maple blocks

[mapleman]

I have just recently sawed out some blocks of hard and soft maple that i want to turn into bowls. they are very green so it will take a while for them to dry, under air power that is. but i also have a lead on a few dried blanks.
my question is, how long would it take for 4-5" thick maple blocks from 12-16" diameter take to dry?
what kind of prep work do i need to do to the blanks to get them ready for the lathe? i have turned several things on the lathe- but never tried bowls. i dont have a band saw so i cant cut them into circles, and i havent got anything to be able to mill the blanks so that both sides are flat and parallel to one another.
BTW- my lathe is a Jet 1236. so it is not very heavy duty.
as you can see, i need much help. if it sound like a bad idea to you, let me know and i will stick to baseball bats and other little things.
thanks for the help (or the hurt) :)
john the mapleman

[volleyheads]

John,

For the blanks you have, it would take many months to dry and will very likely crack. But you really don't have to wait for the wood to dry, you can turn it wet. Turning wet wood is a lot easier and is a whole lot of fun. You really have two options when turning the wood wet. The first is to turn it to the finished thickness and let it dry then. If the finished walls are uniformly thin (less than about 3/16"), the stresses due to drying won't build up so much since the thin walls are compliant. The piece will however not remain round, it will shrink and warp in mostly unpredictable ways, kind of artsy when it does. If you wish to keep it absolutely round, you can rough turn a basic shape (rule of thumb 1" wall thickness for every 10" of log diameter) and then wrap up in a brown paper shopping bag. At say 1” wall thickness, it could take up to a year depending on local humidity etc (it should dry until at a constant weight). (There are several tricks to going faster that I can cover if you wish.) Then you can remount the wood and turn to its final shape and it will remain round. Personally for practice and the most fun, turn it green and see what you get. I did this with some osage orange and I took pictures every few days to watch it contort, it was pretty funny. I don’t seem to know where the pictures are, maybe I never got them developed. More to do I guess. Anyway, have fun, it is free wood and a learning experience all around.

One thing to be aware of is the most likely source of cracking will be the pith area of the log. Most times it will be easier to cut around this area and leave it off the finished bowl. I did have two question for you that may help with helping you, which way are you intending to orient the wood when you turn the bowls and do you have a chain saw?

As far as the Jet 1236 Lathe, we gave one to my father last year for his birthday and he has a great time with it. One thing I would suggest is to enclose the base stand and fill it with stand. I did basically the same thing with my (very similar) lathe and it has made a huge difference.

I did have two question for you that may help with helping you, which way are you intending to orient the wood when you turn the bowls and do you have a chain saw?

Best Regards,

Bill

"If it is worth doing, it's worth overdoing"

[mapleman]

Thamks for the information.
I do have a chainsaw, two actually. one 16"er and a 20"er.
and i was planning to orient the wood, in the bowl shape, with the oldest growth rings in the bottom of the bowl and the youngest/sapwood on the rim of the bowl. the reason i want to do this is because thw rings have several different color and growth patterns and i think it could look like a very cool 3-D like effect. it isnt quilted but it is a really interesting grain in it.
i had kind of wondered if turning them green would have been a possibility, thanks for letting me know- it does sound fun.
thanks again,
john the mapleman

[volleyheads]

Have a great time and good luck with it. Let us see how they turn out. Try to avoid having the pith in the bowl if you have the choice. But if not, it could be a design opportunity :)

Best Regards,

Bill

"If it is worth doing, it's worth overdoing"