Will this stop the cracking?

[Tom Baugues]

My next door neighbor trimmed up his Maple trees a couple days ago and had this pile sitting out waiting for the city to come haul it away. I went over and cut myself a log to turn on my lathe. I'm thinking (3pc) candle holders. Of course the wood is VERY wet right now. I turned off the bark and cut them down a bit in size. Not wanting them to crack from the pith I decided to drill down through the log with a 1/2" drill bit all the way through the logs. Will this prevent the log from cracking at the pith. I think I may still seal the ends with Anchorseal as well.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

My experience is a lot of "maybe and it depends". Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and it doesn't cost to much to try! Maple is fairly stable as these things go so I think you have decent odds.

Sealing the ends (for sure) and the outside (sometimes helpful) will certainly help (you don't however need to seal the inside although a little sealer right by the entry wouldn't hurt..). A larger hole will also help at the expense of more movement, and if you can full remove the pith section all the way down that'll help as well.

Kind of the ultimate version of this is a shrink pot where you remove the entirety of the center and then put in a bottom for it to shrink around and grab while it's still wet. I generally take those to about 1/4" +- 1/8" walls and have had very few failures at that dimension, but they do shrink and move quite a bit sometimes.

 

[Tom Baugues]

My experience is a lot of "maybe and it depends". Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and it doesn't cost to much to try! Maple is fairly stable as these things go so I think you have decent odds.

Sealing the ends (for sure) and the outside (sometimes helpful) will certainly help (you don't however need to seal the inside although a little sealer right by the entry wouldn't hurt..). A larger hole will also help at the expense of more movement, and if you can full remove the pith section all the way down that'll help as well.

Kind of the ultimate version of this is a shrink pot where you remove the entirety of the center and then put in a bottom for it to shrink around and grab while it's still wet. I generally take those to about 1/4" +- 1/8" walls and have had very few failures at that dimension, but they do shrink and move quite a bit sometimes.

What about soaking these in denatured alcohol overnight? I've read that can help it dry as well.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

What about soaking these in denatured alcohol overnight? I've read that can help it dry as well.

Sure any of the bowl drying tricks are likely to help... I might leave them in then alcohol for a couple days even.

You could also try boiling them (1hr per. inch of the thickest bit).

Wrap loosely in brown paper to slow down surface evaporation right after removing them from either (for boiling covering with a towel for a couple hours and then bagging can help keep the funky growths down).

 

[Chas Jones]

I can only suggest to seal ends, put in thick paper sacks, dry as slowly as possible.
This is a little missive I wrote some years ago as a guide based on my experiences in the UK.