Wormy wood

[Ron in Drums PA]

I was going though my scrap wood bin and found some spalted/wormy/burl maple. This would be really nice stuff if I can figure how to turn a pen from it.

Some ideas I have are:
Stabilize the whole thing, wood/bug dust and all.
Remove the bug dust, stabilize and fill the bug holes with some type of colored resin.

Any other suggestions?

Has anybody ever done this before? If so can you share a photo?
Any and all help is appreciated. Except of course suggesting using swallows to help me pick out the dust.

 

[ryannmphs]

How big of a piece are we talkin' about here? Could you get 2 or more blanks from it and do both of your options?

you could also remove the bug dust and fill with only CA.

I've acutally done just the CA part, but the blank is still on the mandrel as I was workin on the pen when the motor went out. It should get done this weekend, I'll post a pic when it is done.

Ryan

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

I have 5 lengths 7" to 10" of usable wood in the burl.

I should be able to do both

 

[Daniel]

I have a piece of Lilac that is waten out by ants. left ral nice large voids that I'm thinking of filling with arylic then drillign and turning. got these are large voids that i can almost stick my finger into.

 

[DCBluesman]

An easy filler can be made with pigment paints and epoxy.

 

[low_48]

The filler is already there, don't take the dust out! Just add thin CA. I mean those little buggers did all the tough work, don't disappoint them! Does stabilizing materials bridge across an open area like a bug hole? I thought the materials are too thin to fill a hole?

Rich

 

[DCBluesman]

If you use River Ridge, Steve told me that the resin will not fill significant holes or voids.

 

[alamocdc]

Sometime back I learned to use pigment and marine epoxy for large voids. I can't remember where, but marine epoxy was specified. I remember wondering why because the project didn't involve water. Anyway it has worked well for me thus far. Lately, I've been mixing saw dust into the marine epoxy instead of pigment before filling the void (I have plenty of sawdust and pigments aren't free []). So far so good, but you have to let this cure for at least 24 hours. Two or three days is even better.

 

[wayneis]

Steve at River Ridge was selling some wormy maple and although I have not turned mine that I bought from him it does look like the stabilizing filled the little voids. Now that you bring it up, I'm going to have to give it a turn. In fact I don't remember who it was now but someone already did turn one of them and at least at first he didn't like it, although many of the rest of did.

Wayne

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

In the past I have filled voids with a mixture of expoxy and brass shavings. I got the shavings form a guy who cuts keys. Looked real good. I wish I still had it so I could take a photo of it.

 

[Monty]

I've turned several pens from wormy mesquite. Used CA to stabilize the dust. It really added to the character of the pen. I'll try to post a picture of it Monday at work. My home puter is vvvveeeerrrryyyy sssslllloooowwwwwww (12kbps) this morning and it would take forever to upload a pict.

 

[Monty]

Here are 2 picts of the wormy mesquite I did. I like the way the dust (AKA worm poop) contrasts with the wood.

 

[DCBluesman]

I like it, too. Nice job!

 

[jwoodwright]

I'd try some with stabilizing, some with CA and some with epoxy. Wood On-Line is where I first heard of Marine Epoxy. Used this a lifetime ago on boats. Held up to saltwater...

 

[jdavis]

Nice job and I like it.