Stablizing with CA as you turn.

[Hillbilly]

Ok I bought some nice pieces of spalted crabapple from Louis. He said stablizing with ca would benifit these blanks.

I will take some pics of my disaster.:thunder:

First I noticed a blowout in the center of the blank so I grabed the ca and sand paper and tried to fill it in. It worked but the holes were filled with sanding dust...(imagine that). The blank did stiffen up so I started running the ca bottle across the top of the blank as it spun on the lathe every-so-often as I turned, just trying to keep it together.

It worked ok but it discolored the blank. To be honest I didnt have an idea to what I was doing. I was just tring to keep from getting big holes in the blank.

I have 4 left and their really nice pieces and I dont want to lose them
I will wait to hear from you all before I turn another one. I think one problem was, I took it down to fast. I may use my skew alot earlier next time.

BTW these are my first challenging or difficult blanks to turn. I'm not putting down these blanks their beautiful. Its just me and I take it as a challenge.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

 

[gomeral]

I had quite a difficult time turning some spalted apple a while back, and wound up using a lot of thin CA to stabilize as I went. Even with that, I found that the softer spalted wood would sand out faster than the harder wood and I had a lumpy blank for a while there. I got so involved in trying to very lightly sand with a flat sanding block that I sanded the bushings and got metal dust into the light wood. :frown:

I have not turned another one, but using the thin CA, being very gentle with it, and use a very light touch all helped me recover the blank. It's finished, it's round, and it's not hideous, so I call it a limited success.

A word on the CA use - soak the wood, let it harden, then take something like 1/32" off with your tool or sandpaper, then re-soak and do it again. If you try to be too agressive, you'll remove the hardened stuff and run into the same problem all over again. Or at least, that was my experience.

Good luck!


daniel

 

[artistwood]

i use thin CA right after i drill the blank and right before i turn it. i heat it up with a hair dryer then flood the hole with thin CA (as it runs out the other end. after curing a while, i run the drill down it again to rezize the hole then proceed as you normaly would. it worked great on some walnut burl i was using. i also heat and CA as i go. so far i haven't blown up any blanks............yet! heating it up will pull the CA into the wood better as it cools back down.

 

[ssajn]

Another thing to try is after drilling, soak your blank in Minwax Wood Hardner for a day and let dry well before turning. You may still have to use CA to help out in some sections.

 

[bad]

Another thing to try is after drilling, soak your blank in Minwax Wood Hardner for a day and let dry well before turning. You may still have to use CA to help out in some sections.

There is also some good information on using Minwax wood hardener in this thread:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=44373
There is also a link in that thread that will take you to another thread that gives some good information too. I haven't tried it yet but I've got some spalted blanks and a can of the wood hardener. I'm planning on starting the science project tomorrow.

 

[Fred]

Brian, it is definitely beneficial to stabilize your blanks prior to turning. Minwax Wood Hardener will help alot and is easy to use. Just keep the thin CA nearby as you turn and when you fell like it is necessary, WSTOP turning and apply a little bit more. Don't wait till the blank blows apart on you... apply CA early on and save yourself a lot of grief and aggravation from losing the blank.

 

[wdcav1952]

Brian, there are some good suggestions here for you. I would add that you make sure your tools are as close to razor sharp as possible. Since I got my Wolverine, I get much less tear out when turning challenging wood. If you go the CA route, I would avoid the sanding slurry. As was said above, soak in some thin CA, turn it away and soak in some more. As you get close to the contour you want, really soak in the CA.

 

[wb7whi]

The use of a bunch of CA makes for an expensive blank. Talking to Russ about it he says to mix white glue and water 50/50 and soak the blank a few days then let dry. I have some really spalted maple I am going to try this on.

 

[wdcav1952]

Not really, Wayne. Monty sells 2 ounce bottles of thin CA for $4.58. I have never needed to use even an ounce, more likely less than half an ounce on a blank. Given that the blank is ready for a nice CA finish afterwards, I don't see much of an expense.

 

[jkeithrussell]

In my rather limited experience, CA does not work as well (and is not as easy to work with) as Minwax wood hardener. I have treated about 20 blanks with Minwax and have had a 100% success rate.

I'm sure that others have great success working with CA.

 

[TellicoTurning]

Another thing to try is after drilling, soak your blank in Minwax Wood Hardner for a day and let dry well before turning. You may still have to use CA to help out in some sections.

I've seen references to the minwax wood hardner in other threads, but haven't seen it in the stores .. at least not in my local Wally-worlds, Woodcraft or the local Lowe's (unless it has been sitting out in plain sight where I can't see it :redface::redface... where would be a good source for it...

 

[rjwolfe3]

I believe the big box stores should carry it in with the other Minwax products but I have never looked for it.

 

[TellicoTurning]

I believe the big box stores should carry it in with the other Minwax products but I have never looked for it.

Like I said, it's probably sitting on the front of the shelf in plain sight... :wink:

 

[woodale]

Like I said, it's probably sitting on the front of the shelf in plain sight... :wink:

At my local Home Depot I finally found it on the bottome shelf with the outdoor stains in a "tall" pint can.

 

[rjwolfe3]

I did a search with Google and found it listed at a lot of smaller hardware stores but none of the big stores. Not sure why.

 

[spiritwoodturner]

Chuck, Lowe's doesn't carry it, but Home Depot does. It's in the varnish and stain area with the other Minwax stuff. It's around $9.97 a can, which is around 12-16 ounces. You'd think I'd know, I've probably gone through more than 20 of them to stabilize over 300 blanks the last 2 months. I actually called Minwax in NY to see if it was available in 1 or 5 gallons, no dice. Sure would cut the cost down.

It's really saved a lot of nice wood for me, and I would try that before CA. It gets all the way through.

Dale

 

[Seer]

Another thing in my noob eyes for me was to take off any edges with a sander less chance of catching it and damaging it. I turned a piece of black palm took all day as I went through a lot of CA but I found when I sanded the edges and made it a cylinder it helped me.

 

[KenV]

there is spalted and really spalted on through to too damn rotted to hold together. The softer end of the scale is where the challenges happen.

The white glue/water soak is an old bowl turners trick. It works to support cell structure (if there is any) and penetrates slowly. Seems to work best with rough turnings - preshaping so the glue gets where you will be turning. It does add a drying - moisture removal step.

Mini-wax wood hardner and the thin epoxy hardners are pretty expensive as compared to white glue, and when compared to Monty purchased bulk thin CA, come out similar prices.

My experience is that all the treatments will change the wood colors with the most extreme changes coming from the epoxy glues used to stabalize rotted woods. Wood hardner will take up colors from the woods, so mix species if you want to play with some different tones and tints.

Remember the gloves --- or you will have reason to remember the gloves next time.

 

[bad]

Remember the gloves --- or you will have reason to remember the gloves next time.

True, very very true.

 

[louisbry]

Brian, I am sorry about your experience. I do pretty much what Cav said and it works for me. I am confident that the minwax hardener and the white glue diluted 50% with water will work also and I intend to try these methods some day. With challenging wood it is always a good idea to sharpen the tools to razor sharp, round the edges of the blanks with sandpaper and take light cuts. I always apply the thin CA to the blank while it is not turning and then let it dry thoroughly before turning again. I avoid accelerator as it seems to make the glue boil and harden roughly. Sometimes I apply thin CA and use sandpaper while the blank is turning which makes slurry but do this only with solid and/or stabilized wood to fill minor voids. Like someone said I wouldn't try CA/sawdust slurry on blanks that need stabilizing. Also I would not hesitate to use 80 grit sandpaper to hog away and smooth soft spunky wood prior to soaking in thin CA. Everyone should have an 80 grit gouge in their tool kit. If you have any more questions, please PM me.

 

[Hillbilly]

Thanks alot,

The next one, I will open it up abit and then soak it. I did'nt use my best one one for my learning experience. It was'nt a total loss I got everything filled in but I think I can see a discoloration in the wood. Maybe to someone that had'nt seen the wood before I added the ca may just think its the woods natural color.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[1080Wayne]

Brian CA doesn`t discolour the wood . It brings out the actual colour . You have probably noticed that sanding through progressively finer grits brings you closer and closer to the true wood colour . CA just takes you to that colour immediately , at whatever stage of turning you choose to use it . Wayne

 

[thewishman]

There is always the commercial blank stabilizing companies. River Ridge has a trail offer for $9 you can stabilize 4 blanks and get the return postage. They did a good job for me with a bunch of buckeye burl.

http://www.rrpwhite.com/stabilizing page.htm

 

[rjwolfe3]

There is always the commercial blank stabilizing companies. River Ridge has a trail offer for $9 you can stabilize 4 blanks and get the return postage. They did a good job for me with a bunch of buckeye burl.

Chris,
You been holding out on your friends?

 

[Hillbilly]

Brian CA doesn`t discolour the wood . It brings out the actual colour . You have probably noticed that sanding through progressively finer grits brings you closer and closer to the true wood colour . CA just takes you to that colour immediately , at whatever stage of turning you choose to use it . Wayne

Good point it is a clear liquid. Maybe it had soaked in deeper in certain areas

 

[Jgrden]

Ok I bought some nice pieces of spalted crabapple from Louis. He said stablizing with ca would benifit these blanks.

I will take some pics of my disaster.:thunder:

First I noticed a blowout in the center of the blank so I grabed the ca and sand paper and tried to fill it in. It worked but the holes were filled with sanding dust...(imagine that). The blank did stiffen up so I started running the ca bottle across the top of the blank as it spun on the lathe every-so-often as I turned, just trying to keep it together.

It worked ok but it discolored the blank. To be honest I didnt have an idea to what I was doing. I was just tring to keep from getting big holes in the blank.

I have 4 left and their really nice pieces and I dont want to lose them
I will wait to hear from you all before I turn another one. I think one problem was, I took it down to fast. I may use my skew alot earlier next time.

BTW these are my first challenging or difficult blanks to turn. I'm not putting down these blanks their beautiful. Its just me and I take it as a challenge.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

Reminds me of when I tried to turn a pine cone pen.

 

[Jgrden]

Thanks alot,

The next one, I will open it up abit and then soak it. I did'nt use my best one one for my learning experience. It was'nt a total loss I got everything filled in but I think I can see a discoloration in the wood. Maybe to someone that had'nt seen the wood before I added the ca may just think its the woods natural color.

Thanks for all the help.

Turned out real well. Congratulations.