Stump curing question

Strip the bark, band it in iron and leave it alone.

If you need to trim it off square you could bring it over to school. That Marvel saw can cut nice and square in up to 18" diameter rounds.

Jeff, that stump will be in several pieces by next spring if you don't do anything. At the very minimum it will have huge cracks in it. I had the same problem with a chunk of walnut except my stump had been milled roughly rectangular. I got out the rafter square and borrowed a Makita power planer and trimmed the ends until they were square enough, then sanded it all over with a belt sander. I welded up some flat bar to make bands and then pounded them on with a hammer. Then I gave it about 3 coats of shellac everywhere. The stump had already started cracking on the ends, just little checking cracks maybe 2" long. Since I bound it with iron and coated it with shellac, I have seen no more cracks (maybe 4 months).

I would take Ernie up on his offer to cut the ends off square. While you're out there have him roll you a couple of rings for the ends and weld them up. Once they're on, you really HAVE to coat the ends with something. The idea is to slow down the flow of water through there. I don't know what the best thing is, but remember it's going to have a lot of hot scale hitting it.

Here's a couple pictures of mine:

http://www.t> I recently acquired a 12" diameter x 20" tall maple round from

You will have to ask a wood turner but I have heard of soaking the wood in anti-freeze. The glycol replaces the water in the wood cells. At least that is how it was explained to me. Randy

Antifreeze doesn't work. The real stuff is PEG-1000, a high molecular weight polyethylene glycol.

-- What ? Me ? Evil Dictator of Iraq ? Nah mate, I'm just a Hobbit, honest

Thanks all.

I think I'll take Ernie up on his offer to true up the ends on the Marvel. Hopefully I won't lose too much height.

I have a bunch of 2" x 1/8" strap leftover from a previous project. Burly enough for banding? Any tips for getting it nice and tight? I will probably try to shape the top and bottom to be roughly circular so as to make banding easier.

Curious about the PEG. We've got various polymer weights around lab. Wood turners usually use a heated tub of the stuff. This is a fairly BIG, and heavy stump. I'll probably just paint the ends and band it though.

Nice stand, Grant.

Cheers-Jeff

The height you need depends on your anvil, of course. On its stand, the top of your anvil should be at knuckle height of a loosely closed fist held straight down at your side. This is the classical height, but some modern smiths, with modern back problems, have suggested raising it a bit.

I made my stand 22" tall, just the wood.

Between the wood and the anvil I put some sheet lead. You can buy sheet lead at McLendon's Hardware. This really helped with the ringing.

Ernie is famous for rolling rings. The way you make a ring is to roll it, cut it, weld it, grind it smooth, then roll it again. If you can't get him to roll you a couple of rings even by offering him some Thai food :-) then just shape them as best you can, weld them up, and round them cold on the horn of your anvil. I was able to just tap my banding on without having to heat it, which I was happy about because I didn't want to burn the wood. But classically the ring would be heated red-hot, hammered quickly down onto the wood, then a lot of water would be poured on. The metal would shrink onto the wood and grip it very tightly.

Grant Erw> Thanks all.

That is the stuff.

It can be ordered by the barrel. The process is to dunk the whole chunk under the surface and one would think a vacuum would help pulling the air and moisture out while replacing with PEG-1000 - which then once the input time is done - then the unit is allowed to dry out and the material is left with a polyethylene binder. The glycol radical converts to water IIRC and comes out in the drying process.

Rifle stocks have been done this way for many years - more than 50. Mil Spec. process.

Martin

Thanks to all who responded and especially to Ernie for letting me use the marvel.

Here is picture of the anvil stand:

Also, here is a link for PEG preservation of wood:

I ended up banding the ends in steel (2" x 1/8" mild on hand) and painting the endgrain with exterior latex primer.

The banding is pretty tight, but not quite would it would be had I heated it prior to hammering it on. I imagine the wood will swell into it though. A friend said not to bother filling the spaces with epoxy, because the vibration will cause it to fail eventually.

Happy Holidaze to all...Jeff Dantzler

SaWEET!!

What is PEG? (That link doesn't say what it is.)

What keeps your anvil from sliding around? I wanted mine set up so that I could grab the anvil and "walk" it around my shop, but so that if I moved I could move the anvil separately from the base. I wound up just forging some flat bar to fit the inside curves of the base, then I torch-cut them to fit the contour, then I welded them to some more flat bar, then cut away excess and sanded everything smooth. With a couple of lag-bolt holes these have worked very well for me. I later added some sheet lead beneath my anvil to damp the ringing.

If you need your banding rings tighter, you can tap them back off again, heat a spot to cherry, and quench it in cold water. If you do this walking around the ring it will shrink quite a bit, probably more than you can tolerate.

Hey, stumps are cheap. I bet yours will last a REAL long time!

Grant

Jeff Dantzler wrote:

PolyEthylene Glycol polymer in various chain lengths. Wood turners soak a workpiece in a heated tub of the stuff to stabilize the wood. It minimizes cracking due to variations in moisture content as it can replace the water, but is not itself volatile. Historians also use it to preserve wood items.

I cheated on the picture a little and just set my anvil down "to get the effect" as my Mom used to say. I will probably make something along the lines of what you did when I get the chance. The sense of urgency was more to get the wood stabilized (or at least bound) before it started to crack. Absolutely amazing how much moisture has already come out of that thing.

I was thinking of maybe running some thick MIG beads in strategic spots and then quenching. The rings are fairly tight, but the stump is slightly flared at the thicker end and that is where the gap is the worst.

This one was 5 bucks. I think you're right about it lasting a while. I've got to get my other smithing stuff up to speed and then offer to help Ernie get his blacksmithing class going so I can take it.

Did you ever built a forge?

Jeff Dantzler mylastname at d r i z z l e dot c o m

Grant -

Think Poly urethane on the inside not as a plastic varnish on the outside. Really PolyEthylene Glycol.

You can buy it at paint stores. The good ones anyway. They have it or order it.

I was offered a 55 gallon one - but declined 30 years ago. Dumb at the time. :-)

Martin