How do I make a vase to hold water?

[Tom Jones III]

LOML has asked for a vase to hold live flowers. Of course, this necessitates being filled with water. Should I just handle this with a thick coat of spar varnish on the inside? What would happen to raw wood that has been sanded to 600? Would mineral oil/beeswax combo help any?

[tod evans]

tom, melt paraffin in a double boiler and pour it into the vase, swish it around and dump the excess..02 tod

[Raymond Overman]

Use an insert instead of letting the wood have contact with water. The bottom cut out of a plastic Coke bottle (2 liter or 20 ounce)

[Joe Fisher]

If you can get it, try POR-15 clear. It's a flexible finish that is rock-hard, and completely waterproof.

I haven't tried it on wood (yet), but we painted the inside of a paper bag with it and filled that with water. We dumped it out a week later.

In fact, I think I'll try it today.

-Joe

[John Timberlake]

I agree with Raymond. Any finish is just going to slow down the water getting through. Use an insert of some sort. Find the insert first and turn the inside to fit.

[tod evans]

I agree with Raymond. Any finish is just going to slow down the water getting through. Use an insert of some sort. Find the insert first and turn the inside to fit.

john, paraffin isn`t a finish if you poor it melted into a room temperature vase and swish it around it`ll build up a layer of wax about 1/8" thick on the walls of the vase in short order. paraffin is 100% waterproof that`s why folks who put up canned goods have been using it to seal jam-n-jelly jars for lotsa years..02 tod

[Pat Salter]

I saw some where the guy didn't hollow out the whole inside. Just drilled a hole for a piece of 1" (or whatever size) copper pipe with a cap soldered on the end and epoxied in place. With a vase you don't care if it's hollowed out or not.
another option is getting her to use "dried" flowers!

[George Summers]

john, paraffin isn`t a finish if you poor it melted into a room temperature vase and swish it around it`ll build up a layer of wax about 1/8" thick on the walls of the vase in short order. paraffin is 100% waterproof that`s why folks who put up canned goods have been using it to seal jam-n-jelly jars for lotsa years..02 tod

What do you do to prevent the flower stems from poking holes in the soft wax?

George

[tod evans]

What do you do to prevent the flower stems from poking holes in the soft wax?

George

george, when at room temp. the paraffin is pretty solid, i wouldn`t worry about the weight of a flower bearing on the stem.....but i ain`t no rocket scientist either .02 tod

[John Hart]

I've thought about a lot of these options and like the idea of a POR-15 and parafin combo. My reasoning to avoid the insert was when I started thinking about the act of pouring the water in the vase and water inadvertantly going between the insert and the wood.

[Curt Fuller]

I saw some where the guy didn't hollow out the whole inside. Just drilled a hole for a piece of 1" (or whatever size) copper pipe with a cap soldered on the end and epoxied in place. With a vase you don't care if it's hollowed out or not.

I like this idea. In fact if you were to let the copper insert extend out past the top of the vase 1/2" or so you could "spin" the copper, putting pressure against the inside of the pipe until it created a bell ( like a trumpet).

[Earl Eyre]

I'd go with an insert of any plastic container of the appropriate size. If you are worried about water going between the insert and wood, just seal the edge with a bead of clear silicone caulk. I just wouldn't trust any sealer, even though a perfect job would probably work. Knowing me, there would be a void somewhere! Earl