I'm looking to make a joiners mallet. I want to infuse it with resin for strength and durability, like the one from Blue Spruce tool works. I was thinking I'd use cactus juice. Thoughts on whether that's good or if I should use something else. (I don't normally deal with stabilizing stuff I turn.). Do I need a pressure pot to force the juice deep into the wood or do you think capillary action will get the job done if I let it soak long enough (and how long should I let it soak to do so—mallet will probably be around 2 inches square). Thanks in advance.
Cactus juice for DIY mallet?
- Thread starter EricRN
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FGarbrecht
Member
To stabilize using cactus juice you need to remove both moisture and air from the wood. I dry wood first in a low temp oven (toaster oven) at about 150 degrees F and check the weight every hour or so. When the weight has stabilized from one reading to the next, you have probably removed most of the moisture of the wood. To remove air you need a vacuum system, not a pressure pot. Immediately after removing moisture, place the wood into the vacuum chamber and cover with stabilizing resin and pull vacuum until bubbling stops. Even for small pen blanks this can take hours. For a larger wood blank it might take days. You then remove the vacuum and the stabilizing resin moves into the wood; cactus juice is recommended to allow to penetrate for the same amount of time that you had it under vacuum. If you don't remove the air under vacuum I doubt that any reasonable length of time of just soaking in cactus juice will lead to a good outcome unless you've got a few years to wait.
You might want to contact the cactus juice folks to see if they have other recommendations for stabilizing larger pieces of wood.
You might want to contact the cactus juice folks to see if they have other recommendations for stabilizing larger pieces of wood.
darrin1200
Member
Actually, stabilizing with Cactus Juice is done using a vacuum. The vacuum is used to draw the air out of the wood, which creates a void into which the resin will go.
I don't think it will "soak" very far just using capillary action.
Her is a link to Curtis' resource page.
www.turntex.com
I don't think it will "soak" very far just using capillary action.
Her is a link to Curtis' resource page.
Cactus Juice Stabilizing Resources
Directions and tutorials for using Cactus Juice Stabilizing Resin
www.turntex.com
tomtedesco
Member
If you use a toaster oven to dry the wood be sure to allow it to cool off before soaking in CJ, heat will set CJ immediately. Follow directions on CJ, it takes a little time but worth the effort.
Jarod888
Member
Fyi, the point of "cooking the wood" is to remove moisture. You need to "cook" it above the boiling point of water at your elevation. At sea level that is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. At 5000 ft here in denver, its about 202 or so. 210-220 should be good.
You need to weigh your material and the weight needs to be very accurate, so use a postal scale or something that is very accurate. Write the exact weight on the piece you are drying and place it in your heating device. (An electric smoker does great). Dry your piece for several hours, keeping the temperature above 220, but below 250. Pull the piece out of the oven, weight it. Write that weight on the item and place it immediately back in the oven. Dry it for another full hour, pull it out. Weight it. If the piece has lost any weight from the previous weigh-in, immediately place it back in the oven and continue the weighing / drying process until the piece has not lost any weight for 2 consecutive hours. Once youve reached that stage the piece needs to immediately go into an air right container, the vacu-seal system sold at Costco works great. Vacu-seal the item and then place it in a Zip lock bag, with as much air as possible removed, until the piece cools to room temperature.
The reason you need to seal the piece in an air tight container is because it will naturally try to absorb moisture from the atmosphere to get back to the relative humidity of your area.
Once cooled, immediately place the piece in the cactus juice and commence pulling vacuum, or if you are not ready to stabilize, ensure the item remains in an air tight container until you are ready to stabilize. Pull vacuum until there are no bubbles coming out of the juice. Once the bubbles have stopped completely, turn off the vacuum and allow the piece to soak in the juice for twice as long as you pulled vacuum. For example, if you pulled vacuum for 24 hours, then the piece will need to soak for at least 48 additional hours or more. Once that is done, cook the piece at the recommended temperature for the recommended time (follow the directions on the cactus juice label). Stabalizing is a labor intensive and lengthy process, but it is worth the effort in my opinion. The stabalized piece will never "move" and in my opinion, will have a better finish than a natural, unstabalized piece.
You need to weigh your material and the weight needs to be very accurate, so use a postal scale or something that is very accurate. Write the exact weight on the piece you are drying and place it in your heating device. (An electric smoker does great). Dry your piece for several hours, keeping the temperature above 220, but below 250. Pull the piece out of the oven, weight it. Write that weight on the item and place it immediately back in the oven. Dry it for another full hour, pull it out. Weight it. If the piece has lost any weight from the previous weigh-in, immediately place it back in the oven and continue the weighing / drying process until the piece has not lost any weight for 2 consecutive hours. Once youve reached that stage the piece needs to immediately go into an air right container, the vacu-seal system sold at Costco works great. Vacu-seal the item and then place it in a Zip lock bag, with as much air as possible removed, until the piece cools to room temperature.
The reason you need to seal the piece in an air tight container is because it will naturally try to absorb moisture from the atmosphere to get back to the relative humidity of your area.
Once cooled, immediately place the piece in the cactus juice and commence pulling vacuum, or if you are not ready to stabilize, ensure the item remains in an air tight container until you are ready to stabilize. Pull vacuum until there are no bubbles coming out of the juice. Once the bubbles have stopped completely, turn off the vacuum and allow the piece to soak in the juice for twice as long as you pulled vacuum. For example, if you pulled vacuum for 24 hours, then the piece will need to soak for at least 48 additional hours or more. Once that is done, cook the piece at the recommended temperature for the recommended time (follow the directions on the cactus juice label). Stabalizing is a labor intensive and lengthy process, but it is worth the effort in my opinion. The stabalized piece will never "move" and in my opinion, will have a better finish than a natural, unstabalized piece.
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