Stabilizing Wood?

[Tom Megow]

I have used stabilizers working with knife handles and they do well. I have some beautiful but alittle punky spalted hickory and oak. Do turners stabilize rough turned bowls? I was thiking of buying the HF 2.5 gallon pressure pot to do it with.
What do y'all think?
Thanks
Newbie Turner
Tom
Alabama

[Jim Burr]

Pressure won't stabilize Tom. Curtis Seebeck has done years of research on this and vacuum is what is needed. Pressure works great for casting and squishing bubbles, but not stabilizing. I do both on a weekly basis...like today for example! There will be doubters, but I've relied on the experts for years and haven't gone wrong yet. If there're just a couple little spots CA may work well.

[Reed Gray]

There is a place up near Portland that does stabilizing. They start things off in a vacuum first, then finish under pressure. Not sure why it is done that way. I do know the expense is high for any wood, and bowls tend to be a lot bigger than pen blanks.

robo hippy

[Jim Burr]

Stabilizing is expensive!! A pen blank is usually $8-$12. I can do an 8" bowl blank...never thought about what I'd charge for that!

[Paul Williams]

I'm curious about the process. Would you have to submerge the entire bowl blank in epoxy? Do you soak the item in epoxy and then place it in a vacuum?

[Jim Burr]

SMC policy prohibits displaying another website Paul, so I'm not allowed to post anything that would educate you on the process. However!!! There is no epoxy involved...it's a catalyzed resin that has about an 80w viscosity. Once pulled into the blank, vacuum is maintained. When the bubbles stop, vac is released and reverse flow occurs. I remove the blanks from the tank and depending on whether or not my wife is home, I bake them in a toaster oven at 200*F. A critical point is that the core of the blank must reach 200*!! Thus catalyzing the resin and creating a plastic, for lack of better term. Wood ignites in the 500* range so, no...you won't burn your shop down. In the case of peppermill through pen blanks...they turn differently, rather dusty. But...they require very little sanding and finish depending on the skill of the turner.

[Tom Megow]

Oh I was going to pull a vacuum instead of pressurizing the pot. Just not sure of it's dimensions as to what size rough turned bowl would fit.
(Many knifemakers do like the "feel" of stabilized wood) There was also something I was hoping y'all could comment on, how hard would it​ be to turn
after it is stabilized

[Jim Burr]

Turn it is a joy Tom...again...more dusty that curls, but it is so smooth that you'll be surprised!! If you turn pens, PM me and I'll send you a couple blanks. I stabilize any burl, soft or punky wood, have yet to have one blow up on me! Not sure about vacuum in a pressure pot, I have a 2.5g Binks for pressure work and a dedicated tank for vacuum.

[Paul Williams]

I assume you are using it to stabilize punky or other soft wood. Would it also fill a 1/32 or even a 1/16 inch crack? Doug Swanson posted some pen blanks a few days ago that appeared to be 30% or more resin. That must be a cast in a mold process. Would the mold then be placed in a vacuum to eliminate bubbles? Thank you for the comments. I have some burl scraps that have fairly significant cracks but are also quite soft. Beautiful wood that I would hate to not be able to use.

[Doug Herzberg]

I just got a sale catalog from Craft Supplies which included a couple stabilizing resins, Cactus Juice and one other. Both are heat cured at 200 degrees, I think. They were available in quarts or gallons, both under $100 for a gallon, something less for the quart. I don't have any experience with this, but I am interested and may do it someday. There are Youtube videos out there about Cactus Juice.

[robert baccus]

If stabilizing punky wood try this. Rough turn to 10% diameter if possible. Soak overnite in a vinyl bag with acetone thinned epoxy or polyester resin. I've done 15-20 bowls and vases like this. It will fully penetrate punky wood with no discoloring.

[Bob Haverstock]

I'm new at using the stabilizing process, I started in November and I have a couple of observations about using a paint pot for a vacuum vessel.

#1 The larger the volume of wood in the pot the more stabilizing medium is needed. As the vacuum is released, air pressure (atmospheric) pushes the stabilizer into the wood and the level of fluid drops. When the level of fluid drops below the top surface of the wood ad the process is compromised. I failed a couple of times, because I couldn't see and didn't understand what was happening. Just covering the wood with a weight an fluid may not work, a working volume of stabilizing is needed above the tallest blank.

#2 When full vacuum is applied to container of porous wood many, many gas bubbles are produced. A head of foam may form pushing fluid out the small inner container causing it to "boil over." This is much easier to understand when you can see it.

Bob Haverstock

[Dennis Nagle]

I looked at stabilizing using Cactus Juice vs PEG and PEG seems to me a cheaper option. It takes longer but works as well.

[Jim Burr]

Actually Paul, I use it for burls as well. The unstable grain patterns create havoc sometimes and burls are expensive!! It fill holes, CA or similar product would be better. Robert, extensive testing on Acetone based wood hardener, like Minwax show they are only marginally successful. Look at it this way; wood hardening products, according to the label are 70% solvent and 30% solids. So you get penetration into the parent wood to the center, but then the carrier evaporates. Now you go from 100% saturation to 30%. Cactus Juice (just happens to be what I use) is 100% solids once cured.

[Larry Pickering]

I'm doing an experiment right now, on wood stabilizing for a demo this Saturday at our club..

Cactus Juice, used a pressure pot with vacuum, works great, you have size limitations 8 3/4 bowl is not a lot larger than the 8x8 chamber that I have,plus you can't the bubbles being releasted

Wood glue thinned 1:1 with water, brushed on,over night dry, works great,did get some movement in the bowl

Epoxy ( I used West 105/ 107) thinned 100% with acetone, brushed on till saturated over night dry, works great

Minwax Wood Hardener , brushed on, hardener did not penetrate very far into the wood. wast of money

Scary sharp gouge, 3/8 with 55 degree grind with a very small bevel works very well

Remember, life is to short to turn bad wood,

Punky wood sometimes will have hidden cracks, and blow up you, all ways ware your face shield, and don't ask me how I know that.