Stabilizing Chola

[nickle8424]

I just tried to stabilize some chola cactus and when i put it back in the toaster oven it caught fire (fun surprise).
I'm hoping someone can help me figure out where I went wrong.

Steps I took:
Dried chola in toaster oven for 6 hours
put in pressure pot vacuum chamber under pressure for 12 hours with cactus juice
put in toaster oven set at 220 (about 6 min caught fire)

I would love any tips, also thinking i could likely just cast them after drying in toaster oven, since they did seem very dry.

 

[lorbay]

If they are truly dry, then no need to stabilize them just cast them.

Lin

 

[Kenny Durrant]

I'm not sure why it caught fire but I share what I know and think. First is that when stabilizing it's done with vacuum. You submerse the wood in the C.J. and pull a vacuum until the bubbles cease. Then I allow it to set for an hour or more without the vacuum to allow the wood to soak up as much as possible. Then I'd guess when you put it in the oven the C.J. started oozing out excessively because the compressed air was expanding pushing it out and that might have caused the fire.

 

[nickle8424]

i just edited my post you are correct i did use a vacuum chamber, i put foil under it hoping to catch the oozing, i didn't have a temp gauge in there, so maybe my oven was just too hot.

 

[nickle8424]

watching some Casey Martin videos, i'm thinking that 220 was too high, i should have had things at around 190-200.

 

[MRDucks2]

I only preheat that high when I am putting bigger pieces of wood or a lot of oversized blanks in. My toaster ovens will drop off and not typically recover to that temperature when loaded up. I often take it to 200 preheat and then try to hold the range you mentioned, between 180-200.

Something to measure temperature with in addition to the oven setting is crucial. My cheapest oven does well on what I call "normal" loads but overloaded, has a tough time holding 180 by an oven thermometer even the dial will be set at 200-220.

My slightly larger but nicer (Goodwill) oven that is conveniently designed to burn your hand has trouble holding temperatures below 190 but will hold 220-225 solid. Makes you think they are not designed for what we use them for.

 

[budnder]

I've never stabilized the chola I've cast and have not ever had a problem. A concern I had with trying it was that you'd get little globs of stabilizer hardening in the corners of the lattice and that would end up looking kinda weird when you resin filled it later (assuming that was the plan... fill it with a colored resin after you had stabilized it.