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stabilizing woods?
- Thread starter STIHL
- Start date
If you search the archive on this forum, you'll find more than you ever wanted to know about stabilizing wood. There are also a few key points missing.
Stable is a relative word. Yes, it would be more stable than when it started - but not very.
To get good penetration, you need vacuum and pressure. Now while I was cheaping out investigating this idea, I tried the following.
Put your sealant (I used thinned varathane) in a sealer jar. Warm it up in hot water as if you were making preserves. Add the wood and seal it shut. Put it in a snowbank. No snowbank? Icewater? Freezer? As the remaining air shrinks with the cold, you'll see bubbles coming out of the wood. This indicates there is a vacuum. Leave it in the cold overnight. Next morning, still in the cold open the lid and let the cold air in. Close the lid tight again and bring it all inside where it's warm again. As the air warms up, it expands and you get pressure. Leave it this way all day and then take the wood out to dry.
I got all the way through 5/16 inch maple this way. I wasn't, however, particularly happy with the varathane treatment. I guess I'm just spoiled by the professionally done polymerized stuff.
I now have a vacuum pressure chamber which I put together for about $100 Canadian. Now I can get good penetration in reasonable time, through over an inch of wood but I still haven't found the product I like.
Good luck - and share your results.
------------------
Rob Ridley
Ranger Original Handcrafted Knives
http://www.col.ca/rridley
Stable is a relative word. Yes, it would be more stable than when it started - but not very.
To get good penetration, you need vacuum and pressure. Now while I was cheaping out investigating this idea, I tried the following.
Put your sealant (I used thinned varathane) in a sealer jar. Warm it up in hot water as if you were making preserves. Add the wood and seal it shut. Put it in a snowbank. No snowbank? Icewater? Freezer? As the remaining air shrinks with the cold, you'll see bubbles coming out of the wood. This indicates there is a vacuum. Leave it in the cold overnight. Next morning, still in the cold open the lid and let the cold air in. Close the lid tight again and bring it all inside where it's warm again. As the air warms up, it expands and you get pressure. Leave it this way all day and then take the wood out to dry.
I got all the way through 5/16 inch maple this way. I wasn't, however, particularly happy with the varathane treatment. I guess I'm just spoiled by the professionally done polymerized stuff.
I now have a vacuum pressure chamber which I put together for about $100 Canadian. Now I can get good penetration in reasonable time, through over an inch of wood but I still haven't found the product I like.
Good luck - and share your results.
------------------
Rob Ridley
Ranger Original Handcrafted Knives
http://www.col.ca/rridley
- Joined
- Mar 18, 1999
- Messages
- 2,112
This brings up a very good point.
What is a good or preferred medium for stabilizing and where can it be obtained? As Rob mentioned in his post, he wasn't too happy with Varathane. I have heard that cyanacrylate (super glue) work well but if so, where can you get it in quantities that we need for stabilizing?
C Wilkins
What is a good or preferred medium for stabilizing and where can it be obtained? As Rob mentioned in his post, he wasn't too happy with Varathane. I have heard that cyanacrylate (super glue) work well but if so, where can you get it in quantities that we need for stabilizing?
C Wilkins
- Joined
- Sep 23, 1999
- Messages
- 5,855
Hi all!
I have tried this using a vacuum chamber and two different sealers. One was a polyurethane alkyd lacquer to seal wooden floors, the other a really thin, liquid epoxy. I have got full penetration in 1 inch masur birch, amboina, thuya burl and madrona.
The polyurethane lacquer doesn't get really hard, even after a month and a half of curing, so it will stabilize the wood in making it resistant against humidity, but not in a more mechanical way.
The epoxy makes the wood surfaces really hard and stabilizes really well, but it's a mess to work with.
Next i want to try using acrylic lacquers as i think that these will get really hard when dry. Plus the acrylic materialy have the property to get harder and more stable with UV radiation (sunlight).
I have searched the webpages of different wood stabilizing companies and one of them said they use a mixture of acrylics and monomers, whatever this may be. Any ideas?
Achim
I have tried this using a vacuum chamber and two different sealers. One was a polyurethane alkyd lacquer to seal wooden floors, the other a really thin, liquid epoxy. I have got full penetration in 1 inch masur birch, amboina, thuya burl and madrona.
The polyurethane lacquer doesn't get really hard, even after a month and a half of curing, so it will stabilize the wood in making it resistant against humidity, but not in a more mechanical way.
The epoxy makes the wood surfaces really hard and stabilizes really well, but it's a mess to work with.
Next i want to try using acrylic lacquers as i think that these will get really hard when dry. Plus the acrylic materialy have the property to get harder and more stable with UV radiation (sunlight).
I have searched the webpages of different wood stabilizing companies and one of them said they use a mixture of acrylics and monomers, whatever this may be. Any ideas?
Achim
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2000
- Messages
- 1,370
Minwax has a product called Polycrylic, has anyone else been looking at this stuff. I'm supposing that it's an acrylic based product. It thins with water and according to the label it hardens nicely. Just a thought.-Guy T.