbrian]

spent today working on one of my favorite tools, the lathe. i'm thinking about making small boxes and vases to sell on ebay. i recently found a huge field loaded with freshly cut eucalyptus trees. the wood turns a deep red after sitting out in the sun. does anyone else here do any lathe work?

[MetalEd]

My son (12yrs old) and I am into Intarsia and Scroll work, with our shop on our back patio.. Spent a lot of cold rainy nights out there lately when it has been too wet to MD
My son has been hinting (if you call taping catalog ads to my cars steering wheel a hint!) that he wants a small lathe for Christmas. We hit the Woodworkers show this weekend at the orange County Fairgrounds (Wish I had my metal detector there!!! Boy what an area!!!) and they had some GREAT deals on them.. So wether it is big enough or not... looks like santa will be bringing him a small pen turning lathe and starter set for Christmas.. I may upgrade it, just put a few bucks down to hold it for delivery... but with the interest he has in it, I doubt just a pen lathe would last long before he wants a bigger one. I might just upgrade it to a full size setup before having it delivered.
I haven't seen eucalyptus wood before.. I might have to check into that since there is always a need for varying shades of red in the intarsia work I do. Nothing large you know, average size branches could easily be turned into small boards for what I do. Thanks for mentioning it, never thought I would find a wood tip here!
HH
Ed

[D&T]

Brian,
In 1974 when Caltrans widened Highway 1 between Watsonviille and Aptos, there was a lot of eucalyptus trees knocked down. I was about ten years old then and went out with my dad to get some firewood. It was a lot of fun, we lived in the area and a lot of other locals were also cutting firewood out there. Some of the people told us that eucalyptus trees (not native here) were originally planted by furniture companies, but then found to be not suitable for such use. Anyway, My brothers and I decided to take some of the smaller diameter logs and make something cool on my dads wood lathe. The wood is hard and has nice color and grain patterns. We made tons of great looking table legs, lamps and whatever else we could think of. The problem was, that after a month or two the wood would crack. I don't mean a small hairline crack, but more of big ugly inch wide crack. Evidently when eucalyptus dries it also cracks. We even tried soaking the wood in linseed oil with not much success. Maybe you are aware of the cracking problem and have a solution. If not you might want to do some test items.

Selling stuff on ebay is a great idea, Good luck on that,
Dean

[MetalEd]

A note on using frsh cut wood for woodwork... you do have to dry the wood before use or it will "Check" or crack. You can find out about that on almost any wood working web site. There is almost no way to take green or fresh cut wood and use it for turning or other projects. It must be dried or "seasoned" (just like firewood) before use or it will shrink and check (crack apart).
The easiest way to dry it and prep it for woodwork is to cut it into slightly larger pieces than you will be using and then paint the end (latex paint will work) to prevent the end checks. The paint traps the water and prevents the ends from drying faster than the rest which would cause it to crack. Then stack the pieces evenly at least six inches off the ground with 3/4 inch stickers (sticks or dowels) between each layer of wood to allow even air flow in a dry area (inside a garage would be optimal).. If it is outdoors, place plywood on top to prevent warping (weight) and to keep it dry from rain or dew, and allow even air flow without trapping moisture like a tarp might... If it is direct sunlight, the tops will dry quicker making it warp.. so a shady area is best. The rule of thumb for drying wood is a year for each inch of thickness. Also to prevent warping, you would want to flip each pieces once in a while.
Kiln drying is the best, but you can get it down to 12-15% drying the above way and even lower (for scrolling) by drying indoors. There are several sites that have plans for building a solar kiln that is simple and would dry a lot quicker.
If it is from an old cut down tree, laying around for a few years, that is good, just cut off the checked end (cracked) cut the wood to the size you want.. depending on how long it has already been drying, it may be ready for use now! Or may need a really short time for seasoning.
Take care!
Ed

[sjbrian]

good info here. i usually put my green logs under my house and let them sit. i have worked green and dried wood with varing results. some green wood does infact crack later. i made a large redwood vase that was still wet and never cracked. i sealed the outside of it and it dried nicely.

i have noticed that the eucalyptus cracks pretty heavily. i use johnson's paste wax on green wood pieces. it seems to keep the cracking away. orange oil works well too.

i only have a small work shed. my lathe is a ryobi mini lathe(discontinued model). i would love to move up to a large JET lathe someday.

[OT]

Hi Brian,

Nice hobby but when do you get a chance to do wood work?

Dean and Tonya, while working for the Palo Alto/Stanford Police Communication I read somewhere that Leland Stanford had imported several species of eucalyptus trees from Australia and planted them down on the "farm" as an experiment to find a fast growing tree that could be used for railroad ties for his ever growing railroads. The tree's turn out to be poor quality wood for railroad ties. If you drive into Stanford Campus near the football stadium you can see the numerous "eucalyptus groves," or their grandchildren still growing and reproducing. Stanford University has taken out 100's of the not so healthy ones.

I laughed when I read about you and your dad cutting the wood up for firewood. I remember as a young lad growing up in Palo Alto when a friend of my mothers dropped off a cord of eucaluptus rounds for firewood. These rounds were not green but well seasoned. I must have been about 12 years old when I spent the entire day using splitting rails and 12 pound sledge hammer pounding away to split that wood. At the end of the day I had been sunburned, my fingers were blistered and I'm not sure who looked the worst me or the splitting rails and sledge hammer.

;)T

[sjbrian]

hi tom,

i like spend my evenings and rainy days working in my shop. when there's no worth while detecting spots i make stuff. i like it alot more than just laying the couch watching tv.

[GoldPinger]

When I turn green wood I dry it in the microwave.
Put it in on high until it starts to smoke, stop let cool and repeat until dry. The water in the cells of the wood expands cells as it turns to steam, no cracks as it dries.