Redwood Burl Slimline

[rtyler8140]

Got my hands on some nice redwood burl thanks to Ebay. It is incredibly soft and not easy to work with. The blanks were not stabilized. I tried to stabilize them myself using Minwax Wood Hardener and putting it under a vacuum. It worked okay, but I ordered some Cactus Juice to do the rest of the blanks. Here is a picture of my cheap little vacuum set-up. I could only get 22inHg with the hand pump so I'm looking to upgrade to a nicer pump to use with the Cactus Juice.


Here is the pen:







Thanks for looking!

 

[Band Saw Box]

Looks really nice.

 

[magpens]

Your pen looks great ... nice profile ! That Redwood burl is very attractive.

Keep us posted on your home stabilization progress.

 

[OZturner]

Beautiful Blank Ryan.
Congratulations on your "Stabilizing" though a word of caution.
If you are going to use a higher vacuum. I am concerned that a "Molded Screw Top Jar could have too many stress points to sustain the greater force you could apply.
Brian.

 

[rtyler8140]

Beautiful Blank Ryan.
Congratulations on your "Stabilizing" though a word of caution.
If you are going to use a higher vacuum. I am concerned that a "Molded Screw Top Jar could have too many stress points to sustain the greater force you could apply.
Brian.

Thanks for the words of wisdom. My biggest concern with having a jar break is loosing Cactus Juice! haha I've been looking at some other options for vacuum chambers...you definitely have me thinking!

 

[KenV]

Ryan -- unlikely you will get any higher vacuum with the Minwax product. You boil off the solvent and are just pumping solvent vapor through the pump. It is intended to be a long soak product, and even then leaves a relatively low amount of solids in the wood.

Cactus Juice will give you a better product. You will have strong muscles if you are going to use the hand pump though. Pumping for 4 hours with that will make forearms like football players have.

 

[rtyler8140]

Ryan -- unlikely you will get any higher vacuum with the Minwax product. You boil off the solvent and are just pumping solvent vapor through the pump. It is intended to be a long soak product, and even then leaves a relatively low amount of solids in the wood.

Cactus Juice will give you a better product. You will have strong muscles if you are going to use the hand pump though. Pumping for 4 hours with that will make forearms like football players have.

Yeah I couldn't get above 24inHg with the hand pump and cactus juice. It held at 22inHg overnight though so that was better than expected. Ended up with decent results, but based on the research done by the gentleman that makes the stuff, a higher vacuum should yield even better results.