You know you think about pen stuff too much when...

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Skye

Skye

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Joined
Jan 3, 2006
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Location
Rock Hill, SC
Look I'm not saying I'd try or anything...

vac.jpg
 
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Be careful what you put in that. I tried stabilizing some blanks in one of our foodsaver vacuum canisters with Minwax wood hardener.

Lets just say it was working great for the first couple of hours before the wood hardener dissolved the plastic container :redface:

What a mess :frown:
 
Bruce, I had no idea I was conversing with a patent-holder at the turning club! A tip of the hat to you...and here I was just thinking you cast your own sterling pen hardware :knife:
 
I hate to admit it....call me a loser...but I was thinking about one 3 three things when I saw that pic......Crappie, Deer, Pheasant.....none of which have to do with pens.....lol
 
Keith: Do you mean these?
http://www.blackanddeckerappliances.com/product-187.html

I used them to vacuum the resin before pouring, seemed to work OK, but I
didn't pour directly into the canister. When I *did* have a spillover, I tried
washing out the resin with acetone. Don't do this. :redface:

I also found that you can hold in the button and keep the pump running to
a higher vacuum than they intended .. enough to start collapsing the
canister and make it crack. But it WILL draw your finish into the wood!

So .. I guess the best bet is to put your wood in another container that
will fit into the canister, put in your liquid (I was using naptha, poly and
BLO) weight down the wood and turn it on. When it turns off, just turn it
on again but hold the button. No gauge, so no way to tell how much of a
vacuum you get .. trial and error is all you've got.

You can see the tiny bubbles coming up out of the wood. I think as long
as you're getting bubbles, the vacuum should be sufficient.

ps. .I've found these units on Ebay for too much money. They're
often on Closeout Sale somewhere .. usually $10 for the set.
Wish I could find just the canisters..
 
Yeah, I was thinking about using mine for marinating meat.

You know, you could probably put the block in a glass container, put a cap on it with a finger sized hole in it, put that in the bag, vacuum it. That should still vacuum just as it if the glass were not in there, right?
 
Skye said:
You know, you could probably put the block in a glass container, put a cap on it with a finger sized hole in it, put that in the bag, vacuum it. That should still vacuum just as it if the glass were not in there, right?
Click to expand...

It might just suck the bag into the hole. And it isn't a very strong suction, just enough to remove the air from the bag and start to suck up liquid.
But you're thinking along the rightlines. Vacuum is vacuum.

I've got two of the units (in the link) and only need one. Send me a snail
mail and I'll send you the other. Try it out.
 
Oh, I wouldn't waste the offer on me, I'm nowhere near ready to do any vacuuming. Thanks for the offer though!
 
Then how'd it turn?

I put the Minwax Wood Hardener directly in it and over a period of a couple hours it dissolved the container. :redface:[/QUOTE]

And you did this on purpose? Then how'd it turn?

I know I really shouldn't have, but since nobody else did I just had t' ask y'.
 
Skye said:
Look I'm not saying I'd try or anything...

vac.jpg
Click to expand...

Well I AM saying , it works . I just mentioned to the LOML that I would love to try this and see if it would work , and when she went shopping the other day guess what she brought me to play with . The bags that come with it are too small to use but the gallon size works well .
I took an empty jar and poked some holes in the top then filled with minwax wood hardener and 2 spalted maple and 2 redwood lace burl pen blanks . I placed the capped jar into the bag and moved it around until the vac valve was on the top . I then put the vac pump on the valve and turned it on , it's not the most powerful pump but it does suck enough air out to bend the top in a little . I could see the little bubbles coming out of the blanks . I left it overnight and the next day the maple had sunk to the bottom of the jar .
I'm turning it now , I'll keep you posted on how it works .
 
Ok I turned the spalted maple and it worked !!! . The minwax went all the way through the blanks . It's not the same as comercial grade stablizing but it works good . The maple was very punky and dry , unturnable , tear out city , after the minwax it turned like butter , almost no tear out at all .
I've only rough turned the redwood lace but that looks good so far .
I'll keep you posted and pics soon .
 
Man, I can't believe it actually worked! This has to be the cheapest home stabilizing kit ever. I just hope the fumes don't harm the internals of the vacuum after a couple pulls.

COOOL!
 
Skye said:
Man, I can't believe it actually worked! This has to be the cheapest home stabilizing kit ever. I just hope the fumes don't harm the internals of the vacuum after a couple pulls.

COOOL!
Click to expand...

Considering that the dollar stores often have these on the shelves for $5
(a few bags included) even if it died, it's still not a bad deal!
(there's 6 AA batteries in there, you could still keep those)

I have two of them, but haven't used them for stabilizing yet. I've got
waaay too many blanks I haven't gotten to yet..
 
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