Had a good night in the shop

[ryannmphs]

Well, thanks to Chuck (C_Ludwigsen), I finally had a good night in the shop, his shop. With Chucks help I was able to work on my technique for designer pens, I was having some problems getting a good tennon for the CB.

I was also able to turn some stabilized redwood burl, this is the same wood that had disintegreated on the lathe earlier this week. I stablized it by putting the blanks (cut and drilled) in a baby food jar filled with poly and applied a vacuum (used a foodsaver). Let the blanks set in the poly for about 36 hours, and I would reapply the vacuum every so often. These blanks turned out awesome, hopefully I will finish the finish tonight and will post some pics.

Thanks again Chuck, and don't forget to let everyone know about your "trick" with the CB on the designers!

Ryan

 

[jwoodwright]

How did you get the seal on a Baby Food jar[?]

What size Baby Food jar[?]

Everyone in Alaska has a FoodSaver...[8D]

 

[ryannmphs]

I used one of the "universal" tops that came with the food saver. The one that looks like a disk with the vacuum control knob in the center. I used one of the 3rd food sizes, I think it's a 6 or 8 oz jar.

I need to start lookin' at garage sales for a used foodsaver for use in the shop, guess I'll have to rename it "WoodSaver", hehehe.

Ryan

 

[woodscavenger]

My neighbor just put a vacuum on the curbside.......new ideas keep spinning through my head. I may have to put some thought in to this one. How long do you keep the vacuum going? How long do you let them cure? Do you have problems with the tubes sliding out when you glue them?

 

[ryannmphs]

This was the first time tyring this, so everything was new to me, but a lot of it is common sense. I kept the vacuum on the entire time the wood was "soaking". I allowed the blanks to cure over night. I have a converted refridgerator that is now a drying chamber. The temp is 75 - 80 degrees and about 40% humidity.

this was my process:
cut blanks to length
Drill hole for tube
*something I did not do this time but will in the future is to round off the blanks and get them a little smaller - do not glue the tube in.
Put blanks in Poly and applied vacuum, set for 24-36 hours
Remove from poly, and allowed to cure 24 hours
"redrill" the hole to remove ploy build up (this could be done with a round file as well I'm guessing)
Glued tubes in place (I used gorilla glue, if that matters)
Turned my pen

There's also a pdf file at IAP that describes stabilizing with ploy: http://www.penturners.org/content/polyurethane1.pdf

Good luck
Ryan

 

[Gregory Huey]

Is it that much cheaper to do it yourself when you have to buy everything or to have it pro. done

 

[Fred in NC]

Gregory, I would rather buy stabilized blanks when I can.

Having the tools to do it myself saves me a lot of TIME when somthing is needed in a hurry.

 

[JimGo]

Can one of the OP's put this in the FAQ section? I think the information Ryan gave is really helpful, and might be useful to other novices like me.

Thanks Ryan!

 

[woodscavenger]

Thanks for the write up. I'll have to store that away for later use.....