Hello all!
I'm a complete newbie to the entire woodturning process and I hope that I'll be able to get some answers from the experts who are on this site!
My father-in-law has some downed pine trees on his property and I want to cut the trees into some slabs to use for centerpieces or cake stands.
We cut a couple off last weekend and I placed them in the garage hoping they would air dry on their own. To my dismay - looking at them today it looks like they a dark ring of what could be mold along the edges. I did some google searches and found a bunch of things saying that I need to soak them in Pentacryl or Alcohol or even Dish Washer soap and let them sit for over a year.
I apologize for being so green about the topic but here are my questions: if I cut some more of these slabs (roughly 2 inches thick, 15 inch in diameter) how long do I have before I need to preserve them?
-What is the best way of doing this? (Pentacryl, Alcohol, or the soap).
- Do I really need to have them sit for a full year or will using the preservatives speed up this process (some forums I've read say just a month, some say multiple months to a year plus)
- If I buy a large 5 gallon container, can I put multiple slabs in at once?
- Some forums say that you only need to soak them for 3 days, some say months ... what is the correct consensus?
Thank you to all those who take the time to read this post, and thank you so much for those who answer!
I'm a complete newbie to the entire woodturning process and I hope that I'll be able to get some answers from the experts who are on this site!
My father-in-law has some downed pine trees on his property and I want to cut the trees into some slabs to use for centerpieces or cake stands.
We cut a couple off last weekend and I placed them in the garage hoping they would air dry on their own. To my dismay - looking at them today it looks like they a dark ring of what could be mold along the edges. I did some google searches and found a bunch of things saying that I need to soak them in Pentacryl or Alcohol or even Dish Washer soap and let them sit for over a year.
I apologize for being so green about the topic but here are my questions: if I cut some more of these slabs (roughly 2 inches thick, 15 inch in diameter) how long do I have before I need to preserve them?
-What is the best way of doing this? (Pentacryl, Alcohol, or the soap).
- Do I really need to have them sit for a full year or will using the preservatives speed up this process (some forums I've read say just a month, some say multiple months to a year plus)
- If I buy a large 5 gallon container, can I put multiple slabs in at once?
- Some forums say that you only need to soak them for 3 days, some say months ... what is the correct consensus?
Thank you to all those who take the time to read this post, and thank you so much for those who answer!