I'm firmly in the boiling camp. I boil all of my green bowl blanks. There are a few shape and wood combinations that I don't have to boil but as a general rule, if its green, I make a huge batch of wood tea. I only coat the fruit woods and a couple others I've found like to crack. If I boild fruit woods, I get small cracks often. If I don't, they almost split completely in half. Most other woods I'm good with turning to abut 1" thick, boiling, let dry in the shop for a day, then place on the shelf in the basement to be turned in a few months.

When I get in bowl mode, I like to turn several green blanks, put them in the pot, and pull a couple dry blanks off the shelf and finish them. If I keep the rotation up, I'm never at a loss of something to rough out or finish.

Don't boil the complete blanks.  Robert boils rough turned to 1" thick or finish turned pieces.

I wouldn't boil the whole logs cut blanks. I thought you were talking about partial turned blanks.

Remember Mike is a production turner and time at the lathe is where the money is made so time spent doing other things doesn't pay.

I boil rough turned bowls and most finish turned pieces because a lost blank means more to me. I'll also bother with repairs on things a lot of people toss in the fire bin.

The best thing to do is try it all and repeat the things that work and you feel isn't too much bother. It is all so variable. Type of wood, ambient temperature and humidity, time of year the wood was harvested, shape of the piece, grain direction, on and on.

With all your hard work and planning, mother nature still likes to throw you a curve now and then and all bets are off.

And them there is Jim King who used to talk about starting his boiling barrel in the morning when the men showed up and they would then spend the day cutting the blanks into shape and tossing them into the boil barrel.  They would shut the burner off at quitting time and go home.  The next morning they would pull the blanks out and restart the burner for the next days blanks.  He claimed it worked well for him. 

I on the other hand boil the finished work sometimes.  Have not lost one to cracking yet.  Some warping, but no breakage.
Rev. Doug Miller

Bob, that is one reason why we say to do whatever works for you. I don't waste a lot of time when I boil. I just start the pot, start turning, and drop them in as I finish one. I don't like the fuss, character, and color changes with soaking in LDD so I don't do that one anymore. Standing in front of the microwave is a pain and, I agree with you, a waste of time. All I know is that I have better success, and with some woods, any success at all, if I boil so I stick with what works for me. I don't tell anyone how they should do things, only what works for me.

No worries.

Bob,

I have been looking and have yet to see a post from you on your technique.  I searched your posts and it will only go back to the last fifty.  Got tired of looking through the old drying posts to find what you said you posted.  Care to re-post your method.

Dale

OK Dale here it is.
Turn the outside
Coat liberally with mineral spirits, go have a cup of coffee or start a second piece while it dries [about 20 minutes]
The mineral spirits will give you a "surface dry" that you can sand with out too much clogging of the sand paper. I usually sand to 320 at this point.
Chuck the bowl and turn the inside.
Coat the inside with mineral spirits so that it is running freely. Turn the rpm's up as high as you dare with the particular piece. Add more mineral spirits to the inside.
The centrifugal force will actually throw the mineral spirits through the wall of the bowl. Stop the process when no more mineral spirits are hitting your shop wall.
Let it dry. Again you have a sand-able surface.
Finish sanding the inside and re-sand the outside to remove the sap and mineral spirits that passed through the wood.
Apply finish.
As I said last night, I have been doing this for 19 years. Working alone down here in Belize before I had the internet I made things up as I went along. With no good sources of dry wood and to impatient by nature to wait I started turning green and stumbled along until I perfected this technique.
Everything you see on my web site  Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or    has been done this way.
Give it a try with several types of wood in your area, let me know how you make out
Bob


Fixed your link so it was active.