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Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: skeaterbait on March 29, 2018, 04:35:21 PM
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I am about to try my hand at stabilizing, has anyone tried stabilizing, with vacuum, using wood hardener instead of resin?
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Hmmm, wait til Roy gets ahold of that!! :biglaugh:
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Hmmm, wait til Roy gets ahold of that!! :biglaugh:
Carp, I didn’t think that one through
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That may be tooo easy. Even for Roy.
How do you intend to create vacuum?
Wood hardner has a high percentage of acetone. Not something you wanna suck thru an electrical device.
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That may be tooo easy. Even for Roy.
How do you intend to create vacuum?
Wood hardner has a high percentage of acetone. Not something you wanna suck thru an electrical device.
Good to know. Maybe I won't try using that.
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I've read how some knife makers do it by immersing scales in a jar of wood hardener and warming it in a double boiler technique. When it's hot they screw a cap on tight and the hardener is forced into the wood as it cools. The jar needs to be plumb full with no air in it.
If they are small pieces you can get a pretty good penetration just by covering the wood and weighting it down for a couple hours.
I once "footed" some cedar shafts by standing about four inches of them in hardener for a couple hours. It toughened them considerably.
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I've looked into this in the past. Most used a vacuum pump and an oven to activate the resin. I think that's the best system as the resin not used can remain in the container until the next piece. much less waste. The tubes are easy enough to build, vacuum system can be costly. You could mail the supplies to me (I have vac. pumps) and I'll do the rest :bigsmyl:
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Tempting :wavey:
I found a vac pump and 4 gallon chamber on that list place for $75 and I made a tall chamber for longer pieces from some PVC I had laying around. Of course now my play money is gone and I have no money for resin :dunno: LOL, life does have it's trials :laughing:
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When you first turn on the pump the resin will foam up considerably and if you are not watching to open the valve a little it will be sucked into the pump and you are done . So if you use a pvc pipe you need one that is clear to watch the level of the resin as it foams , you have to open and close the valve over and over for about 5 minutes till the air is out of the chamber and the resin will settle down and stop foaming , you can then have the valve closed till your vacuum process is over which can sometimes be 24 hours more or less . I've never used wood hardener but I've stabilized a lot of riser wood using acrylic resin .
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Acrylic resin... is that what Cactus Juice is?
I have a clear lid so I can keep an eye on the foam. I also made the chamber a lot taller than the wood I will be putting in it, a'cuz I have a tendency to get distracted.
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My chamber is 42" and it will foam up in about 3 seconds the first time and faster after that. You had better not get distracted or your pump will be shot !!!
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Tim, you can put a vacuum trap between the pump and the chamber..any fluids will drop into the flask/trap before it gets to your vacuum pump.
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They foam a lot and it would run over for quite some time I only cover my wood with bout 3 or 4 inches of acrylic so I need all there is in the chamber, it may suck all of that in when I give it the air. Its not a big deal to sit for 5 minutes and manually run the valve on and off .
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When I first did the cactus juice I got resin in my pump and sheared the plastic drive coupling
. I had to tear the pump down and clean and bead blast all the parts to clean them. Now I have a second catch chamber to prevent resin in the pump. A 1/2 clear lexan lid to watch the resin until it settles down and the valve can be left open on its own.
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I have a vacuum pump like what is used in the HVAC trade to draw a vacuum on an AC system. Would this type of pump work?
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Yep, that's the type of pump typically sold with the chambers.
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You can find them on the big auction site. Same as used in the AC trade.
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How about rigging a bicycle pump to function in reverse.
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You want air out not in. Then when vacuum is released 14.7 AP will push in resin.
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A friend on another forum used a brake bleeder pump... Said it worked good...
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I tried that with a gallon jar but got tired of squeezing the dang thing, I can't imagine pumping down a 40" long 4" diameter tube.
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My seal a meal has several jars. With connectors but I'm not sure about sacrificing them to resin.
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It is a lot of fun when it works. Not all woods will take resin, at least not without special preparations.
I generaly run 5 or 6 tanks every time I do a batch. That amounts to about 30 risers at a time. Takes a lot of resin.
Here's a tip, fill your tanks with as much wood as they will hold, but don't wedge the wood in. It will get stuck after taking in resin. The fuller the tank, the less room for resin. If you only put in a couple of pieces, it will take a lot more resin to cover them up.
BigJim
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It is a lot of fun when it works. Not all woods will take resin, at least not without special preparations.
I generaly run 5 or 6 tanks every time I do a batch. That amounts to about 30 risers at a time. Takes a lot of resin.
Here's a tip, fill your tanks with as much wood as they will hold, but don't wedge the wood in. It will get stuck after taking in resin. The fuller the tank, the less room for resin. If you only put in a couple of pieces, it will take a lot more resin to cover them up.
BigJim
Thank you Jim, I would not have thought about the wood wedging in as it takes on the resin, but it makes sense.