Good grief. Do a forum search and you will find your proof. It's not our responsibility to do a search for you.
I typed this out a few days ago but I lost power due to a storm and lost it before I could post. I will try it one more time. Here is my process, start to finish on stabilizing blanks.
There are about 1000 ways to skin this cat but this is how I do it.
1. Cut my blanks 1"sq x 5.25 (Oversized so I can trim them down to 7/8")
2. Allow them to dry to EMC (equilibrium moisture content). If the blanks are wet I soak in DNA. The DNA will draw the moisture out of the blank and allow it to dry faster, remove from DNA and wrap in black&white newspaper. Stack them to the side and forget about them for a few weeks. After about two weeks remove them from the paper and stack them back up. From there once the blanks hit EMC I toss them in a Toaster over at about 175* for at least 24 hours to make sure they are bone dry.
3. Pull the blanks out and throw them in a ziploc (tip from Curtis) if the bag fogs they are not dry enough. If they do not fog it will minimize the ambient moisture they can reabsorb while cooling. Don't put a hot blank in the juice it will set up on you.
4. Stack in chamber Cover the blanks w/ Resin, I typically add about .75" over. If it sucks it down below the blank line release the vacuum and add a little more. You will get the feel for it.
5. Apply vacuum, watch it so it does not foam over into the lines. Pull the strongest vacuum you can. I use the cheap HF pump and it is ok but it does not pull as far down as it should. One day I will get a better pump.
6. Let the vacuum pump run until you have "Champagne" bubbles.
7. I have a valve at the female connector to my pump (my pump has a male coming off of it). I close it and remove the female connection from the vacuum pump while the pump is running, I them power off the pump.
8. I will let the vacuum hold for a bit until any bubbling stops then I will release the vacuum from the chamber.
9. If you would like you can let them sit about 30 mins and run it through the vacuum again, I have and do not really find a benefit in doing that.
10. Remove the blanks into a bowl to allow them to drain for about 30 mins.
11. Wrap them in foil as Curtis shows in the vids. Place them on a cookie sheet or something or the resin will get on the elements and smoke you out if it does not catch fire.
12. Cook at about 200 for at least 1 hour. Check them as Curtis said above, BE FAST. If there is liquid close it up and keep on cookin'
13. Once I see no liquid resin I kick the oven up to about 250 for about 10 mins to be sure. This will not hurt anything and it makes me feel better whether it helps or not.
14. Pull them out and clean them up and happy turnin. One thing you will notice is the blanks do not put off curlies anymore and are just plain dusty. Small price to pay for super stable blanks.
Final note. I want to reemphasize the importance of your blanks being dry. Every drop of moisture in your blank is a drop of resin that cannot go into the blank. Also, as you cook the blanks that drop of moisture is going to turn into steam and cook out. When it cooks out that steam will push resin out of the blank. Ever pull your blanks out and there is just a thick nasty crust all over? That is likely because they were still too wet. You will almost always have some crust but it should not be thick and cover the blank all the way around.
Much of this advise is what Curtis and others have shared and some that I learned on my own.
Here is a pic of some Box Elder Burl I just did. These are straight out of the foil. You can see a little crust but not a lot. These were dry when they went in the juice. I have done some and they came out and I could not even see the wood there was so much crust.
Hope this helps.
I use the Juice and I love it. There are some folks on here that I have found impossible to please so it is best to ignore. I posted in a thread a while back with my CJ process. I know everyone does it different and you will too but its a starting point. Much of what I do is advise from others and tricks I have picked up along the way. I have not had luck with Redwood but I spoke with Curtis about it a while back and am going to try something new. If it works I will post it.
Here is that post on my process.
I typed this out a few days ago but I lost power due to a storm and lost it before I could post. I will try it one more time. Here is my process, start to finish on stabilizing blanks.
There are about 1000 ways to skin this cat but this is how I do it.
1. Cut my blanks 1"sq x 5.25 (Oversized so I can trim them down to 7/8")
2. Allow them to dry to EMC (equilibrium moisture content). If the blanks are wet I soak in DNA. The DNA will draw the moisture out of the blank and allow it to dry faster, remove from DNA and wrap in black&white newspaper. Stack them to the side and forget about them for a few weeks. After about two weeks remove them from the paper and stack them back up. From there once the blanks hit EMC I toss them in a Toaster over at about 175* for at least 24 hours to make sure they are bone dry.
3. Pull the blanks out and throw them in a ziploc (tip from Curtis) if the bag fogs they are not dry enough. If they do not fog it will minimize the ambient moisture they can reabsorb while cooling. Don't put a hot blank in the juice it will set up on you.
4. Stack in chamber Cover the blanks w/ Resin, I typically add about .75" over. If it sucks it down below the blank line release the vacuum and add a little more. You will get the feel for it.
5. Apply vacuum, watch it so it does not foam over into the lines. Pull the strongest vacuum you can. I use the cheap HF pump and it is ok but it does not pull as far down as it should. One day I will get a better pump.
6. Let the vacuum pump run until you have "Champagne" bubbles.
7. I have a valve at the female connector to my pump (my pump has a male coming off of it). I close it and remove the female connection from the vacuum pump while the pump is running, I them power off the pump.
8. I will let the vacuum hold for a bit until any bubbling stops then I will release the vacuum from the chamber.
9. If you would like you can let them sit about 30 mins and run it through the vacuum again, I have and do not really find a benefit in doing that.
10. Remove the blanks into a bowl to allow them to drain for about 30 mins.
11. Wrap them in foil as Curtis shows in the vids. Place them on a cookie sheet or something or the resin will get on the elements and smoke you out if it does not catch fire.
12. Cook at about 200 for at least 1 hour. Check them as Curtis said above, BE FAST. If there is liquid close it up and keep on cookin'
13. Once I see no liquid resin I kick the oven up to about 250 for about 10 mins to be sure. This will not hurt anything and it makes me feel better whether it helps or not.
14. Pull them out and clean them up and happy turnin. One thing you will notice is the blanks do not put off curlies anymore and are just plain dusty. Small price to pay for super stable blanks.
Final note. I want to reemphasize the importance of your blanks being dry. Every drop of moisture in your blank is a drop of resin that cannot go into the blank. Also, as you cook the blanks that drop of moisture is going to turn into steam and cook out. When it cooks out that steam will push resin out of the blank. Ever pull your blanks out and there is just a thick nasty crust all over? That is likely because they were still too wet. You will almost always have some crust but it should not be thick and cover the blank all the way around.
Much of this advise is what Curtis and others have shared and some that I learned on my own.
Here is a pic of some Box Elder Burl I just did. These are straight out of the foil. You can see a little crust but not a lot. These were dry when they went in the juice. I have done some and they came out and I could not even see the wood there was so much crust.
Hope this helps.
