Acrylic or other casting in termite wood

[AultMan]

I have a medium walnut burl with some great figure that has been eaten by termites. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with casting acrylic or other material into termite holes. It seems like they would make a really cool pen if the holes were filled with a constrasting plastic or other material. Kind of like the Fiji pens that Woodcraft sells.

Any body have any ideas? If you have the equiptment to fill the blanks, I'd be happy to give you some/most of them in exchange for a few for me to use.

 

[Craftdiggity]

I would cast them under pressure. If the wood is punky, it might have to be stabilized.

 

[AultMan]

Does anyone have any interest in casting them?

I don't have any equipment to cast blanks, especially not under pressure. Does anyone have the stuff to do this? I would be happy to give you most of the blanks in exchange for a few for myself.

 

[Pete275]

Aultman, you might want to check out the classifieds and look for user name ElMostro, he creates "Mutt" blanks and I believe he uses termite ridled wood. By the way I think the "Fiji" blanks that Woodcraft sells are a knock off of ElMostro's blanks. And his are less expensive also.

Wayne

 

[ed4copies]

If you are just trying to fill holes, and the rest of the wood is good, you can do that with colored epoxy or glued-in crushed stone or metal or many other "ors". You can also "reinforce" the wood, using thinCA as you turn.

 

[reddwil]

Granted I'm VERY new to casting. But I tried some wormy oak burl I had. I tried PR, it filled the voids great when first poured, problem is PR shrinks. I only tried 2, just out of curiousty. From post I have read, members suggest Aluminite under pressure for this type of application. I have done what Ed suggest on blanks with less holes and voids with great results.

 

[MesquiteMan]

I have a medium walnut burl with some great figure that has been eaten by termites. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with casting acrylic or other material into termite holes. It seems like they would make a really cool pen if the holes were filled with a constrasting plastic or other material. Kind of like the Fiji pens that Woodcraft sells.

Any body have any ideas? If you have the equiptment to fill the blanks, I'd be happy to give you some/most of them in exchange for a few for me to use.

Actually, casting wood with plastic resin was pioneered on THIS site! The blanks sold at Woodcraft are a result of someone out there copying work shown here at IAP. I originally came up with the idea and wrote the first article detailing how to do it and shared it here at IAP. You can find the article in the library under the title "Worthless Wood". The folks that are making the blanks for Woodcraft actually called me for more information after reading my article!