Question which is better
- Thread starter Spankey
- Start date
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MRDucks2
Member
As I recall cactus juice and stick fast are pretty much the same thing with cactus juice being the original of the two. Not familiar with the SOS product.
greenacres2
Member
Buying Cactus Juice straight from TurnTex makes me feel better about calling Curtis when i have a question or two. Same price as Amazon, but a little more funding goes to a small business. And, while his vacuum chambers are not cheap and there may be time to get it built--they will not be defective or require modifying. And...the material he uses is compatible with the resin. No experience with the others, and i find no reason to try. Curtis is a straight-shooter, and sure knows his stuff.
earl
earl
Thanks for the info I found his site but I have a question you could answer. What size should I get. I intend to do blanks no bigger then 1x1x6 and maybe 4 to 6 blanks at a time.
Kenny Durrant
Member
I agree with the other replies and as far as your last question the size is up to you. One thing you need to remember when stabilizing is the blanks need to stay submerged the entire time. You also need to let them soak an hour after you release the vacuum. Now due to that and the size chamber you decide to get that would determine the amount of "Juice" you need to purchase. Here's another tip for you. You can get a small chamber to do a few blanks at a time and not have to have a bunch of resin. The problem is that when you don't have a large enough chamber the wood will soak up the resin and when you release the vacuum the wood will suck in air and then you have to start the process all over. I have a gallon chamber and I use different size bowls or jars to put the blanks and juice in and then set that in the chamber. That way I have room to do several blanks or just one without buying a bucket full of Juice. The bowl or jar doesn't hold the vacuum just the juice. You can also use marbles or rocks to displace the juice if you have a large chamber and just a few blanks. One last thing to think about. The question is "What size lathe should I buy"? You can turn a pen on a 12" and a 48" lathe but you can't turn a 30" table leg on a 12" lathe. With that information you need to decide what you might end up doing and how much you want to spend. Oh and one more last thing. If you just go cheap then decide to go bigger then you have the cheap equipment taking up space and the money you spent on that out the window. Don't stress the decision it's enjoyable and rewarding when you finish you first pen with the materials you prepped for the project. Good Luck.
lorbay
Member
Cactus juice is the go to product for me up here in Canada.
Lin
Lin
1080Wayne
Member
As Kenny has suggested re a lathe purchase , give the same amount of thought to a stabilization setup . It is easy to get sucked in to wanting to do larger items once you`ve become familiar with it`s possibilities . If you are certain that 6 inch length will be max , I suggest 10 inch height . Unless , of course you might some time feel the desire to stack 2 layers of 6 inch blanks in the chamber , at which point 16 or 18 inch would be better . The reason for that amount of freeboard above the blanks is twofold . The least important is having enough resin covering the blanks when vacuum is released to prevent air entering the wood pores - that is easily solved by watching the process for a few minutes after vacuum release , and adding more juice if the level appears likely to go below the top of the wood . The main reason for the freeboard is to reduce the possibility of sucking juice bubbles into the pump as the vacum is being applied . The pump is the most expensive part of the system . Vacuum needs to be ramped up slowly , watching the bubble level , to make sure none of the juice enters the pump .
greenacres2
Member
I've only been stabilizing a few years--and just for personal use. So...when i placed my initial order at TurnTex for a 6" x 16" chamber--next day Curtis called my cell phone, asked some questions about what i thought i needed since that's not a small pot. When i told him my intent was to mostly do small batches by putting a smaller container in the chamber, but wanted to be able to do more if i chose to--he agreed with the reasoning. What i appreciated was that he saw an order that looked like the customer was over-buying and called to talk through it. If i'm only doing a few, i've got some small plastic containers and use a rubber band with a few bolts to keep them "sunk". At some point i may buy an 8" diameter so i can do some larger blocks--but that seems crazy every time i get close!!
earl
earl