resin impregnating

[Ron Bontz]

Anyone have a good method for impregnating wood with resin. Vacuum method, pressure? Thanks in advance.

[Jim Sebring]

Check with the folks over on the IAP site (penturners.org). Some of them have devised elaborate systems for both vacuum and pressure tank impregenation.

[Alan Trout]

Ron,

It really depends on what resin and what you are trying to do. Doing small items are pretty simple. I use polyurethane resins in my work for the most part and they require pressure. When you decide to do larger stuff and high volumes of resin it gets much more difficult as the exothermic reaction created by the larger thermal mass can damage the casting. So pen blanks to small vessels say about 4" to 5" inches is very doable. Large pieces are a bit of an experiment that I am personally still working on perfecting my methods. I have had pretty good success with my bigger pieces but when you have failures they can be pretty discouraging and expensive.

If you are just trying to stabilize Curtis over at IAP makes his catus juice which is vacuum and then heat in the oven and it works well.

Good Luck

Alan

[Bill Holland]

I have had some success using clear epoxy on small check & voids. You really need to give it more than the suggested 5 minutes though for curing. If you ae wating to stabilize something like a bowl blank you can do it with vacuum chamber but be ready to drop some cash on the system. Even a small pen blank system can run $300-$500 depending on what vacuum pump you use.

Bill

[Dick Mahany]

Two answers. Both impregnate resin into wood with different results.

1) If you want to stabilize or harden up wood that is soft or punky as can be the case with spalted wood and many burls, the using a stabilizing resin such as Cactus Juice from TurnTex in vacuum is the way to go. It requires vacuum which pulls the air out of the wood for the resin. The resin is then heated to around 190F for a period of time to cure. It solidifies the wood, but does not fill large voids. It can also be dyed.

2) If you want to fill voids or large features in the wood with a resin that can be dyed or fiiled with a number of materials, then polyurethane resin such as Alumilite, or polyester resin such as Silmar 41 can be used. The Alumilite material is best used with a pressure pot at 40 PSI for 20-30 minutes and can be demolded and worked in about 90 minutes. It sets up quickly in about 7 minutes for the clear, and has negligible odor.

The polyester resin can be degassed in vacuum prior to pouring or heated and vibrated to get rid of the bubbles. It can also be put under pressure, but may be okay if not pressurized depending on technique. It takes considerably longer to cure and has a strong odor.

I've used all 3 and had success for different projects. Good luck if you do this as it opens up many new design opportunities.

[Chip Sutherland]

I found the best how-to for building a pressure pot on IAP using the Harbor Freight pressure pot....These plans actually make both a pressure and a vacuum pot so you can use whichever one meets your needs. This will be on my to-do list for 2013.

content.penturners.org/library/tools_and_jigs/pressurepot.pdf

Forgive me if I hijacked a link from their site. I downloaded the pdf.

[Jim Burr]

What is it that you want to achieve Ron? Stabilizing is only done in vacuum and is lousy at filling voids due to the nature of the solution. For WW type blanks, pressure is your best option. I cast and vacuum on a weekly basis and have yet to have a failure. Lucky for you Dick and I spend a lot of time on IAP!

[James Combs]

Ron,...If you are just trying to stabilize Curtis over at IAP makes his catus juice which is vacuum and then heat in the oven and it works well.
Good Luck
Alan

Ron, here is a results example of the Cactus Juice process. The sap wood was very punky so I processed the whole bowl and it turned out great, but as someone has already mentioned CJ does a poor job of any kind of gap fill other then on a micro level.

[Dave Mueller]

+1 for Cactus Juice. I have used it for everything from pen blanks to small vase shapes. Get Curtis' vacuum chamber, a HF vacuum pump and a cheap toaster oven. Also get a good digital oven thermometer because you HAVE to get the whole blank up to 200 degrees for 10 minutes minimum and the thermostat in the cheap toaster ovens is not accurate enough. Curtis has a lot of good videos on his website at Turntex for both vacuum stabilizing and Alumilite pressure casting. He is a great guy and very helpful.

[Ron Bontz]

Sorry. I am looking more at stabilizing the wood for both handle making and turning at the moment. I generally use epoxy with wood dust/chip additive for gap filling. Sometimes brass, etc.I am hoping to experiment a bit this coming fall and winter. So I will look into the cactus juice and IAP. Thank you to all. Always a work in progress.