Stabilize wood for turning

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

you need as much vacuum as you can get

and there have been failures of glass containers (jars) used for pulling vacuum for stabilizing

if you can find it, you can use glass laboratory vacuum containers. I've seen the pots used - and I've also seen them dent due to vacuum as well.

[Dale Gillaspy]

You don't have to have an exact size gasket. A piece of butyl rubber cut in a donut shape will work just great. So will the hobby store foam for kids scrap book projects, if you can find it big enough. Excess on the sides is fine, as long as it makes the seal.

A lesser vacuum may work, but will take a long time. My experience is you really need about 25 bars, but experiment. It may work great for you. The biggest thing is to watch your bleeder valve. As you start the vacuum, you will need to bleed off the air it is pulling so foam doesn't back up into the hose and get into your pump. You will end up having to rebuild your pump. Bleed it a little at a time until all the foam stabilizes, then let it pull vacuum until the bubbles stop. My experience has been about 30 minutes for pen blanks, but yours may vary.

[david privett]

I am just asking here but could what you are trying to do be done with a air conditioner vacuum evacuation system pump and a pressure canning pot? where the weight rattles on the lid use that as a vacuum port.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

yes - you can use an AC vacuum pump provided you can adapt the hose/fittings to the chamber

I don't know about using a pressure cooker. It could be done - but one of the benefits of having a clear chamber or lid is that you can see when the wood stops bubbling. You won't de able to do that using a pressure cooker.

also - if you do use a pressure cooker - make sure you include a solvent trap between the chamber and the pump. Vacuum pumps do not handle sucking up fluid very well.

[Matt Mackinnon]

It is very easy to be a neigh sayer when it comes to a pickle jar vacuum chamber, but I am wondering if this is based on a set of FACTS or just gut feeling because it sounds good? I would like to know if anyone has actually had a pickle jar (thick walled mason jar) actually implode on them? I have seen the video's where people take a 55gal steel drum and fill it with a bit of water, heat it and then shock cool it down and have it implode. But other than creating a vacuum, the similarities stop there.

In the case of a pickle jar for stabilizing, you need to base it on a few facts.

1. a full vacuum is about 30psi pressure. And good luck getting a full vacuum so the force on your jar is less than that.
2. a vacuum is the absence of matter in a space. The jar will probably be filled 70% full with wood, stabilizer etc. So your 1 quart mason jar will have about 8oz area of air that is being evacuated. So in the case of an implosion, it is that amount of air that needs to be replace from the surrounding atmosphere. (ie not a whole lot)
3. Your bigger concern with an implosion is the splash out of the liquid stabilizer going everywhere and taking the glass with it. Safety tip. Put it in a 10" square metal tin. That will contain any splash out so it doesn't go everywhere.
4. If you are still concerned with glass, then wrap the bottle with a few thin strips of duct tape. You will still see the bubbles between the strips and the glass will be mostly secured by the tape. I don't know if you have ever moved a mirror, but it is common practice to run a few strips of tape over the surface so that if it broke the glass would not scatter everywhere.


Now if you wanted to make your own non glass DIY vacuum chamber, you can use Schedule 40 clear PVC pipe. The down side is that it comes in 5' lengths and you probably only need 10-12" of it. So unless you know of 4-5 other people who also want to make a DIY chamber, then you are paying for un-used pipe. so really it comes down to you are not saving all that much money to make your own over buying one.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

So you have no stabilizing experience at all - yet you are giving advice on how to do it?

consider this: http://www.penturners.org/forum/f43/...tion**-114771/

[Matt Mackinnon]

So you have no stabilizing experience at all - yet you are giving advice on how to do it?

consider this: http://www.penturners.org/forum/f43/...tion**-114771/

I am not giving advice, but looking for substantiated help that is backed up by something. Thankyou for giving me a link to an actual failure. What I would be curious to know however the shape of the glass vase, but more important that the purchaser probably would not know what what sort of glass that the vase was made of. I have worked with glass in the past through my local college doing blowing, slumping and jewellery work. I know that some types of glass are very decretive but are in no means very structural. Also, not knowing if the vase at hand was even properly annealed but given that it was a VASE and in no way connected to the higher standards that the FDA give for glass to be used in food preparation. Like I would not expect a pirex measuring cup to simply explode if you put hot water into it from thermal shock, but a flower vase more than likely would.

An actual Mason jar is designed to be put into a hot water bath and have a lid put onto it and be under vacuum to hold the contents inside fresh for a period of time. I don't know if that would make any difference to the life expectancy of using it under substantially more vacuum.. I don't know the exact pressure that you can get with canning? This is in no way saying that it is safe to use. I am just trying to get a better understanding of the risks involved.

[Matt Mackinnon]

With all due humility and apologies to anyone who I may have offended, I sincerely apologize. I have spent some time doing more research and have a better understanding now of what is required for stabilization and the limitations there within. Please close this thread.

[Jery Madigan]

It is very easy to be a neigh sayer when it comes to a pickle jar vacuum chamber, but I am wondering if this is based on a set of FACTS or just gut feeling because it sounds good? I would like to know if anyone has actually had a pickle jar (thick walled mason jar) actually implode on them? I have seen the video's where people take a 55gal steel drum and fill it with a bit of water, heat it and then shock cool it down and have it implode. But other than creating a vacuum, the similarities stop there.

In the case of a pickle jar for stabilizing, you need to base it on a few facts.

1. a full vacuum is about 30psi pressure. And good luck getting a full vacuum so the force on your jar is less than that.
2. a vacuum is the absence of matter in a space. The jar will probably be filled 70% full with wood, stabilizer etc. So your 1 quart mason jar will have about 8oz area of air that is being evacuated. So in the case of an implosion, it is that amount of air that needs to be replace from the surrounding atmosphere. (ie not a whole lot)
3. Your bigger concern with an implosion is the splash out of the liquid stabilizer going everywhere and taking the glass with it. Safety tip. Put it in a 10" square metal tin. That will contain any splash out so it doesn't go everywhere.
4. If you are still concerned with glass, then wrap the bottle with a few thin strips of duct tape. You will still see the bubbles between the strips and the glass will be mostly secured by the tape. I don't know if you have ever moved a mirror, but it is common practice to run a few strips of tape over the surface so that if it broke the glass would not scatter everywhere.


Now if you wanted to make your own non glass DIY vacuum chamber, you can use Schedule 40 clear PVC pipe. The down side is that it comes in 5' lengths and you probably only need 10-12" of it. So unless you know of 4-5 other people who also want to make a DIY chamber, then you are paying for un-used pipe. so really it comes down to you are not saving all that much money to make your own over buying one.

Schedule 40 clear PVC can be had in 1' and 2' lengths on the auction site. Easy to make a chamber with it.

[Dean S Walker]

have you tried contacting Curtis at Turn Tex directly to ask him about shipping to Canada?

www.turntex.com is his website.

you'll need to convert your pressure pot to a vacuum chamber to use Cactus Juice. Since it does not have a clear lid to watch, you'll also need to rig up some sort of a liquid trap between the chamber and the vacuum pump.

I second this, Curtis is a good guy, just give him a call.