Stabilising Wood

I've now had a play with stabilising wood and its very interesting to say the least. I stabilised some Oak Burr, horse chestnut, mulberry, and several roots and cooked them all with good success (I think). I've now had a go at turning 2 of them and found out that if you're going to stabilise wood then don't label it with a sharpie as I've been doing. The resin dissolves the ink and pulls it into the wood. Fortunately I'd only stabilised the chestnut with this marking but you can clearly see it on the Convaia. The Zeta is burr oak.

I have 8 more of the horse chestnut blanks if anyone wants them otherwise they will be binned.

Well, i can see the pen marks but it actually looks good on the blank .. Both well finished as we have come to expect from this stable Paul ..


Was this done with the vacuum kit that you just bought Paul? Also if so what juice did you use?

Aaawwwwww! You beat me to it! only just got my vac chamber finished. They've come out REALLY well mate.

Thanks Jim, yes it I took the advice of someone on here and got a catch pot before starting and then had to wait for the hose they didn't put in and then the fittings... but its all up and running now and pulling 30hg (whatever that is). I used the 'Stick Fast' from Turners Retreat that George recommended and its very easy to use but beware of adding the catalyst which says shake well first or something like that. I shook it, poured it in and it was just lumps. I spent the best part of an hour trying to squash them against the side of the bottle before nicking a sieve from the CMM and doing it properly.

I've just done some Mulberry in normal neutral resin and some other stuff (the name is on the tip of my tongue) by putting some blue dyed resin in a cup and standing it on one end for 1/2 in the vac chamber and then turning it over and standing it in red dyed resin after Andy (Treesa) gave me a tip.

My pressure chamber is now just about ready which I bought second hand, its a 10 gallon pot and I've removed the paddle and replaced all the fittings. I'll do a hydrostatic test to 100psi and then use it at 50psi for the acrylic. The compressor arrives on Friday but I won't be here till next Tuesday so a wasted weekend... Damn.

All this excitement Paul I too love it as plans come together very happy your stabilising is going so well nice to have people going before with that advice you referred to sterling three pens mate..

Peter

great work Paul, is it a dry vacum gauge that your using? 30hg (29.9) is possible with your setup but unlikely, try swapping it for a wet gauge to get a more accurate reading.

The texta marking doesn't distract from the blank on the Convaia.

That chestnut is lovely! I think you might get away with the pen, either that or do some more scribbles on there and try and get it sucked in again!

I like the oak too, nice grain!

Love the chestnut - I used a sharpie once on end grain white cedar, and learned that lesson well!

Crikey, you've got on quickly with your vacuum pot! As George says 29.9InHg is 'absolute vacuum' so unlikely in your setup. But clearly you're pulling more than enough for your purposes.

George Watkins said:

great work Paul, is it a dry vacum gauge that your using? 30hg (29.9) is possible with your setup but unlikely, try swapping it for a wet gauge to get a more accurate reading.

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I guess it is a dry gauge George, there are two of them one on the catch pot and one on the main pot. Until this thread I didn't know there was a wet gauge but does it matter? should I be looking for an optimum hg? or just suck away as hard as the pump goes which is what I've been doing?

Interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing it Paul.

I have a made vacuum chamber from an old pressure cooker, but so far I have only used it for casting. Might have to give stabilising a go.

When setting out on this stabilising malarky one of the things I had at the back of my mind was the expense of the stabilising fluid and so the added cost per blank. I have now stabilised 39 blanks and have between half and 3/4 of the resin left which means that the cost per blank will increase by about 75p but the turning properties are much better without any tear out on what was the punky woods and having to use a fraction of the ca that I was and a much better finish

unless anyone else has claimed the blanks, I'm willing to take them off your hands Paul, i need the practice

Two very nice pens in spite of the sharpie ink. It is probably camouflaged by the figuring of the blank hopefully.

Its great to hear your up and running with this now
Next time make a paint spinner to mix it really well
then degas it with the vac chamber great stuff mate.

paulm said:

I guess it is a dry gauge George, there are two of them one on the catch pot and one on the main pot. Until this thread I didn't know there was a wet gauge but does it matter? should I be looking for an optimum hg? or just suck away as hard as the pump goes which is what I've been doing?

Click to expand...

does it matter? yes... and... no!! the best results are from maximum hg not only will you get better penetration of the resin but also you will get there in less time which means less pump hours and less soaking time. By fitting an accurate gauge you can see your true hg, which might be 29.9 or you might see 25 or 26hg and you might want to look at the lid seal or the length of pipe or the catch tank to see if it could be improved.
don't get me wrong not all dry gauges are inaccurate but generally speaking unless its a well known brand like norgren etc then a wet or glycerin filled gauge will always give you more accuracy.

what sort of weight increase are you getting? I normally get 100% but on some really punky spalted burr horse chestnut I got close to 200% once

A trio of very good pens. Is the Pink marking what you are talking about ? I think that looks quite natural.

Kawakers said:

unless anyone else has claimed the blanks, I'm willing to take them off your hands Paul, i need the practice

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Pop over and get them Andy, they're yours

George Watkins said:

does it matter? yes... and... no!! the best results are from maximum hg not only will you get better penetration of the resin but also you will get there in less time which means less pump hours and less soaking time. By fitting an accurate gauge you can see your true hg, which might be 29.9 or you might see 25 or 26hg and you might want to look at the lid seal or the length of pipe or the catch tank to see if it could be improved.
don't get me wrong not all dry gauges are inaccurate but generally speaking unless its a well known brand like norgren etc then a wet or glycerin filled gauge will always give you more accuracy.

what sort of weight increase are you getting? I normally get 100% but on some really punky spalted burr horse chestnut I got close to 200% once

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Thanks George, I see now, that makes sense. I didn't weigh the wood before/after but think that I'm getting a varied result as you say depending on the punkiness of the wood. I'll have to start weighing it and need to get my own scales before I start casting so yet another thing to order

donwatson said:

A trio of very good pens. Is the Pink marking what you are talking about ? I think that looks quite natural.

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Thanks Don, yes it is. It might be because I know what it is that makes it worse.