Local solution to stop cracking?

[sawinredneck]

Not really milling, but I am trying to make a coffee table out of a Maple stump, 57"x32"x2 1/2" thick. I cut it, planed it, sanded it and put a heavy coat of polyurethane on it that night on both sides.
It's in the garage with a heater on it and I looked at it today and it's starting to crack!
So, what is something I can get local, Lowes/Home Depot, to seal this and stop it? Is it too late for this piece to be saved? How long should I seal another piece and let it dry if I try this again?
Thanks, bunch of silly questions, but this is all new to me and my SIL thinks she wants me to make several of them to sell so I need to learn quickly!

 

[lone wolf]

Dont dry it so fast it will crack to all hell.Dry it slow.

 

[sawinredneck]

It's 55 in the garage, 25 outside, which is worse?

 

[sachsmo]

Cookies crumble, it's a fact of life.

Could try using a bunch of natural oil.

 

[MGoodwin]

I am trying to do 5 foot diameter doug fir rounds myself. I have done some looking into this but the general concensus is its going to do what its going to do. Most of the cracking I have seen turn out to be wedge shaped (with the largest seperation being to the outside). This makes sense to me as the circumfrance is obviously larger to the outside, so during drying this is where the largest part of the crack happens. Drying rates/techniques might help, but dont fix the core issue that the outside simply is trying to compress more than its allowed to. The reasons for slowing the drying process of planked wood simply do not really apply here. In my humble opinion, its really a matter if the disk has enough strength to resist the splitting. If anyone knows of a truly sound technique I would LOVE to hear it.

 

[Metals406]

The cookie tables that are the most stable are glued and fastened to a piece of good grade plywood on the bottom. . . It doesn't really change the look of the finish product, but it adds a bunch of stability.

 

[StevenBiars]

The key is hydration and slow, uniform drying. If it dries too fast, the wood will start to crack. I've personally had pretty good results by using Anchor Seal on the cut ends and then keeping the wood itself hydrated with a mixture of mineral spirits and boiled linseed oil. Lately, I've been anchor sealing the bottom of a slab and then using a top-down approach with the mineral spirits & BLO.

As for the discs, I've banded and submerged smaller ones in a kiddie pool with great results.

 

[sachsmo]

I use Danish oil (thinned down Tung oil) or Tung oil. But have never made anything from crosscut pieces.

 

[BobL]

Once it has started to crack it's too late. Start again and this time cut about 20 cookies and place them either under water or dig a pit in the ground and fill it with wet sawdust and bury the cookies in there. Come back in 2-3 years time and hopefully some have not cracked. Then dry them slowly in a cool place and you might get one that has not cracked.

 

[oldtime]

It's going to crack...

Stump wood can be pretty unstable even if kiln dried. If you do not have acces to a kiln let it sit until the moisture content is under 10%. Once it is seasoned and has stopped moving you'd be amazed what saw dust and epoxy can hide.

A lot of crotch wood is prized for it's cathedral figure, but usually crotches end up with 1/4" to 1/2" sized cracks. Try adding a 'paste' of epoxy and maple (or other light colored wood) dust on a smaller scrap piece that is seasoned/dry. Once sanded down it's hardly noticeable.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Like was said, drying sloooowly gives you the best chance of it not cracking, like a year or two slooow. But, 99.9% of them will still crack... Drying cookies without cracking is nearly impossible to do, so once dry, just work it into your design...

Rob

 

[StevenBiars]

I got this half-cookie on July 18th after watching a Stihl saw-off between Arden Cogar Jr. and Mike Sullivan. They had just shown how fast a Stihl can cut when compared against a competitors saw (Stihl vs Husq). Afterwards, they showed how one of the open-modified hot saws fared against the Stihl (here). My half-cookie came from later in the competition. Anyhow, all the little kiddies ran out and grabbed the solid cookies, but I was more interested in the half piece so that I could eventually cut the bottom flat and make a base for it. Long story short, the wood was fresh and kinda wet from a rain the day before. I forgot about treating the half-round until a day and a half later, but the cracking had already started. It was the middle of the night when I noticed it, so I took it out to the garage and paste waxed the wood. It's not an end-all, fix-all, but in a pinch it will help buy you some time.

View attachment 210197

 

[john taliaferro]

Paint or a product like anchor seal will help some . Like Bob said get it out of the heated shop and wrap it up in a tarp or plastic bags . ha ha learn how to patch cracks . Cut more than needed so really bad ones can be fire wood again .

 

[Metals406]

I may be the only one, but I always thought cracking kinda added to the character of cookie tables.

If you really want to do a quick fix, without waiting a coons age for your cookies to cure. . . You make a vac chamber and stabilize the wood with a resin. It'll cost ya money to make the chamber, and to make the vac setup, and of course the resin isn't going to be cheap.

 

[StevenBiars]

I may be the only one, but I always thought cracking kinda added to the character of cookie tables.

If you really want to do a quick fix, without waiting a coons age for your cookies to cure. . . You make a vac chamber and stabilize the wood with a resin. It'll cost ya money to make the chamber, and to make the vac setup, and of course the resin isn't going to be cheap.

I second the notion that cracking adds character to cookie tables. It kinda detracts from some slabs, but it really adds something to others. As for the vac chamber, I've used one on a small scale for stabilizing pen and stock blanks with a friend a few years back. It worked pretty well. The key is making sure you keep the pieces submerged when drawing the vacuum.

 

[Metals406]

I second the notion that cracking adds character to cookie tables. It kinda detracts from some slabs, but it really adds something to others. As for the vac chamber, I've used one on a small scale for stabilizing pen and stock blanks with a friend a few years back. It worked pretty well. The key is making sure you keep the pieces submerged when drawing the vacuum.

Yup, ya gotta have them in the resin. . . 30" of vac till the bubbles stop, then take it out and set it on wax paper to dry.

 

[BobL]

I got this half-cookie . . . .

Don't forget a half cookie already has two big cracks right across it's base so it has a lot of drying tension removed from the wood.