stabilizing pen blanks

[CharlesSharp]

I purchased some redwood burl pen blanks that are very soft and want to stabilize them prior to drilling or turning.
I intend to finish them using blo/ca so whatever I use cannot react with the ca or blo.
I don't have a pressure pot, so I'll just have to let the blanks soak in whatever I use.
I don't want to use ca for the entire process due to cost and that I want to stabilize prior to drilling.

 

[4reel]

I put thin CA on the stock and let it soak in. I do this several times during the turning and it has worked fine for me.

 

[toolcrazy]

Since you don't have a pressure pot it's going to be much more difficult to stablize. My suggetstion is go ahead and drill them, then turn them round and start stablizing them as you go with thin CA.

If they are too punky for this, then you're better to send them out and have them professionally stablized.

 

[tdibiasio]

My suggestion would be to send them to River Ridge to be stabilized. They offer a trial for up to 4 pen blanks for $9.00 and that includes return shipping. I used the service and it was a fast turn around and they did a great job.

 

[alamocdc]

Charles, I've tried home stabilization and sent some redwood blanks to River Ridge. Surprisingly neither made much difference in the weight of the blanks (unusual for most light woods). It's also hard to say if the stabilization made much difference in the turning. My first redwood pen I turned an untreated blank and applied a little CA as I went. Didn't get much penetration with it either and it soon would turned off, so I finished the turning w/o it and applied the CA once I had the blanks to size and finished as I normally would a CA finish.

Feel free to send some in to them (everything else I sent in that batch turned out fantastic), but I'd just turn them down as usual and apply a good final dosing of CA before finishing. JMO

 

[Jarheaded]

If they are the blanks that Rodney was selling, they turned fine without any stabilizing for me.

 

[stevers]

I tried to stabilize some Euc before I got my tank and the liquid did not soak in at all. I put them in a jar in poly and let them sink and when I cut them, the poly had not penetrated more than a 64th or maybe a 32th. No success at all.
Just my experience.