Would've been nice to see the wood. Never heard about stabilizing wood with cactus juice. Is this something new? What does a toaster oven look like, I've never seen one before. Sorry, I don't know much. Guess I will have to google it.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Wood stabilizing
Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Attachments
1 - 20 of 76 Posts
Cactus Juice is the trade name of an acrylic resin. It's been around for a few years. A toaster oven is just a small electric oven (which can also be used to toast bread). I have a spare one in my shop for various things (I've used it in the past to brown metal, a form of oxidation that protects the metal from rusting).Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
I forgot to take the "before" picture of the before and after. Sorry about that.
Attachments
Thanks Dave.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Attachments
Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
No wonder my gut is bound up… I thought cactus juice was just cheap alcohol.
Being into pen making (well a few years ago) I came across this "stabilising" methodology but not being available in Australia I just had to set my wood in concrete and spend $1,000 s of dollars seperating timber from stone.
We are now 8 years down the track… (hell time flies and gets faster the older you get)... will follow your posts enthusiastically as it may be more viable and cost affective now.
Thanks for making the effort to highlight the process. Even if people know about it… unless they share, the rest of us remain ignorant.
Attachments
I believe Curtis can ship to Oz, Duckie. The equipment shouldn't be a problem, as it's all coming from China, anyhow, but the juice comes from here in the USA. Probably after being manufactured in China.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
If you've any questions, ask away. I'm not planning on doing any turning myself, but one of my coworkers is making knives and wants to stabilize the scales that go on the blades made by another coworker. Me, I'm thinking that I'm going to try and make bits for boxes and perhaps saw handles, but we'll see how it goes. And there's no penalty here for being informative. ;-)
Attachments
Interesting Dave.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
I did a quick search on Amazon for vacuum chambers and most that come up specifically say that they are NOT for wood stabilization. Anyone know why? Just wondering what to look for should I ever decide to give this a try.
Attachments
I think it's because the resin will attack many of the cheaper plastics, Nathan. I went with stainless, and Turntex sells some special plastic that won't be harmed. If I hadn't wanted to buy the pump and chamber together, I probably would've bought a chamber from Curtis. Might still, if I decide to get a tall skinny one for doing longer pieces.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Attachments
Thanks Dave. I actually posted the question on one of the chambers (LAB1ST) on Amazon and the seller responded that it is because cactus juice and other stabilizing resins are highly corrosive to the lid. The LAB1ST chambers on Amazon look similar to the one you linked to above so hopefully, yours doesn't have the same problem.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Attachments
Yeah, Nathan. I'm not getting resin on the lid very often, I think. In the first batch, I had a brief moment where the air coming out of the wood made the resin foam up and it got within an inch of the lid before I released the pressure and let it settle down. But I'll keep an eye on it. I think Curtis says that plain PVC is ok, so if I do have problems with the lid, I can always make a new one.
Attachments
Since the wood has to be dry and Curtis warns not to use heat to dry the wood, I wonder if you could dry the wood by putting it in the vacuum chamber, without the resin of course, for a few days? Perhaps you could even freeze dry by popping the wood blanks into the freezer first? Might be an interesting experiment if you have a piece that isn't quite dry enough yet. Weigh it before and after to see how much moisture is lost during the process.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Attachments
Using heat to dry the wood is fine. You just have to bag it so it doesn't pick up moisture as it's cooling, and you need to let it cool completely before putting it in the resin.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
I think his recommendation is 24 hours @ 220 to dry the wood. The timer on my good toaster oven only goes to 9:59, but that got the wood dry enough that it worked.
Attachments
Nice one,Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
So what is this stabilization actually supposed to do?
Obviously it changes the color of the wood through out.
Does it it make it less pron to movement once sanded and put together as a finished project?
Regards
Anth
Attachments
Yes, the wood will move less. It also will be less sensitive to water absorption.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Basically the water in the wood is baked out (by drying) and the air is pulled out by the vacuum, and then those pores are filled with the resin which is set by baking. It makes the wood heavier and harder. In the case of woods like ash, oak, or pine, where there are harder and softer bits in the wood, it makes the wood more uniform and easier to carve, too.
Some say it makes the wood feel more "plasticky" too.
As for color, stabilizing can change the color a lot if you add dye to the resin, but with no dye, the resin will darken the wood a little, but it's a fairly small change. It's about the same as a couple coats of platina shellac, in my experience.
Attachments
I did my first go at stabilizing a few months ago for the drawer fronts of my jewelry chest project. One gallon of Cactus Juice? Wow $$$, I bought the half gallon and am trying to use it up before the 1 year expiration kicks in (It came with the activator separate. I keep it in the fridge to extend the life (2 years is reported) since storing over 83 deg F seems to be a requirement to avoid premature setting.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Anyhow, I've been placing the pieces in a plastic tray then stuffing it all into my vacuum bag. Works fine. I made a wood box with thick sides and top/bottom so effectively there is a space for the tray that won't get crushed.
Everything I've done to date has been pre glued (TBIII) so I set the toaster oven to 200 which is near minimum curing temp for the juice and near max for the glue. No problems! I do have a meat thermometer inside the oven to monitor the temp as the ovens thermostat is off by about 20 degrees. 2 hours was plenty long for my parts (1/2" thick).
It does slightly darken the wood, but it still takes stain/oil/finish fine. The parts come out of the oven looking like a gooey mess, but the excess resin cleans/sands off easily and does't gum up the sanding paper at all.
Next "test" is to stabilize a batch of wood coasters since I want the best protection from these things warping with all the wet objects they will be making contact with.
I'm glad you are where I'm at Dave, I'll be following any tidbits you learn as you explore this process! Dying will be a neat thing to try at some point. There is a LJ posting on someone doing just that.
Attachments
I've moved beyond a little. I've been dyeing with two and three colors. Follow the other postings in this blog series plus I'll have a new one at some point with my most recent experiments.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Attachments
Hah!Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Sorry for not noticing the series and most of all, the date 8^)
After reading up, I've come to the conclusion that it was you who did the write up on dying. Serendipity!
Attachments
No worries. Glad you're finding it useful! I won't be doing any more stabilizing until next year, I suspect. Gotta get moved into the new house and get the new shop built first.Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Attachments
Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
Thanks Dave for taking the time to explain. I,ve got it now, If only I had more space.
Thanks again
Anthony
Attachments
You're welcome, Anth. The other way to think of it is that it makes weak American woods strong like red mallee or other manly Aussie woods. ;-)Equipment and first batch
I've got some spalted elm left over from building my low bench plus some soft maple and other woods that are a little soft and punky. But they're very pretty, so I decided I'd give wood stabilizing a try.
I ordered a vacuum chamber and pump on eBay, plus a gallon of Cactus Juice from Turntex. Once everything arrived, I assembled the hose and rested the vacuum chamber. The pump pulled a vacuum quickly, and the chamber held it reasonably well, so I was good to goon that front.
I cut up a bunch of knife-scale-sized pieces of wood. Made two each of:
- apple
- birch
- butternut
- cherry
- elm
- hackberry
- hickory
- holly
- soft maple
- hard maple
- pine
- redwood
Then I got out my V-tool and practiced carving a little. I carved an A into the apple, a BI into the birch, etc. Except for the redwood, which was too soft to carve cleanly, so my attempted R turned into a diamond where the wood blew out.
I set all the wood in my shop toaster oven and was going to set it for 12 hours at 220F, but the timer on that only goes to 2 hours. So I ended up using the toaster oven in the kitchen, which has a 10 hour timer. Didn't leave a bad smell or anything, and my toast tasted fine this morning, but I'll probably be upgrading the toaster oven in the shop soon.
After getting the wood dry, I put it into a two gallon ziploc bag to cool. According to Curtis' instructions drying the wood first is important, and then cooling it before putting it in the Cactus Juice is critical so you don't prematurely cure the juice.
Once it had cooled, I put the wood into the vacuum chamber and put a chunk of 1/4" steel plate on top of it. That wasn't quite heavy enough to keep the wood from floating, so I threw some lead into a spare plastic tub and put that on top of the plate to weight it down. Then I poured in about a half-gallon of juice, which gave me about a half-inch over the top of the wood (probably should've used a little more), put the lid on the chamber and started to pull vacuum. It got to -27 inches pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), but then there was a continual small stream of bubbles from the wood, so I left it chugging. After 2.5 hours, the bubbles had finally stopped, so I released the vacuum and left the wood to soak while I wrote this. It's supposed to soak for 2-3 times as long as it took to get the bubbles to stop, so I'll just leave it overnight.
![Automotive tire Fluid Motor vehicle Alloy wheel Rim]()
I'll post a new entry tomorrow once I've wrapped the wood (to keep the pieces from getting stuck together), cured it in the shop toaster oven, and taken a look at the results. Thanks for looking!
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