Tools for Green Wood-turning

With the right green wood-turning tools, you can turn these logs into something beautiful.log image by Vladimir Karpenko from Fotolia.com

Turning green wood successfully requires a variety of tools, some that are are specific to green wood and some that you have in your wood-turning tool stock. Lumber store turning-block choices are limited, but when you have the entire forest at your disposal, an extensive selection of wood is available in any size, for free, and when the wood is free, the initial cost of the green wood-turning tools is a sound investment in your craft.

Chain Saws

A gas-powered chain saw will help you get wood down to a liftable size.Chain saw against firewood pile image by Andrzej Thiel from Fotolia.com

A gas-powered chain saw is necessary for rough-cutting green wood found in the forest or on the side of the road. An electric chain saw can be used for cutting once the wood is in your workshop. Be sure, though, to keep the electric chain saw's chip port free of long shavings when cutting green wood.

A 12-inch (or larger) band saw that can cut 12 inches high and has a 20-inch throat and a two-horsepower motor can be used to cut away unnecessary green wood more accurately than a chain saw can. It will also save you a lot of time during the initial shaping of the blank. Use a three- or four-tooth-per-inch skip-tooth band saw blade when cutting green wood with a band saw. A skip-tooth blade sheds the wet sawdust of green wood better than a hooked-tooth blade does, and will cut through green wood without you having to force the blade, which would cause heat build-up that crystallizes the blade's weld, causing the blade to break. If the blade is not moving through the wood as fast as it should, it may be time to change or sharpen it.

There are a couple of options for sealing the ends of the turning blanks. A combination wax and oil emulsion sealer or a cold wax emulsion sealer placed on the end-grain surfaces of fresh-cut logs work well to help eliminate surface checking for most types of green wood.

Choose a lathe that exceeds your needs.lathe image by Tomasz Plawski from Fotolia.com

Any lathe can be used to turn green wood bowls, but a stationary lathe with a maximum swing of 16 inches, a 40-inch between-center capacity and one and a half to three horsepower has many advantages for turning green wood, typically carrying more capacity, power and durability than a bench-top or mini-lathe. Stationary lathes also offer better stability and reduced vibration, which is important considering the demanding conditions of heavy-duty bowl turning.

There are many mounting devices and methods available for mounting green wood blanks to your lathe. Screw chucks have a sharp, threaded screw that bites into the wood and holds your blank securely, but you may have to place cyanoacrylate glue in the screw hole to enhance the screw chuck's ability to maintain its grip. A steel lathe faceplate that's at least 1/4 inch thick at the flange and has at least six screw holes that are large enough to accommodate #10 screws is another option.

A 1/4-inch skew chisel or a 3/8-inch bowl gouge, ground with an Irish grind, can be used to turn the dovetail spigot on the bottom of the bowl blank. A 1/2-inch or 5/8-inch deep fluted bowl gouge, ground with an Irish grind, will be used for turning the rough exterior profile of your wood bowls, turning the face of the blank and hollowing the bowl, with a steady step down process. These larger tools are stable enough to be used when working a long distance from the tool rest and can be used to shape a 12-inch diameter bowl in as little as 30 minutes. M2 high speed steel (HSS) and ASP 2030 and 2060 series (powder metal technology steel) alloys are the most common alloys utilized for wood turning tools. The ASP alloy tips hold a an edge longer but they do cost more.

An adjustable speed hand-held drill equipped with a Velcro faced sanding pad is the preferred sanding equipment for sanding green wood. Being able to adjust the drill speed and the grit strength easily eliminates cracking from heat buildup and allows you to sand without applying excessive pressure against the drill. Sand the bowl surfaces with random overlapping strokes and use a tack cloth to remove any surface dust.

The most economical drying tools are three brown paper supermarket grocery bags to hold your finished bowl while it dries for one day to three weeks, depending on the ambient humidity and temperature in your area, moisture content of the wood, and the wood species, while it dries. Brown paper bags allow moisture to evaporate from the bowl very slowly. Another drying technique you could use is a propane torch or microwave to flash dry the surface of the green wood bowl. But be careful; too much heat can cause the bowl to crack. Another curing technique is to soak the bowl in polyethylene glycol (PEG) for at least two weeks and then allow the bowl to air dry for two additional weeks or use a low temperature of to dry the bowl. But the PEG will leave a waxy finish on the bowl causing it not to take a stain or finish sealer properly.