Pressurising wood scales after stabalising

A

Andybrock

Joined
Feb 5, 2017
Messages
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Hi all,
I've been stabalising my own scales over the past few months just by vacuum, recently though I've seen a few people pressurising their scales after its been stabilised in a vacuum. Is there a great deal to be gained by this extra process?
Thanks
 
Vacuum....suck out all the air....release vacuum and resin is pulled into the wood...pressure forces resin even deeper if it hasn't fully penetrated. I don't know the process the pros use, but K&G stuff completely penetrates the wood with resin.

Stacey and Chuck....your answers made me laugh. Ya rearends! :)
 
Randydb said:
Vacuum....suck out all the air....release vacuum and resin is pulled into the wood...pressure forces resin even deeper if it hasn't fully penetrated. I don't know the process the pros use, but K&G stuff completely penetrates the wood with resin.

Stacey and Chuck....your answers made me laugh. Ya rearends! :)
Click to expand...
They leave it n there for about a month as well.
 
Well, not actually a month, but for a while.

Vac for half f a day and pressure for a day is about what I suspect.

The pressure done with home built systems using paint pots isn't nearly enough to get full penetration. The professional systems use hydraulic level pressure. This also reduces any internal air to minute size, which will be absorbed into the resin and disappear as a microscopic bubble.
 
I'm not going to do it because of the time but I've often thought about taking a hydraulic cylinder apart, filling it with cactus juice and reassembling, then pressurizing it with my H-frame press. It'd still be cactus juice, but I bet you could get full penetration that way.
 
When using open pore woods such as spalted maple I pull a vacuum for 3 or 4 hrs, then allow Cactus Juice to soak in for several hours - maybe even overnight if desired. Each of the blocks I've done had 100% total penetration and will sink in fresh water. The sinking in fresh water is the guide I use for stabilized wood, if it doesn't sink, it's not stabilized properly.

Walnut doesn't stabilize very well with Cactus Juice - or doesn't for me. I don't get as good penetration as with a more open pore wood.
 
I am happy with the results I get from K&G and the turn around time is usually around 2 -3 weeks including my shipping from Canada. I worry that a box of wood will get stopped because of agricultural bug reasons, but no probs so far. I just wish there was someone doing it here in Canada.

I collect my own wood in the forest, dry it, and cut it into blocks about 6"x1.75'x1". By the time I am done paying shipping and K&G it works out to about $5 a block. That is a screaming deal compared to what you pay for stabilized blocks on line from retailers. I have no desire to set up and do my own.
 
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