Dummie Here

[hombre4]

Ok, being new to this I have to ask. What is stabilizing and why is it neccessary? What happens if you just take a dried piece of material (purple heart/bloodwood) and make a pen? How about snakewood, I understand you can't stabilize that? Where do you get a vaccum pump economically priced yet effective enough to stabilize?


Thanks....Archie

 

[Dario]

What are you angry about? [}][] LOL

To answer your question...you can use regualr wood without stabilizing it. Most of us do that actually. Soft, funky, spalted, etc. wood will benefit from stabilization the most but the medium hard wood will do so too. Most oily, very hard wood will benefit less if any at all.

There are various sources of vacuum pumps...the venturi type from HF (Harbor Freight) is famous right now but it is pressured air driven so you need a compressor for that.

I bought a vacuum from eBay but haven't set it up yet. Solution wise, I might try the Poly route and the acetone/Flexi glass eventually.

Fangar who makes some of the best pens I've seen here uses an affordable vacuum pump and got very good results. He will probably chime in soon.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Archie, that is an excellent question and one that I had not too many months ago. From this forum, I learned that it is a process of impregnating woods with various types of plastic. At first, it seemed almost a scacriledge to turn beautiful wood into plastic. (I'm anti-plastic) But after acquiring some beautiful big leaf maple burl (BLMB) and having it just about explode off the lathe, I found that such fragile woods can (usually) only be worked and turned if stabilized. Not all woods require it. Some do not take stabilization. River Ridge tried some of my Arkansas aromatic red cedar and found it would not take the process at all. As you have seen, many on this list like to do their own stabilization and that is a subject of discussion, all by itself.

 

[RussFairfield]

And, you can stabilize your own wood by saturating it with thin CA glue (also a plastic) as it is turned to a smaller diameter.

 

[Dario]

I forgot about CA...yes that is fastest and posibly the most economical way to stabilize pen (since you won't need any equipment). For the really funky spalted wood, you can apply it IN the hole after drilling for initial stabilization. So it won't "crumble" while you are turning then apply again when you are close to the actual dimension. Use thin CA for good penetration.

Be careful with it though...the fumes are really bad for you...and it produces a lot of it when you are using it on spalted wood!

 

[Mainebowlman]

A dust collector or shop vac near the work will do wonders for eliminating the CA fumes.

Jack

 

[ctEaglesc]

Dario, I can't say that Ca is the cheapest but it is the most convenient.the problem is you sometimes find out too late that you should have stabilized prior to your last blow out.
DAMHIKT

 

[Fangar]

Hombre,

The two woods you mentioned would likely be two of the most unlikely candidates for Stabilization. Reason being, they would not need it. They are very dense and oily woods to begin with.

The best way to describe it in simple terms is like when you pick up a piece of balsa wood, you realize that it is not very heavy or dense. Some woods like Spalted maple for example are soft in some spots while hard in others and resemble balsa in their weight. The spalt lines which are actually caused by fungus and mold tend to make the maple even more proned to explosion if you catch your tool in a bad spot.

I have had some nice results with a simple hand pump and polyeurethane cut with a little acetone. Your results may vary. The vacuum draws the air out of the voids and soft spots of the wood and sucks the poly or other solution in. When the vacuum is released later your goal is to keep as much of the solution inside and have it dry out filling in the voids. Most of the time my blanks will more than double in weight after a 3 day vacuum and 1 to 2 week dry.

Eagle does a fantastic job of stabilizing with CA while he works. He has even made pens out of newspaper. I often add CA to the mix even after I have used the poly method. Others like Old Griz here have had reported great results with some of the commercial companies that stablize wood for a fee.

The bottom line and goal for those of us who try is to create a finished product. The poly / ca / etc. are means to an end. They allow products that normally would not be acceptable for turning (ie Newspaper) to become hard turnable objects.

Cheers,

P.S. Dario. Though I don't agree with you, I appreciate the kind words. Thank you.[:I]

Fangar

 

[Ron Mc]

Archie,
I have never used stabilized blood wood and have never had a problem with it at all.
Have fun making pens.