Shopsmith Forums

Yesterday, I had an almost 50 year old tree, maple I think, cut down because the top of the tree was dead, and it was only feet from my house. I have been trying to get the tree cut down for the last three years that I have owned the house. Any way, I saved a few pieces of trunk wood. I have been thinking of maybe using a wedge and splitting out a few blocks in a size manageable on my Shopsmith bandsaw. I would then cut those blocks to be used for different spindle turnings. I thought maybe getting one of these large hunks down into a blank small enough to do a bowl turning, but bowl turning is done with the blank in the green for part of the way, and then finished after waiting for the blank to dry. I am not ready on the lathe to turn a bowl blank. What ideas do you guys have for what I could do with this wood and how to get it down to usable size pieces? Should I get the wood coated with something, or will the wood be ok for a week or so until I get it to pieces that I would then let dry? I have never done raw lumber before.

This piece is between 8-10" thick.


12" or thicker.


Part near the base of the tree, cut in half.


About 6-8" thick.

Those 'slices' appear to be from the bottom of the trunk. That 'swell' portion has some internal stresses and grain 'crookednesses' that may be troublesome as it dries. Latex paint to the end grain(both ends) will 'help' prevent splitting for the time being.

I tried latex paint, and with in 3 weeks it was split. It was from the bottom of the tree. I put on thick.

Looks like it would be good used in band saw boxes. I am a newbie, but had great luck with my first try a a band saw box. Here is my first effort at one and it turned out fine.

I'd definitely use some of the wood for a ban saw box or two. I googled on 'band saw box how to'. And found some instructions. They are dead easy to do.

I see there is a current thread showing a band saw box project. He used home dried cedar and found that it was hard to work with - still a beauty of an outcome.

Good luck drying wood. I am not sure how dry you will need to be for the boxes.

The Maple looks spalted, which is caused be fungus that colors the grain black to pink and makes for beautiful turnings.

beeg wrote:If ya wait a week to coat it. It will probably be splitting by then. Coat it well with a green wood sealer SOON after ya cut it down.

I checked locally, and it looks like no one around sells anything similar to Anchor Seal. I did order some though.

So, here is what could happen when you turn green bowls and place them in bags with wood shavings for a few months. In this case, 2 out of 3 I turned and stored in January cracked. I am gaining experience in how to prepare the blanks so that the cracking might be reduced.

[ATTACH]20790[/ATTACH]

I believe the one on the left is beyond repair. Unless I can mix up some glue and sawdust to fill in the crack. I might be able to do something with the center one by cutting in down before finishing on the lathe. The third one is crack free as of now. I have 6 others in various stages of drying and I hope they come out ok.

Rather than sawdust and glue, you can also use any of the following.

Polyester Resin (PR)
Fiberglas resin
Polyurethane Resin (Brand Name = Alumilite)
Epoxy resin

Any of these can be tinted or colored as desired.

The PR and Alumilite are very popular with the pen making community. Alumilite is preferred as it does not shrink as much.

I have saved bowls and spindles with both fiberglass resin and PR.

Fred,
Are you saying that you turned your bowls while green, then set them aside to finish drying, and they cracked? I thought that is what you are supposed to do with bowls. Turn the blank while green, then set up to dry, and then do the finish turning.