wood blanks
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[Music] hello and welcome to my channel thank you so much for watching i really appreciate the support today’s video is not a turning video but it is something every woodturner need to learn and that is how to cut a log to a ball blank and how to properly seal it so it doesn’t crack this is not a video how to use a chainsaw it’s not a safety video or anything like that so if you use a chainsaw be sure to read the instruction and maybe get a professional to help you or to learn how to use a chainsaw it is a very dangerous tool when that set what i always do before starting to use the chainsaw is checking the bar and the chain and then i will sharpening the chain it’s like when you use your lathe you don’t go to the lathe with dull tools and the same goes for chainsaw [Music] if you have never sharpened a chain for a chainsaw before then i would suggest you go to the local tree surgeon and ask him politely if he could teach you how to sharpen my chain they have a good touch on it because it’s the job so they can teach you that pretty fast and it’s a good way to start talking to them so you maybe can get some nice wood a good trick is to bring a small bowl or something you have made and give them that for their trouble i got this oak log a couple of weeks ago and i didn’t get around to cut it right away so it has split a little at the end so i always take it down so i don’t have any cracks at the beginning the reason for this is when i inseal the inseal will close off the ends better if there’s a large crack at the ends [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] wow the way i determine how wide a piece is going to be cut is to take the diameter and add 5 centimeters or 2 inch this log was a little shorter than it was supposed to be so i had to go down to around 33 centimeters apiece if you look at the rest of the log now you can see there’s a piece where branch has come out at the side of the lock i always try to get that in the piece because it gives some very nice grain when you turn a ball [Music] and i’ve got to say in the beginning the saw i’m using is a very cheap saw it’s not something expensive it’s a 45 cc 120 so so the chain on it on the other hand is a little more expensive than a normal chain so it cuts very good and it lasts very long so before cutting the log up to blanks i will find the pith and i will find it in both ends because it doesn’t necessarily has to go straight through the lock on this lock here it goes pretty straight too when i have found the pith i will check for naturally cracks already started and you can see in the middle i put some lines in and there is starting some small cracks so i will align it as it lays here and then i made two other lines and they are the width of the pith i want to take out and in this uh here i will take around one and a half two inch on each side and here you see me marking up the planks i will get i will get two pull blanks nice size bow blanks and i will get the two other blanks for either spindle turning or other kind of stuff pen turning or whatever you can use them for so four pieces and one for the burn pile as i said before the pith don’t necessarily need to go straight to the wood if it doesn’t you can do two things you can make a blank that is a little bit larger in one end than the other end or you can make the middle part wider and get some larger spindle blings and wood from the middle part i will start with marking out the lines i want to follow and then i will start the cut it’s important to try and hold your saw as straight up as possible then the middle part will be more useful than if you have a very thin part in one end and a thick part in another end it can be hard and takes a lot of practice and i’m not very good at it yet the chain i use is for normal cutting and have angle of 30 degrees and it’s not the optimal chain for cutting wood in this direction if you need to cut a lot of wood i will suggest to buy a rip chain it has a little fewer teeth and it’s uh cutting in 10 15 degrees and it’s designed to cut wood in this manner but for a hobby turner like me i don’t do this maybe four or five times a year i can do fine with the normal chain as you can see here i made the cut in one side around 95 percent through and the reason why i didn’t cut all the way is because i need the stability for the whole log to do the number two cut and then you can see i do one card here all the way through and then take the other cut the middle part i normally do on the bandsaw but you can easily cut that too with the chainsaw and here you can see it in blank one blank two and then the middle part three and four and the fifth is for the burn pile the pith you can see here that was the cutting up of the log and then you need to seal the end of the lock so it doesn’t crack and in denmark where i live i use something called hydro wax c i haven’t seen it on any foreign pages but i know there is a ton of products for this so you can ask in the local wood merchant or where you buy stuff like that but of course there is two very cheap options to use and they work very well i have tried them both you can buy some cheap acrylic paint and it need to be acrylic because that won’t let the the moisture through or you can go to the wood merchant and buy some very cheap carpenter glue and mix it with water around 40 water and sixty percent glue and then use that mix and give the ends of the logs with that that will also seal the ends uh pretty nice so you don’t get any large cracks remember to mark the logs with the date you have cut them up or the month at least and the year so you know when it’s dry it takes a lot like this a couple of years to dry out and you can of course use wood columns and you can rough turn them and all the stuff you probably already know otherwise you can find videos about that on youtube i hope you enjoyed the video thank you very much for watching please subscribe like and hit the notification bell below and please comment in the comment section that will greatly help my channel to grow have a nice day and stay safe out there [Music] you …