How to preserve my oak ring?

[Vertigo Arb Ltd]

Hey guys,

 

Attached is a photo of an oak ring I'm working on its about 180 years old and ways about 60kg. Having a bit of a problem really.

I've planed it and I'm currently sanding it down with a belt sander, it's going to take weeks to get it right I know.

But it's only been down for 4 days and I know sooner or later it's going to dry and split! How can I stop this happening? I want to eventually teak varnish it and make it a nice display piece but it has to be dry for me to varnish it no? But if it drys it will crack?

Help me please

 

Thanks

[Vertigo Arb Ltd]

Or should I just go mad on the sanding start at 40grit then 80 then 120 and wet it in between in the latter stages? Then go mad on the linseed oil? Coat after coat after coat? Also how do I get the bark to stay on?

[Chunkymunky]

Wouldn't have thought it could be sanded at this stage. Not dry enough

[Vertigo Arb Ltd]

Well I went at it today and its going ok, but wet still so slow going but going to have another pop in a weeks to e so I have 7 days to educate myself on he subject

[Woodworks]

I think to you need to stop it drying too fast if you don't want it cracking. Not sure of the best way but boards often have a wax sealer on the ends and wet bowls are left in a pile of wood chip to help slow the drying.

 

That's a mighty slice of oak and is going to look amazing

[Chunkymunky]

If its still wet then sanding will just open the grain. Sanding wet wood won't smooth it.

 

You could talk to local lumber yard and see if they could kiln dry it. Alternatively oil it up. Olive oil. Really overdo it. Every little bit of it

[Big Beech]

I would paint the top n bottom with paint to seal it. Several coats. Then thro in cool shed out the way of heat and excesive wind. Remember drying iak = 1" thickness a year

[agg221]

The 1"/yr rule doesn't really apply to end grain - that's more about drying across the grain, as in a milled board. This is capable of drying a lot quicker, which is part of the problem.

 

The trouble you've got with drying something like this is that, ultimately, the outside rings need to be smaller than the inside rings as each cell needs to shrink the same amount and there are more cells in the outside than the inside. There are only two options I am aware of - one is to cut the ring up into segments, like pizza slices - you could try quarters but six or eight would be more certain. Once these dry they will shrink so they are narrower at the outside than the inside, i.e. if you put them back together there will be a gap like a missing pie slice. You can counter this either by planing up the faces to make it smaller overall, or by, say, cutting it into four pieces and taking an extra piece from the next ring down, then once dry, reassembling it as five wedges, one from the other ring.

 

The other option would be to stop it ever shrinking. You can't simply soak in oil - the spaces are currently full of water so the oil can't go in and fill the spaces. The usual thing to soak in would be polyethylene glycol (PEG) which is used by turners on large, full section bowls and similar.

 

Alec

[Vertigo Arb Ltd]

Ok thanks for all your sound advice guys.

I've been sanding it and it's going well it's smooth already considering

It's wet it needs more of course. So say if I apply boiled linseed oil which I already have a number of times say 5 coats this may stop the cracking? And then I can start the sanding process after? And then think about the finishing process. Is this correct?

 

Thanks

[Vertigo Arb Ltd]

P.S I have about 10 more of these rings if anyone is intrested? Not planed and sanded though. Going to cover them in chip I think to stop them drying so fast