jleiwig
Member
Who has the best stabilized buckeye burl?
Buckeye Burl
- Thread starter jleiwig
- Start date
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workinforwood
Member
I don't know the answer to that. I've bought some from Beartooth woods and was happy. I don't personally find that Buckeye needs to be stabilized though to make a pen. It turns pretty easy being rather soft and any bark inclusions can be sealed into place with some CA.
Fred
Member
Buckeye is one wood that I personally will always have stabilized, either professionally, or I will most likely do it myself. I find the wood turns much better and chances of a 'blown blank' are greatly diminished. Any punky wood and most burls will always benefit from being stabilized IMHO.
To answer your question about who does a better job, well that is a tricky question to answer in that the process of stabilization varies immensely from each service that offers the process to you.
The actual process of stabilization is similar, yet the results obtained are somewhat different because each service uses their own propriety chemical mixtures and some other 'family secrets' are thrown into the mixing pot.
These people are in the business as a professional service and absolutely will not discuss their methods, procedures, compounds used, etc., with anyone outside of their business.
Over the recent years there has been enough testing done by many, many of us here on this excellent Forum, and we have all been sharing our great successes and dismal failures with the membership. Mesquiteman, YoYo-Spin, and dozens of others have all written many hundreds of posts concerning the stabilization process they use.
I have learned much over the years from many of the researches and investigations I have performed, and found that one of the most recent chemicals to be offered up in discussion here on the Forum, Ultraseal, is one of the main components - or chemically close enough in compounding - found in many of the professional services offered. Ultraseal is an excellent product and affordable home use compound that yields fantastic results as long as one follows directions exactly as stated by the manufacturer.
Yet there still exist enough finishing differences in each provider to make them unique. One may use vacuum and pressure combined, while another may use vacuum with a custom designed injection system to add the chemicals. Another service I am familiar with uses of all things gamma rays (X-ray) to cure the resins. Others use heat from different sources such as industrial ovens.
Did I mention the cost of their equipment? Well, it can be in the many $1000's of dollars. One source uses a $13,000 vapor pump that requires oil that costs - ready for this - $4000 a gallon. See why they cannot and will not tell their "secrets" to help us! It's their livelihood after all.
As you can begin to see, there are many different forms of the process, yet all generate similar results for us the end user. I can not discuss the advantages or disadvantages, if any, that we as wood workers might experience.
I continue to use my home brew mixture of MEK with styrofoam and mild vacuum. No heat to cure, but several hours or days of a vacuum soaking. My results are acceptable to me and since I am not in pen or bowl turning as a business and will always keep my shop as a powerful, do anything I might ever want/need to do type shop. I have every tool, device, gadget, apparatus, finish application equipment, etc. that I could ever want. No, no, please don't tell me I just said that as I run from SWMABO! (I added the "A" here folks to indicate that "ALWAYS" and not just "must be" Whew, I avoided yet another altercation. I'm getting better at that lately. :biggrin:
The only thing I need is for my health and strength to return following a fight I had 31 Dec 2006 with Death. Death and I fought to a draw, but to this day I still fight the wounds from the stroke that were left behind.
I just hope for everyone else that Death left the field of battle damaged and banged up good, and that it is still off in some far distant, miserable wet, snake and insect infested cave with bin Laden licking it's many, many wounds.
To answer your question about who does a better job, well that is a tricky question to answer in that the process of stabilization varies immensely from each service that offers the process to you.
The actual process of stabilization is similar, yet the results obtained are somewhat different because each service uses their own propriety chemical mixtures and some other 'family secrets' are thrown into the mixing pot.
These people are in the business as a professional service and absolutely will not discuss their methods, procedures, compounds used, etc., with anyone outside of their business.
Over the recent years there has been enough testing done by many, many of us here on this excellent Forum, and we have all been sharing our great successes and dismal failures with the membership. Mesquiteman, YoYo-Spin, and dozens of others have all written many hundreds of posts concerning the stabilization process they use.
I have learned much over the years from many of the researches and investigations I have performed, and found that one of the most recent chemicals to be offered up in discussion here on the Forum, Ultraseal, is one of the main components - or chemically close enough in compounding - found in many of the professional services offered. Ultraseal is an excellent product and affordable home use compound that yields fantastic results as long as one follows directions exactly as stated by the manufacturer.
Yet there still exist enough finishing differences in each provider to make them unique. One may use vacuum and pressure combined, while another may use vacuum with a custom designed injection system to add the chemicals. Another service I am familiar with uses of all things gamma rays (X-ray) to cure the resins. Others use heat from different sources such as industrial ovens.
Did I mention the cost of their equipment? Well, it can be in the many $1000's of dollars. One source uses a $13,000 vapor pump that requires oil that costs - ready for this - $4000 a gallon. See why they cannot and will not tell their "secrets" to help us! It's their livelihood after all.
As you can begin to see, there are many different forms of the process, yet all generate similar results for us the end user. I can not discuss the advantages or disadvantages, if any, that we as wood workers might experience.
I continue to use my home brew mixture of MEK with styrofoam and mild vacuum. No heat to cure, but several hours or days of a vacuum soaking. My results are acceptable to me and since I am not in pen or bowl turning as a business and will always keep my shop as a powerful, do anything I might ever want/need to do type shop. I have every tool, device, gadget, apparatus, finish application equipment, etc. that I could ever want. No, no, please don't tell me I just said that as I run from SWMABO! (I added the "A" here folks to indicate that "ALWAYS" and not just "must be" Whew, I avoided yet another altercation. I'm getting better at that lately. :biggrin:
The only thing I need is for my health and strength to return following a fight I had 31 Dec 2006 with Death. Death and I fought to a draw, but to this day I still fight the wounds from the stroke that were left behind.
I just hope for everyone else that Death left the field of battle damaged and banged up good, and that it is still off in some far distant, miserable wet, snake and insect infested cave with bin Laden licking it's many, many wounds.
jleiwig
Member
Thanks, but I was just looking for a vendor recommendation
Buckeye is one wood that I personally will always have stabilized, either professionally, or I will most likely do it myself. I find the wood turns much better and chances of a 'blown blank' are greatly diminished. Any punky wood and most burls will always benefit from being stabilized IMHO.
To answer your question about who does a better job, well that is a tricky question to answer in that the process of stabilization varies immensely from each service that offers the process to you.
The actual process of stabilization is similar, yet the results obtained are somewhat different because each service uses their own propriety chemical mixtures and some other 'family secrets' are thrown into the mixing pot.
These people are in the business as a professional service and absolutely will not discuss their methods, procedures, compounds used, etc., with anyone outside of their business.
Over the recent years there has been enough testing done by many, many of us here on this excellent Forum, and we have all been sharing our great successes and dismal failures with the membership. Mesquiteman, YoYo-Spin, and dozens of others have all written many hundreds of posts concerning the stabilization process they use.
I have learned much over the years from many of the researches and investigations I have performed, and found that one of the most recent chemicals to be offered up in discussion here on the Forum, Ultraseal, is one of the main components - or chemically close enough in compounding - found in many of the professional services offered. Ultraseal is an excellent product and affordable home use compound that yields fantastic results as long as one follows directions exactly as stated by the manufacturer.
Yet there still exist enough finishing differences in each provider to make them unique. One may use vacuum and pressure combined, while another may use vacuum with a custom designed injection system to add the chemicals. Another service I am familiar with uses of all things gamma rays (X-ray) to cure the resins. Others use heat from different sources such as industrial ovens.
Did I mention the cost of their equipment? Well, it can be in the many $1000's of dollars. One source uses a $13,000 vapor pump that requires oil that costs - ready for this - $4000 a gallon. See why they cannot and will not tell their "secrets" to help us! It's their livelihood after all.
As you can begin to see, there are many different forms of the process, yet all generate similar results for us the end user. I can not discuss the advantages or disadvantages, if any, that we as wood workers might experience.
I continue to use my home brew mixture of MEK with styrofoam and mild vacuum. No heat to cure, but several hours or days of a vacuum soaking. My results are acceptable to me and since I am not in pen or bowl turning as a business and will always keep my shop as a powerful, do anything I might ever want/need to do type shop. I have every tool, device, gadget, apparatus, finish application equipment, etc. that I could ever want. No, no, please don't tell me I just said that as I run from SWMABO! (I added the "A" here folks to indicate that "ALWAYS" and not just "must be" Whew, I avoided yet another altercation. I'm getting better at that lately. :biggrin:
The only thing I need is for my health and strength to return following a fight I had 31 Dec 2006 with Death. Death and I fought to a draw, but to this day I still fight the wounds from the stroke that were left behind.
I just hope for everyone else that Death left the field of battle damaged and banged up good, and that it is still off in some far distant, miserable wet, snake and insect infested cave with bin Laden licking it's many, many wounds.
mrcook4570
Member
AS and River Ridge also have stabilized buckeye burl.
rherrell
Member
I second Arizona Sillhouette!!
jleiwig
Member
Thanks guys. Has anyone notice that one stabilized blank from one vendor is easier to turn and finish than another? I guess that should have been my original question to clear up the confusion....it's been one of those weeks!