Wood stabilizer?

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
Who could school me on stabilizing wood turning blanks? I have a small vacuum pump that I used in my old darkroom. I don’t know anything about it but I heard it’s a good thing to do with burl wood.
 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
Only rumored, but it seems I remember discussions soaking in PEG. Some sort of glycol. May years ago, for all I know it was toxic and went away 30 years ago.
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
If you use the epoxy (2 part) talk to a boat supply. Out here, the locals use West products, but they use the kind for Bar-tops. Basically, it is a bit thinner and is slow cure (Like 4hrs to set). I think the cactus resin is heat activated.
 

Dee2

Board of Directors, Vice President
Gene
Staff member
Corporate Member
I've used Cactus Juice for pecan (mallet) and redheart (pens and bottle stoppers). I use a Gast VP, an AL pressure cooker, and a $10 toaster oven from Goodwill. Also a couple of 2.5lb. weights to hod the wood under the juice.
 

Michael Mathews

Michael
Corporate Member
I too would be interested in this topic! I have some turning blanks that I've begun to turn and found them to be too punky in areas. I'd like to stabilize them with epoxy, think of a hybrid turning blank. At this time I have the vacuum pump but no chamber. I'd most likely get one from Harbor Freight
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
This may end up being more than I want to take on. I plan to meet with Tony and learn from him, I watched everything on the bug juice website. My vacuum pump is not the right kind.
I’ll need $270 just for that. My bowl blanks are 18” cylinders that I’ll need to cut down. I need a big tank and lots of juice. That could be another $300 to $500… I think I would need to rough turn then bake the bowl blank to get it less than 5% moisture content before treatment. I’ll need a big oven.
 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
Hmmm. I have pumps and an old pressure cooker.
My attic exceeds 110 ( fan temp). Higher without the fan. Wonder if it would serve as a large oven. I do use it to speed paint and poly cure time.

I was thinking of a very different application. Car wood. Both dashboard or possibly body frames.
 

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