stabilizing wood idea

[G L Drew]

OK guys, I need your thoughts on this one.

At dinner last night a companion was telling about using a vacuum bagger to marinate meat. This is a machine that is used to store food by pumping the air out of a plastic bag and than heating a thermal seal creating an almost airless environment around the food so it lasts longer in the feezer or fridge. This fellow says he stores meat in them with a marinate and gets excellent penetration into the meat.

I had a thought at 2 AM about using this system to apply stabilizing fluids to wood. If a small amount of fluid was placed in the bag with the wood and than vacuum sealed for a couple of days do you think it would penetrate enough to go all the way through a set of scales. I have tried soaking the wood without any vacuum and never got penetration past about 1/16 inch. I have a lot of maple and cherry burls that need to be stabilized and thought this might be a cheap way to get it done. Grizzly sells these machines for about $30.

Does this sound practical or did I have one too many beers with my steak last night?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

They don't have the pull of vacuum required.There will need to be complete submersion in the liquid.For $30 you can get several pounds of wood handles professionally stabilized with acrylic resins.Check out WSSI.
http://www.stabilizedwood.com/info.shtml

 

[Bruce Evans]

All you need is a hand held vaccum pump from the auto parts store a metal valve stem from thge same store,a gallon pickel jar to put the valve stem in the lid,then put your handle material in the jar (no more than half the height of the jar) cover with your stabilizing liquid(Me I use a thinned down polyurethane) just cover not fill jar, pull a vaccum to as close to a perfect -30 as you can and watch the bubbls .When they stop let the atmosphere back in and you will be pretty good,I usuaaly just pull and reliese about 4 times and can get through most any block.

Remeber you ar making the handle material into a sponge,when you pull the vaccum it will onley absobe the liquid as fast as it would have when you didnt have the vaccum pulled it is when you let the atmosphere back in the will cause the liquid to be forsed into the handle were the air had been pulled from.

Bruce