Alcohol problems

[William Roscoe]

SubGuy, The grain runs side to side and on those 2 end grain sides, the brown pith has the shape of a D turned sideways. I think you are right about that type of wood (pith) sucking up that alcohol MUCH FASTER than the flat grain on the opposing sides. Sorry everybody about the confusion. Next time I promise to take a picture.

 

[Rick M]

Tough to keep pith from cracking. I've turned a few things with pith and all but one eventually cracked even if they were fine right after turning.

 

[William Roscoe]

That's right wormil, I usually try to avoid this, too. I'll have to say that GUM is probably the worst wood of all to try and keep the pith from cracking.

 

[SubGuy]

Ok, I completely understand now. I was picturing it in my head much different. Thanks!

 

[Jeff]

I'm not a turner so perhaps I'm kicking a dead horse in this thread. Just trying to learn and understand what William has described with his bowl behavior.

This is an end grain turning with the pith centered on the turning axis.

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Smallboat suggested another orientation in which the blank is turned 90 degrees so that the pith is perpendicular to the turning axis. My thanks to Dave Richards for this one.

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Ok. William, which one agrees generally with your alcohol/dye/cracking observations? A pic of the real deal would still be helpful to us for understanding.

Thanks to all for a good discussion.

 

[Rick M]

Second pic is normal orientation for a bowl blank, that way you aren't cutting end grain most of the time.

Also end grain is extremely porous and will absorb moisture quickly which is why stain is darker on the ends of a board.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[William Roscoe]

Jeff, The second picture is the one that shows how my bowl is oriented except the top rim of my bowl runs thru the center of the brown circle (pith). On my bowl, the pith is D-shaped because my rim goes thru the pith.

 

[SubGuy]

And the crack was in the pith at the rim?

Jeff, The second picture is the one that shows how my bowl is oriented except the top rim of my bowl runs thru the center of the brown circle (pith). On my bowl, the pith is D-shaped because my rim goes thru the pith.