Need your input, I'm not a turner.

[Snipe Hunter]

Maybe I can pick your brains.
I've got a bunch of Gum (sweet gum) and it's spalting. Gum doesn't last long on the ground. The tree guys joke that it starts rotting before it hits the ground. It's been on the ground a year now.

Anyway, what do you look for when acquiring wood to turn? I want to sell some of this, maybe put some in the Christmas auction and certainly move some in swap and sell.

These logs aren't long but some of them are about 30" dia. I'll be cutting with a chainsaw and probably cleaning it up on the table saw. I no longer have a band-saw.

What dimensions are you looking for?
What won't you buy?
What's too short or too long?
Is the grain always running the same direction as your lathe bed?
What part of the log iehartwood, sapwood, both?
Is there a better part of the log for pen blanks than others?
Moisture content?
Am I missing something?

Any guidance would be appreciated

[gear jammer]

yes to all the above. Nice thing about turning we do have leeway on all these factors. Not every piece is ideal to slap on the lathe a make sawdust. We are able to adjust to what we have.

[Bill Holt]

I cut down a sweet gum about three yrs. ago.  I called two men in two different turning clubs.  The one thing that was important to them was to get rid of the pith. They removed a 1", or larger, slab from the middle of every log.  This step reduces checking.  Checking, I gather, yields a useless bowl blank.  Between the two of them they had a really nice setup for cutting out the pith.  I did little, but they put in a HARD day.

I hope that helps.  As I tell others, "a lathe and a membership to a wood turning club does not make me a turner."

[AHill]

yes to all the above. Nice thing about turning we do have leeway on all these factors. Not every piece is ideal to slap on the lathe a make sawdust. We are able to adjust to what we have.

I would disagree on yes to the grain always running parallel to the bed.  For spindle turning, yes.  Bowl blanks most often have grain running perpendicular to the bed, no pith. Mostly personal preference on sapwood in bowl blanks, but generally not preferred over a bowl without sapwood.  If I have sapwood, I'll generally try to incorporate it into the lip of the bowl if it's not distracting.  Otherwise, I avoid it.

[Snipe Hunter]

Thank you. That's the kind of information I'm looking for.

[crokett™]

You can remove the pith with a chainsaw. you need to start with at least an 8" diameter log to get anything turnable. I had a cradle jig I built to re-saw logs. Hard to describe but I'll call it a box with vertical fingers sticking up that had 30 degree miters on them with the short side towards the middle of the box. I used scraps of deck board for the fingers. the box was about 12" wide, the width of 2 deck boards + a 2" gap in the middle and I had them spaced at 5".

pen blanks 'standard' size is 5" long by 3/4" square. I've worked with ones that are 1/2" square but a) you have to be more accurate with drilling and b) that size only works for smaller diameter blanks.

[MichaelMouse]

It's what you want that counts.  There are no hard and fast rules about orientation, though if you do a bowl long grain, your chances of re-turning for round are somewhat more limited than roughing cross-grain pieces, which are TDT -turn,dry,turn- as a matter of course.  Take 'em thin and let 'em warp is possible, but thicknesses over about 1/2 inch don't dry well in the woods I use.  Cross grain is "normal" for greatest capacity, unless you've got some monster like your 30" diameter. 

You may leave the heart in a piece if you plan your cutting and drying for it.  Sometimes it looks pretty neat, sometimes it's nothing special.  You're the turner.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...ipgvor.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/G.../Beech.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/G...-Birch.jpg

[badwhiskey]

Hi Neil

I almost commented upstairs when I saw your post.  So here are my personal guidelines for prepping logs for turning.

You have 2 basic routes, 1) bowl blanks and 2) Spindle blanks.  Spindle blanks are going to be most familiar to you.  The grain runs the long ways and they are roughly square in cross section.  So, 4" x 4" by 12" is a small vase from a spindle blank.  Longer and thicker is better.

Bowl blanks are weirder.  This link explains it well: http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.woodturner....150903.pdf

Moisture content doesn't really apply.  We turn wet, because wet turns easier.

You will want some Anchorseal or equivalent to keep it from checking.  The sooner you get it out of log form the better.

[Arlin Eastman]

If you are going to cut it all up here is what I tell people I would like to have to get.

12x12x5
10x10x4
8x8x3
6x6x2.5
6x6x12
5x5x12
4x4x12
3x3x12

some people like to turn bigger like from 16x16x6 to 14x14x5 which is nice for some things but to big for me to handle wet.

Good luck and hope you sell all of it buddy

[goredsus]

Frank (badwhiskey),

Thanks for an incredible link.  Really useful information...I have a tree or two that may be coming down in the future so I've save this article.