how can i stabilize 20 blanks

[GR8HUNTER]

i have about 20 blanks of old heart pine i need to stabilize how is an easy way without spending a fortune on all equipment needed for it i tried 1 with CA glue but near the end it failed too many pieces to glue back and some missing

 

[Mortalis]

The easiest way would be to find someone in your area that does stabilizing and ask them to do it for you. Of course it's going to cost you for the juice used and time.

 

[wolf creek knives]

How soon do you need them stabilized? I can do it with CJ but they have to be bone dry and I'd need at least a few weeks to get them done. Plus I have no idea about the cost but I don't think it would cost that much. PM me if you're interested and we can chat.

 

[ZanderPommo]

To do it yourself will cost you at least $300 between a pump, a chamber, a toaster oven and stabilizing resin. That's on a budget. $400-$600 can get you a far nicer setup. After that it's just buying resin as needed so like most other tools it's an investment. If you don't plan to stabilize wood frequently, there are many people here who could do it for you for a much lower price. If it's a one time thing, that's what I'd recommend.

 

[ZanderPommo]

Alternately depending on how crucial it is that these be "perfectly" stabilized, tests conducted by Curtis Seeback have show that simply soaking blanks in cactus juice for 24 hours can have pretty decent results. In that case you'd be out like $20 for a toaster oven and $30-$55 for the Cactus Juice. You'll achieve probably at least 60+% the results you'd get using vacuum. If you drilled the blanks first I'd imagine you could get even better results than that, though you'd probably have to run the drill bit through the hole again before gluing.

 

[jrista]

Alternately depending on how crucial it is that these be "perfectly" stabilized, tests conducted by Curtis Seeback have show that simply soaking blanks in cactus juice for 24 hours can have pretty decent results. In that case you'd be out like $20 for a toaster oven and $30-$55 for the Cactus Juice. You'll achieve probably at least 60+% the results you'd get using vacuum. If you drilled the blanks first I'd imagine you could get even better results than that, though you'd probably have to run the drill bit through the hole again before gluing.

I'm curious...I just recently got into stabilization. I've been just dropping the blanks in cactus juice and switching on the vacuum... However, I find that sometimes it can take ages to really suck out all the air right to the core, and that can require a lot of power. If you soak the blanks for a couple of days first, would that lessen the time required to fully suck out any remaining air in the blanks? Or do you still need about the same time to really stabilize the core of each blank (or enough of it that you don't have any dryish spots after turning)?

 

[ZanderPommo]

I'm curious...I just recently got into stabilization. I've been just dropping the blanks in cactus juice and switching on the vacuum... However, I find that sometimes it can take ages to really suck out all the air right to the core, and that can require a lot of power. If you soak the blanks for a couple of days first, would that lessen the time required to fully suck out any remaining air in the blanks? Or do you still need about the same time to really stabilize the core of each blank (or enough of it that you don't have any dryish spots after turning)?

I have no idea, but I'd suspect it would reduce vacuum time significantly. That might be helpful if (like me) you're not home consistently enough to monitor the vacuum for long periods.