Turning Canary Wood

[Shilly0123]

I recently bought a block of canary wood and I'm now trying to turn a bowl out of it. I've never used this kind of wood before so I don't know if it's just a bad block or if its me, but I cannot figure out how to turn it. It's so hard! I sharpen my tools before putting it an the lathe and when the tool hits the wood, it breaks the off the glue block and my piece goes flying. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[RollaJohn]

First things first: WELCOME to the forum.
Now to your question: I've not turned any canary wood but others probably have. The first things that come to mind are:is the tool rest positioned correctly and is the blank square or has it been roughed into a somewhat circular shape with a band saw, do you have the tail center against the work ?
I know these are things we normally do but I learned back when servicing electronic equipment to check the basics first. Sometimes it saved a lot of headaches to make sure the equipment was connected to an outlet and that it had power :eek: .
Any further hints I'll leave to someone who has experience with this particular wood.

Again, welcome to this friendly bunch of knowledgeable people.

[wisconsinwoodch]

Welcome. As far as cannery wood goes is it is very hard i have never turned it but I have sawed it planed it an sanded it , it is great when finnished, I have seen bowels turned from it and it beautiful. when done I just made some watch bands for a clock i sell an they came out great, I also use it in a lot of my cars an trucks makes them really stand out. Ia am sure some one here has turned it . but I know on thing It takes sharp tools to work with it. :) :p :) :) :)
thewisconsinwoodchuck
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www.wisconsinwoodchuck.com

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

I can say I have turned canary wood to make small miniture birdhouses. I also used it for scrollsawn clocks and also for solid bands on some watches. It is probably on par with maple but not much more than that. To me it works great and of course you need sharp tools. My question is your setup on the lathe and how proficient turner are you??? How sharp are your tools really??? How are you holding the block??? How are you approaching the turning??? Have you turned bowls before???

[John Charles]

I have not turned any Canary wood but when you say it comes off the glue block I have some questions.

What is your block? I quite often use maple!

Is it flat?? Especially with CA glue!!

What glue are you using???? CA??? I do!

Are you using an accelerator???

What is the size of this block of wood?????? I have turned segmented bowls 14" in dia with the base glued using tightbond, but there is a lot of difference between segmented and a solid block of wood that size!

Are both the glue block and the Canary block DRY wood??? I dunno nutin as I have said about Canary, it isn't an oily wood is it???? which won't hold glue!!

As others have said, sharp tools! It helps but I can say I haven't always had them sharp as they should be and I have had catches that have taken some pieces off, there are so many variables especially since I have not tried Canary wood it is sometimes hard to say what the cause is.

my 2 cents

John

[PaulD]

I've used canarywood a number of times in turning projects and really have never observed any particular problems with it. As noted elsewhere sharp tools matter. If the piece is initially less then square, slowing down the lathe during the initia roughing process makes it safer and less prone to free flight. All else fails turning or otherise shaping a small collar to initially fit in a large chuck works. As also noted, I don't find canarywood particularly oily, but just in case an acetone rinse can also help with adherence. One last thought is the age or type of your CA glue, move to thicker and newer if the problem persists and take the time to let it cure throughly, accelerant is not always the way to go. Good luck!

[Bob Way]

I have turned canary wood. I agree with John it is a nice wood to turn. A couple of thoughts come to mind regarding it's coming off the glue block. First off is making sure there is a good joint between mounting surfaces of the glue block and your blank. Flat, even, no gaps. Next, if you're gluing, is to ensure the glue has set up. When I use glue blocks I'll wait quite a bit of time before mounting and turning. Even though the glue appears to have setup and dried on the edges, it sometimes takes a little longer to do so toward the center.

Finally, I'm kind of thinking that what's knocking your blank off is some kind of a catch. The tool rest position or the presentation of the tool to the wood may not be allowing the tool to cut, or they may be forcing you to take a deeper cut that stresses the joint at the glue block. Getting around the catches is kind of a learning curve, but goes pretty quick. By bringing the tailstock up to help hold the blank in place will allow you to play around with tool rest height and tool presentation without having to remount the blank a bajillion times (or to keep ducking out of the way) should help.

You're going to like that canary wood when you're done.

Bob Way