Tag: Woodturning Blanks

Drying Long Round Spindle Turning Blanks for Woodturning

How to Dry A Long Round Spindle
Turning Blank for Woodturning

I have some ideas for long round turning blanks, spindle blanks that can apply to a variety of woodturning projects. I’m basically taking a straight branch about 3 to 4 inches wide and turning off the bark and some or all of the sap wood from the piece leaving me a round blank at about 3″ plus wide ….it could be 12″ long or 30+ inches long. I will also take bigger branches and end up with a long round turning blank that is at least 5 inches plus wide.

What Are Long Round
Spindle Blanks Used For?

I can use these blanks for:

tool handles
bats
billy clubs
fish bats
rolling pins
noodle cutters
spaghetti cutters
handles
vases
cups

You get the idea, a long round rod shaped piece of wood. I turn the blanks and dry them. I store the blanks and when I’m ready for a project I select the dried blank and turn the project. Cracking and checking can be a problem depending on the wood species.

Long round turning blank
Spindle type blank for turning fish bats

Most Long Round Blanks Crack

My problem has been most of the wood I have turned has been very wet. I tried turning and setting on a shelf only to have them crack, at least one good crack. That’s OK, I just fill with epoxy and coffee grounds or just epoxy and color after it has finished drying and re-turn the piece.

Examples of dried and cracked long round woodturing spindle blanks
Examples of dried and cracked long round woodturing spindle blanks

I’d rather not have to go through that process for each bat type blank know as a type of spindle blank. So the problem I have is how do I dry the piece and not have it crack. I realize each piece is normally a branch and has the pith through the middle so I need to do a slow, very slow dry. But I’ve even experienced the cracking in non-pith pieces.

Long round spindle blank turned into 2 vases
I turned 2 vases from one oak spindle blank

How To Build A Drying Cage

I had an idea on how to dry these long round woodturning blanks.

Why not just dry them in shavings and sawdust like woodturning bowl blanks? So I laid a few of the long round turning blanks on the floor in a pile of shavings. Left them there for a week, I kept tripping over them. They were in the way of my workspace but when I uncovered them they were without cracks!

The Horizontal Long Round
Blank Drying Cage

Since I didn’t have any paper bags big enough to hold the long round spindle turning blanks I thought I would have to build something to hold the blanks and shavings but would also let air flow through so the wood blanks would dry. I thought of taking a large piece of pvc pipe and drill a bunch of small holes and fill it with shavings but that would only hold one maybe two blanks and I’d have to drill a million or so holes ….not a good idea.

How to make a screened drying cage for long roughed spindle blanks
Drying cage for roughed in spindle blanks made with wire and plywood

The I thought, what if I took some wire window screen and built a long horizontal cage? Simple enough, wrap the screen around a circular piece on the bottom and one on the top with a hole in it. You can make it any size. Make smaller cages for small long single round spindle blanks, make bigger cages 12″ or 16″ wide or more for multiple long round blanks.

Staple the screen to the circular bottom piece and top piece. Add 2 long horizontal stretchers to attach the screen to and hold it up. Place your blanks in the cage and fill it with shavings and sawdust.  Place your vertical drying cage in an area to dry …..done deal!

It’s not rocket science 🙂 I built one with an 8″ diameter base. I wish I would have made it 12″ but I think I will make a handful of these drying cages because I’m sure this will work. I did a quick video in case my words aren’t making sense.

I loaded up 3 fairly large long round spindle blanks. First I weighed each blank. Then loaded into the cage and filled with shavings and sawdust. The heat is still on in the shop and I placed the cage as high as I could ……I will re-weigh the blanks after 2 or 3 weeks and see how it works.

Should have Sealed The Ends of The Woodturning Blanks

As I think about it now …..I should have sealed the ends of each blank with wax, paint or anchor seal. I can’t believe I spaced off and didn’t do that ….maybe I will dump the cage and seal the ends of each long round woodturning spindle blank ….they’ve only been in for a couple of days!

Drying Results

I will either edit this post, do another article and/or post in the Wood Turning Basics facebook group the results of my drying cage …stay tuned!

No Wood Turning ….Gets Me Mad!!!

No Wood Turning ….
Gets Me Mad!!!

I don’t know about you, if you turn wood or consider yourself as a woodturner, do you …do you just want to go out and start turning bowls, tool handles, candle sticks, lamps, baseball bats or under the seat “personal protection device”? And if a day goes by and you’re not turning wood…..Do you get angry at yourself for not getting into the shop???

Woodturning Passion?

I do. That is, I get mad if I miss a day of doing some woodturning. I guess it’s my addictive, compulsive personality. When I fall in love with something, I want it all the time. Probably a bad character trait, but maybe it’s the difinition of “passion”!

I’ve become addicted to the hobby of woodturning. I guess you could say I’m addicted to turning wood. I was a little apprehensive at first, you need a lathe, lathe accessories and some turning tools and off you go. Putting everything together took some time and I purchased probably some of the cheapest stuff out there, harbor freight lathe, harbor freight woodturning gouges and a lot of DIY type tools. Not the best but my setup could turn a branch or log and I made a wood bowl!

I was addicted after that first bowl!

Somebody said, “that new woodturners are always so impatient“. That was me. I tried and tried to make my projects look like a piece of art, or just a nice looking bowl. But most didn’t turn out. I watched videos on new tools, new woodturning techniques and I practiced…. and I practiced.

I’m a better woodturner
after I’ve practiced.

But I still need more practice, I love learning new wood turning techniques. I love making your own tools. And I now really enjoy trying out real, professional or high quality wood turning tools like the new Sorby 1/2″ Bowl Gouge.

I was like a kid at Christmas, I just couldn’t wait to try that Sorby Bowl Gouge and when I as I used it, I was just as excited. I also picked up a quart of Food Safe Salad Bowl Finish by General from the new Woodcraft store in Buffalo Grove, IL …..can’t wait to try that out. I have a couple of blanks ready to finish so maybe I’ll be able to finish with my new bowl gouge and try the Salad Bowl Finish …..will keep you posted on how that goes.

general food safe salad bowl finish
Food Safe Salad Bowl Finish By General

I tell you all this because I wanted to share the fact that I really try not to let a day go by without doing some woodturning. Sometimes a week will go by because I’m to sick to go out, but …..I watch videos or read about woodturning.

And….. a whole day has gone by, it’s too late to do anything except to type a few words, to diclose the fact that I did not turn anything today and I was really “disappointed or upset” that I didn’t get to lathe today!

Another Day Gone….No Woodturning!

I actually wrote this yesterday and sadly another day has gone by without any turning due to a bad reaction to some new medicine I was taking …..sometimes, life just sucks! I literally thought I was gonna die, started shaking, hard time breathing, hallucinations, couldn’t walk ….should have woke up my wife but it was 3 am and I wrote her a note in case I didn’t make it through the night. But I did …that’s my life, hope you don’t mind me sharing the good and bad of it ….along with some good woodturning tricks, tips and thoughts!

As they say, there’s always tomorrow (sometimes) 🙂 But I was pretty scared last night so I share this word of God with you Psalm 103:15 “As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.” The older I get the more inevitable it is that life is really short. God says our life is like the grass and flowers of the field, here for a couple of days, weeks….beautiful and healthy and then gone. So are we. Question you need to ask yourself is are you ready?


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