Spalted Wood

[D Martin]

Has anyone here turned spalted maple on a lathe?  Im doing a thinning at a neighbors property in his woods behind his house. lots of trees coming my way, firewood and sawlogs. A contractor who built an addition for my neighbor is going to trade me fire wood in exchange for moveing the logs with his lull  across the road to my property,  he asked if i came across any burls, I said no but there is some downed maple that looks spalted. He said he had never turned any. Ive seen small pices,music boxes etc.. but never lathe pices. How does spalting affect soundness, can you turn it?Thanks for any info

[Tom]

Pretty much, spalted anything is pretty.   You can let it go so far that it loses its integrity, but even then, turners save it by injecting a hardner.

[metalspinner]

Here is a small bowl with spalting in it. There is a fine line between just right and rotten, so you need to pretty lucky on "found" spalted wood.

[Ianab]

Wear a dust mask, the spalting is a fungus and you could have a bad reaction to breathing the dust  :(

Ian

[Jeff]

Thats one BEEuuuutiful Bowl!

[metalspinner]

Jeff,
Thanks.

[D Martin]

Thanks for the pics and info, I printed a copy to show the guy. I ended up with a few small spalted logs , i'll give the guy some for moving my logs. he'll love it. that is a purdy bowl

[Ron Wenrich]

Here's a good woodworkers forum.  http://www.sawmillcreek.org/  Its a lot like this forum with a bunch of guys who know there stuff.  I've learned a lot from them and would expect they know how to turn spalted wood.

[Captain]

Please forgive the dumb question, but I've never turned a bowl on a lathe before.  When turning a bowl like the one pictured by metalspinner, do you do the INSIDE or OUTSIDE first??

Captain (who recently got a used lathe on EBAY)

[pigman]

 Captain, since you did not ask for an answer from an expert I can answer that question.
I turn the outside first, hollow out the inside and then reverse the bowl and turn the bottom. I am not very good at bowl turning yet, but I have a lot of fun trying. ;D
Bob

[jrokusek]

.............Captain (who recently got a used lathe on EBAY)

OK Captain....what kind did you get?  I'm interested in turning but don't want to spend a fortune on a really nice machine.  I'm looking at a $100 Menards special just to get started.  Ebay has lots of lathes.....

Jim

[jkj]

When turning a bowl... do you do the INSIDE or OUTSIDE first??

One good reason for doing the outside first is to get the outside shape exactly right.  Then turn the inside to the desired wall thickness.

The exact steps you take depend somewhat on your mounting method.  For example, a common way to make bowls is to glue a block to what will be the base, grab it by that block and turn the outside and the inside, then turn the bowl around and grip the rim with a jam chuck or special jumbo jaws and finish the base.  The problem with this method is it doesn't give you very much working room between the headstock and the piece when creating the outside shape near the base.  Instead, I often begin with a screw chuck mounted in a single hole drilled in the center of what will be the inside of the bowl.  Then I finish the outside except for a tenon turned on the bottom (or a recess inside the base), turn the bowl around and mount the tenon or recess in a chuck, turn and finish the inside, then turn it around once more and hold it by the rim with a special chuck for any final touchup on the bottom.  This method gives you working room to do a better job on the bottom part of the outside.

Keep in mind that there are many variations.  For example, in turning green wood it is common to first do both the inside and the outside to a very rough shape and very thick (perhaps an inch or more).  Then coat with Anchorseal and let the wood dry for a few months or a year.  As it dries, it will warp considerably, depending on the wood.  After dried, remount and turn the bowl again (outside first) to finish size and shape.  Since the wood is now dry, the finished bowl will not warp.

BTW, a great place to learn is the Turning forum on woodcentral.com.  You will find a wide range of talent there and lots of help.

JKJ