Well, I have run about 7 or 8 loads of various woods through my stabilizer, and can offer some things to avoid, if not a final solution. Don't use sanding sealer. It doesn't provide any appreciable hardening on the surface of your material, as it's not really made to surface harden wood, just make it ready to sand (where hardening wouldn't be much advantage). Polyurethane is a little better at sealing grain and hardening,but still won't make soft wood hard enough to resist scratching.
The chemist dude at the local sherwin williams store recomended CAB-Acrylic Lacquer as a hardener. Cellulose Acetate Butyrate lacquer is (according to him) the hardest finish for wood. It's NOT cheap though, at $30 a gallon, plus it has to be cut with a fairly expensive thinner.
I've been cutting my stabilant 50% with the recomended thinner, and still have to use about 5 days in vac and 5 days under 75psi to get complete penetration of a 2x2x5 block of hardwood.
I'm thinking about biting the bullet and getting the cab lacquer to try to get better hardening of the walnut burl and soft figured wood I really want to use, but if anybody has already done so and wasn't happy with the results Please let me know and save me about $50.
James
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Those who are willing to trade freedom for security deserve neither, and in the end, seldom retain them!
