Regarding the thread on slab stabilization, I just came up with a graphic that illustrates how compression rings affect radial checks. Left the nub of a piece of beech chucked up overnight on my lathe, only to find this when I began cleaning this morning.
Huh. Interesting. I'd claim that that was just evidence that the chuck wasn't compressing the wood enough (theoretically, it needs to be beyond snug, to the point where the wood is squished), but I suspect this is one of the cases where I need to listen to my own claim that "when the evidence contradicts your back-of-the-envelope theory, it probably means your theory is missing something." :)
Maybe all the iron bands end up doing is just keeping the radial checks small, and keeping the wood from falling apart when it does check.
- Brooks
Good Grief George! spell my name correctly!
This is so long ago, that I have almost forgotten, but certainly you can get cracks even with a tight metal band. My intent with suggesting a metal band was that the band would keep the slab from falling apart.
That piece looks like a mess, is it reaction wood? Good demo! Damn, I wish you had a before picture.
Oops, used to have a buddy in college named Cawthorne.
The before was a piece of beech with no cracks. I had run across a branch in the firewood stack with the bark intact over most of the surface, so I trimmed the split ends and turned some items from it. Because it is a branch, the wood was broader on one side of the heart than the other. Two of the turnings are here
Very nice. I kind of lousy artistically, but I would sure like to try my hand at turning.
I once went to a new firewood area and cut a nice pole into 18" sections. I kept thinking that something was wrong, so I only cut one and then moved away. Apparently the Forest Service area was adjacent, as across the road) from where the power or telephone company had just downed some lodgepole pine for poles. Anyway, about a 2 hour drive home, and the very heavy pieces about 16" diameter by 18." Normally lodgepole pine is fairly light but I could barely get these in the truck, so they must have been cut the night before or that morning. They lost about 1/2 of their weight in the 90 degree heat on the way back home. They went from solid to a multitude of radial splits because they lost so much water. If someone had told me that they lost that much water in 2 hour drive, I would have thought they were crazy.
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