I have some box elder burl that I am looking to turn to make roofs for a Christmas birdhouse ornament. I was planning to make a backing board from white maple that can be glued onto the elder that will be held in a chuck for turning. But I have never tried to turn punky wood before and fear it will just disintegrate if I try. The Elder is so light and porous.

I have used CA on some hardwood flooring that had punky sections and it did harden it up but gave quite a bit of smoke in the process and of one heck of a stink. Considering the spot was about 1x1x1/2" and used quite a bit of CA, I don't know if that is an option for me here to turn a 2.5" cube of Elder.

What is anther alternative? I need to get these done in the next few weeks so if I need to order some product to harden this, I need to get it ordered and fast.


HELP!

Matt.