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Stabilizing Question

Michael J. Spangler

Michael J. Spangler

Joined
Oct 8, 2003
Messages
2,181
has anyone tried to soak a wood in wood hardener for a long period of time to stabilize the wood? i'm trying a piece of curly maple right now and i'm hoping it works. its been in for about 2 days, i'm not sure how long to leave it, but i'll keep you all posted. thanks for the input guys

Mike
 
i have two pieces of maple burl that has been soaking in min wax wood hardener for about a month, once it sinks that means the material is displacing
the air in the pours, mine has sunk, dont know how it will turn out but will let you know
 
I talked to somebody at a woodworking shop about stabilizing wood. He suggested getting a very thin alcohol based epoxy like Smith's Epoxy, and slathering it on the wood. The longer the cure time, the better, because it can soak into the wood. These sorts of epoxies are generally used by boat owners to prevent rot. I don't know how deep it would penetrate, though, and haven't tried this myself.

I'm also looking for information on simple ways to stabilize wood at home, if anybody has some tips.
 
Why dont You try to vacuum the wood, it is easy if you have a vacuum pump just place your handle slabs in the epoxy or sealer and then put that in a big cookie jar. take n piece of 2mm plate big enough to close the lid make a hole in the lid to fit the pipe from the vacuum pump an seal the lid and the pipe with presstic putty or plastecene.

start the vacuum pump and you will see a lot of bubbles just make sure the slabs stay covered with the sealant, if the wood tends to drift to the top you cant open it and put a piece of steel or something on top so that it is kept in the sealant.
After a couple of minutes knip the pipe with a vicegrip and switch of the pump, let it stand for about 3 minutes start the pump and remove the vicegrip, there will be more bubbles comming repeat this procces until the bubbles dont apear anymore. the reason for using the vicegrip as a valve is to give the air trapped inside wood some sort of a shock as you release it a normal valve does not release quick enough.

Now you can take out the slabs and put them on wax peper to dry dont use blotting paper or news paper as the absortion of the paper will trigger the cappiliary action and drain the sealant out of the slabs therefore it is beter to let it dry in a small puddle of sealant.

let it dry overnight then it can be cured in a low temp oven.

This is the way i color my giraffe bone and somtime stain some wood.

cheers and enjoy

"VAN"
 
Mike, I did some maple slabs that way around last Nov. I just put them in the jar and forgot about them for 2-3 weeks. I put them on a kitchen knife, gave 'em a coat of wax and they have held up so far. Not exactly a long scientific study, but they seem o.k. especially since my wife likes to leave it in the sink for hours! :rolleyes:
Rick
 
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