punkinn's poly pickle pump.....

[punkinn]

... is ready for action this weekend. Following instructions from Lee's well-done tutorial (front page of IAP) I now have a very picklish-smelling jar, gauge, valve and fittings, a confirmed "test-run" last night to ensure the set-up holds the vacuum (quite well!) and my little jar of polyurethane ready for it's first blanks.

I intend on at least trying to figure out how to get a larger container for the poly in there so I can do more than one set of blanks at a time; I have quite a few that would benefit from stabilization. The next larger size can of poly *just* doesn't fit.

I will post pictures of the results, yep!

Happy Friday everybody!
Nancy

 

[ed4copies]

Good luck, Nancy!!!

 

[Dario]

Hmmm you and your pickle jar...NOW I also have a huge pickle jar full of pickles and I hardly eat pickles!!! [:0][}] LOL

Ron, How many pens do you think I can make out of it? Did your pickle pen sold well? If exposure is a auge it should have netted a lot of money for you. [}]

BTW Nancy, I hope you followed the advise to wrap the jar in tape. It will help reduce flying glass debris in case it "implode".

 

[punkinn]

Originally posted by Dario
<br />Hmmm you and your pickle jar...NOW I also have a huge pickle jar full of pickles and I hardly eat pickles!!! [:0][}] LOL

We saved about 1/3 of them and tossed the rest on garbage day. lol

BTW Nancy, I hope you followed the advise to wrap the jar in tape. It will help reduce flying glass debris in case it "implode".

I didn't yet, but I will do that as soon as I get home today. I musta missed the post with that suggestion, so thanks for repeating it here, Dario. []

Nancy

 

[alamocdc]

I haven't taped any of mine. I like to live on the edge.

 

[smoky10]

I'm like Billy, I never tape mine and I have never heard of one imploding. I'm not saying it can't, I just haven't heard of it. Has anyone heard of one of these pickle jars imploding?
[?]

 

[RussFairfield]

I don't use tape either, but if it makes someone feel safer, then they should do it.

Maybe I am missing something here. The process of boiling and cooling while canning fruit pulls close to a 29"Hg vacuum on the jar, and I don't remember ever seeing a jar of peaches with tape wrapped around it. I wonder why sucking less vacuum with a pump is a greater problem.

 

[gerryr]

It's a new OSHA requirement.[][][]

 

[Dario]

Glass jars from the factory are new and fresh.

The ones we use have been through some kind of "abuse" and maybe along their life have banged on something and may have chipped or cracked somewhere that we may not see/notice. One crack is all it takes to weaken the jar TREMENDOUSLY.

Better safe than sorry.

 

[loglugger]

Nancy, I dont't know if this hae been covered or not but start your vaccumn slow, turn if off and on for the first little bit or it will boil your liquid out of the little jar into the big one. I think it is the air comming out of the blanks expanding the volume of the liquid.
Robert E Lee

 

[Mudder]

Originally posted by RussFairfield
<br />I don't use tape either, but if it makes someone feel safer, then they should do it.

Maybe I am missing something here. The process of boiling and cooling while canning fruit pulls close to a 29"Hg vacuum on the jar, and I don't remember ever seeing a jar of peaches with tape wrapped around it. I wonder why sucking less vacuum with a pump is a greater problem.

I agree Russ.

Why not just put the jar inside of a cardboard box? If it were to implode then all is contained.

BTW Nancy, I now use a flower vase that I purchased from Michaels craft store for $9.99. A plexiglass cover and some rubber and I can put a 1 quart mason jar inside with no problems at all. here are a couple pics.

 

[Dario]

Great idea Mudder, I like it!!!

Please show a photo of the cover's other/inner side. Where did you buy the rubber?

Now what will I do with those pickles!!! [][}] LOL

Thanks!!!

 

[loglugger]

I have a 1 gallon jar that a quart jar fits into.
6 or 7 pens at a time.

 

[kgwaugh]

Originally posted by RussFairfield

Maybe I am missing something here. The process of boiling and cooling while canning fruit pulls close to a 29"Hg vacuum on the jar, and I don't remember ever seeing a jar of peaches with tape wrapped around it. I wonder why sucking less vacuum with a pump is a greater problem.

Russ, Thanks for this information---I had no idea at all as to how much vacuum was pulled in typical canning, either home or commercial---if your numbers are correct (and you ARE a solid source []) then we don't have much to worry about.

Thanks again, Gene

 

[Jcraigg]

I just set Mine inside a 5 gal Bucket just in case

 

[RussFairfield]

The only problem could be as Dario mentioned - a damaged jar. Otherwise, glass is a very strong material when it is in compression, as it would be with a vacuum inside a glass jar.

Yes, there will be the rare jar that cracks, but that's all they ever do. There is no catastrophic explosion and flying glass. The jar cracks, the contents will run out over the table or shelf, and no amount of tape will prevent the mess.

Put the vacuum jar in a bucket, and save yourself the cleanup should there ever be an accident.

 

[punkinn]

The morning after: Left two sets of blanks in QDP (quick-dry polyurethane) under vacuum overnight. But lets back up. I found a peanut butter jar that fit inside the pickle jar, so I had some more volume to work with. I cut and drilled (Dario's) Spalted Pecan and Spalted Red Elm for this test. The pecan sank immediately when it went into the poly. The Red Elm floated, and even after 24 hours never sank at all. The vacuum pressure was 24 and held without a budge all night long. Any ideas why they wouldn't sink? A little over half the blank was under poly. []

Ideas? And yes Dario... I want to know what the Lignum Vitae logs are for too! LOL [:I]

Nancy

 

[loglugger]

Nancy, I stand my cut and drilled blanks on end and put a pice of metal to hold them down keep a vacuum pressure for 12 hours. I use 1/2 ploy 1/2 thiner. They have never floated after that. I don't know on yours unless they were floating to high in the liquid to get enough weight to sink.

 

[emtmike]

why cant you just use a big pickle jar with the same type of set up and put the poly right in the jar. You would be able to do more blank at once and after you are done just put the top back on for next time?

 

[Mudder]

Originally posted by emtmike
<br />why cant you just use a big pickle jar with the same type of set up and put the poly right in the jar. You would be able to do more blank at once and after you are done just put the top back on for next time?

You can do that, It's just very messy. And what if you want to switch to acetone/plexi? Or maybe want to add a dye to coloe the wood a little? For just now type of impregnating and if that's all you ever want to do then go fo it. Matter of fact, thet's how I started doing it.

 

[loglugger]

Emtmike, I have several quart jars with different mixtures in then that I set into the gallon jar. Different colors in different jars. It also keeps the mess a little bit controlled . To answer your question that is the way that I started was with a small olive jar by itself.

Mudder, you type alot faster than I. If I could type I would post more often.

 

[punkinn]

Okay. Day Two Morning-After Report:

Picked up some MinWax Wood Hardener yesterday and back in went the floating Red Elm blanks. This time I weighted them down (I felt like a mobster doing my first cement-shoes job!) and left them overnight under vacuum at about -23 in.Hg. When the vacuum was first applied, it was just so cool to watch the air escape from the wood. It continued bubbling for close to 45 minutes. Very entertaining (for simple folk like me - lol). I'm sure the wood hardener being much thinner in consistency helped fill in the very inner pockets of the wood.

I'll probably try poly again, but with thinner next time. What would be the best to use for that? DNA? (nahh...) Mineral Spirits?

I really want to try dying some of the box elder I have... maybe next weekend though. Might raid the BF's aniline dye stash.

Nancy

 

[Mudder]

punkinn,

One thing that I do to try to "enhance" the saturation of the mixture is to release the vacuum 3 or 4 times before I'm done. I have found that even when you think the blanks are fully saturated if you let off the vacuum for just a couple of minutes and draw it again you'll see bubbles again and your blanks will soak up a little more.

Give it a try next time and see if it works for you to. If not then you have lost nothing.

Scott

 

[mikes pens]

Just curious if anyone has thought of using polycryl or pentacryl instead of polyurethane (while still using the "vacuum container" set up.) Or, has anyone used either of these solutions and how did they work (under a vacuum)?
Mike

 

[TexasJohn]

Dario - I might be interested in those pickles. Are they Dills or Bread and Butter? Let me know what you want for them? LOL [}] Texas John