Would you buy good casting wood pieces...?

[robutacion]

Announcement...!

Hi peoples,

I just would like to very quickly make some mention to the way I have ben publically posting/showing all the values/costs of every order made, I understand that many of you would prefer to keep it private and not as open as I have been, do I have to do it like that..??? no, I don't so, let me assure you that, if you want to order something and want to keep it private, simply PM me with your wishes and I shall comply.

I may even change the way I have been posting costs, that doesn't make me any more honest nor it would change anything apart from being a little more private with the sales aspect.

I apologize to anyone that didn't particularly like to have their orders stripped naked in public, I will change that so don't worry...!

Thank you for your attention.

Cheers
George

 

[stuckinohio]

George,

I got my wood today. I must say that you do not disappoint! It all looks great. There may be some more of the colonial red gum in my future....

Thank you sir,

Lewis

 

[VotTak]

George, do you still have some peppercorn in size of pen blanks, or maybe bigger, like 1.5x1.5x5? Those on 2nd page with voids and hollows are nice. interested in something like that. Please let me know. I would also wanted to ask about something else, but it be better private.

 

[robutacion]

George, do you still have some peppercorn in size of pen blanks, or maybe bigger, like 1.5x1.5x5? Those on 2nd page with voids and hollows are nice. interested in something like that. Please let me know. I would also wanted to ask about something else, but it be better private.

G'day,

As for the Peppercorn burl, I haven't sold that much so I have plenty left of any sizes and types you want so, just me know...!

Send me an email to nyodine@yahoo.com.au with any questions/issues you may have.

Cheers
George

 

[robutacion]

George,

I got my wood today. I must say that you do not disappoint! It all looks great. There may be some more of the colonial red gum in my future....

Thank you sir,

Lewis

Hi Lewis,

Thank you for letting me know your parcel arrived...!

I don't like to disappoint, I have 2 big boxes of the Colonial Red Gum burl casting pieces + many others you haven't seen yet...!

Now, get to work and lets see some of those pieces cast, shall we...??:biggrin:

Cheers
George

 

[VotTak]

George, do you still have some peppercorn in size of pen blanks, or maybe bigger, like 1.5x1.5x5? Those on 2nd page with voids and hollows are nice. interested in something like that. Please let me know. I would also wanted to ask about something else, but it be better private.

G'day,

As for the Peppercorn burl, I haven't sold that much so I have plenty left of any sizes and types you want so, just me know...!

Send me an email to nyodine@yahoo.com.au with any questions/issues you may have.

Cheers
George

Email sent. Thanks.

 

[stuckinohio]

I threw them in the oven yesterday

George,

I got my wood today. I must say that you do not disappoint! It all looks great. There may be some more of the colonial red gum in my future....

Thank you sir,

Lewis

Hi Lewis,

Thank you for letting me know your parcel arrived...!

I don't like to disappoint, I have 2 big boxes of the Colonial Red Gum burl casting pieces + many others you haven't seen yet...!

Now, get to work and lets see some of those pieces cast, shall we...??:biggrin:

Cheers
George

 

[stuckinohio]

Here's a couple pics of my first casting with this wood.

From left to right for the first picture:

peppercorn burl
platypus burl
colonial red gum burl

second picture:

peppercorn burl
colonial red gum
platypus burl

The peppercorn and platypus burl appear to be a great match for the copper color. Not sure about the red gum yet! My wife was wanting to see the copper color for a while, so why not?

 

[robutacion]

Here's a couple pics of my first casting with this wood.

From left to right for the first picture:

peppercorn burl
platypus burl
colonial red gum burl

second picture:

peppercorn burl
colonial red gum
platypus burl

The peppercorn and platypus burl appear to be a great match for the copper color. Not sure about the red gum yet! My wife was wanting to see the copper color for a while, so why not?

They turn out very good even tough the images are a little dark. The resin colours, are always a personal choice and also a combination of colours preferences with either contrast or a blend in, you have plenty to pick from so I see a lot more castings from you and that is nice to see...!

What resin did you use? Allumilite?

Cheers
George

 

[stuckinohio]

Correct. alumilite. With alumilite powder.

 

[stuckinohio]

Here's a few more. Olive root on the left with peppercorn being the two on the right.

The green has some pearl in it, which will show up when it's turned. Basically I'm trying to do some different colors than Blue, which is the best color and my personal favorite!

 

[robutacion]

They all look good Lewis, will be interesting to see some of the pens made with them...!

You obviously like the dark blue but you should use powders with lots of pearl effects and those are the ones made from Pearlex that you can also buy fro Chine at a fraction of the cost.

Pearlex colours or Interference colours made by Pearlex allow you to achived amazing results not only with the colours but also with some double, or triple colours.

I strongly suggest/recommend that you do you cast pours as the last thing of the working day, why..??? because the excitement we get from casting and seeing what we did/how they turn out, is responsible in many cases for the molds being removed from the pressure pot a lot earlier than it should and with some type resins, this can mean big troubles and possibly ruined casts so, that makes you want to get up in the morning and be excited about it...!:biggrin:

Cheers
George

 

[stuckinohio]

I use pearl-ex now, but only for pearl and silver. Some of the other colors are weird to me, so I stay away from them. I suppose I will start to play more with colors. Gotta get out of my comfort zone!

I love alumilite because of the quick set, but I do try to wait for about an hour, or until all the heat is gone in the mold. Last night I cast right before going to work, so I had to wait until this morning to cut it up. Terrible wait!

 

[robutacion]

I use pearl-ex now, but only for pearl and silver. Some of the other colors are weird to me, so I stay away from them. I suppose I will start to play more with colors. Gotta get out of my comfort zone!

I love alumilite because of the quick set, but I do try to wait for about an hour, or until all the heat is gone in the mold. Last night I cast right before going to work, so I had to wait until this morning to cut it up. Terrible wait!

No no no, that is exactly what I said it should happen, that "wait" is great excitement and that keeps the heart pumping...!

Cheers
George

 

[stuckinohio]

Lol! Two different schools of thought

Since we are on the topic of being impatient:

Couldn't wait, so i turned the cap of one....The purple is interesting. I assume it's the cactus juice that was in the tiniest of cracks at the center. I actually don't mind the accent color!

 

[1080Wayne]

Lol! Two different schools of thought

Since we are on the topic of being impatient:

Couldn't wait, so i turned the cap of one....The purple is interesting. I assume it's the cactus juice that was in the tiniest of cracks at the center. I actually don't mind the accent color!

Yes . I had been blaming it on my accidental discovery that Cactus juice was a solvent for the cellulose proprionate tubes I was using to hold peas I wanted to stabilize . I assume that you haven`t contaminated yours in a like manner .

I think the messages are to keep the time delay between stabilizing and cooking as short as possible , and give some thought to the influence of gravity as some juice will drain out while cooking and you may want the drain side up or down depending on what you want to achieve , particularly with whitish woods . I have also come to the conclusion that stabilizing bark covered wood is not compatible with leaving a natural edge on a turning , unless you really like purple bark .

 

[robutacion]

Now, this is all very interesting to me, both Lewis and Wayne's comments because, in my many dozens of gallons of Cactus Juice used I never seen that purple appear on my blanks without or with bark.

I actually stabilize a lot of pieces with the bark and the purple is not seen so, I wonder if that is something that is the result of some formula changes in the manufacture of the Juice and for that, I would call Curtis attention to this issue and request that he give us some explanation as to why you are getting the purple colour and I don't/haven't had so far and I hope I never will, that would spoil considerably a lot of what I do.

I always try to drain the casting pieces the best I can and for that sometimes I use the spinning system that works but is difficult to balance in the lathe for the speed required.

With the cooking of these type pieces, I don't use the foil instead I put a sheet of foil on the top of the dripping tray and I position the wood pieces so that the excess juice runs away from the wood.

I'm worried about that purple colour coming through after stabilizing, it shouldn't happen at all...!

Let see what Curtis have to say...!

Hey Curtis? do you mind to give us some info on this...???:biggrin:

Cheers
George

 

[stuckinohio]

My take on it is this:

I don't wrap the casting pieces either. I turn the blank so the rough edges are down. With this peppercorn burl, which has lots of crevices and cracks in it, the juice sits in those small gaps and hardens. It must pool in there. It looks the same as if I have the bark edge up and juice pools on top.

I suppose I should try to remove all the excess resin by spinning or shaking as mentioned. It's hard to see unless your in bright light.

 

[1080Wayne]

There is one other possibility George . You do large batches of one kind of wood , sometimes clear , sometimes dyed . I`m sure you keep each batch of dyed juice separate , and probably add dye only to juice that has already been used as clear . How many different woods might the clear have seen ?

I have only used up about a gallon of juice , but the leftover has seen caragana , balsam poplar wood and bark , diamond willow , pussy willow , silver buffaloberry wood and bark , green and yellow peas , red and green lentils , a loblolly pine cone , Norway spruce cones , larch cones and cow pies . Some or all of those will have extractables soluble in cactus juice , and one of them may be a purple dye . I noticed the colour the very first time I stabilized something . The batch had the red and green lentils , the green and yellow peas , caragana , and larch cones . That was also the one where I discovered that the juice acts as a solvent for cellulose proprionate . The colour has intensified with subsequent batches .

 

[robutacion]

There is one other possibility George . You do large batches of one kind of wood , sometimes clear , sometimes dyed . I`m sure you keep each batch of dyed juice separate , and probably add dye only to juice that has already been used as clear . How many different woods might the clear have seen ?

I have only used up about a gallon of juice , but the leftover has seen aspen poplar , balsam poplar wood and bark , diamond willow , silver buffaloberry wood and bark , green and yellow peas , red and green lentils , and cow pies . Some or all of those will have extractables soluble in cactus juice , and one of them may be a purple dye . I noticed the colour the very first time I stabilized something . The batch had the red and green lentils , the green and yellow peas , diamond willow and balsam poplar . That was also the one where I discovered that the juice acts as a solvent for cellulose proprionate . The colour has intensified with subsequent batches .

Well, not always Wayne, I do mix wood species when I'm stabilizing either clear or with dyes. Yes, I keep each dyed mix batch separate and I tend to use any of the used clear Juice to the dyed batch adding more dye as necessary.

I wasn't aware that Cactus Juice reacts with Cellulose propionate which is in general terms a nylon-based plastic coat applied on some plastics so, I used a few different molds materials and so far I never had that fairly vivid purple colour in the wood so, I'm puzzled...!

Cheers
George

 

[1080Wayne]

Picked up your parcel today George , ahead of our expected postal meltdown . Everything looks great . Most of it looks turnable without stabilization . Will let it dry a few weeks before doing anything with most of it . Thanks again for the extra pieces .

Wayne

 

[Edward Cypher]

Got mine yesterday George. Nice choice you did great. Thanks. Can't wait to cast and or stabilize.

 

[robutacion]

Picked up your parcel today George , ahead of our expected postal meltdown . Everything looks great . Most of it looks turnable without stabilization . Will let it dry a few weeks before doing anything with most of it . Thanks again for the extra pieces .

Wayne

Glad you got it without any issues and quite quickly...!

I look forwards to see some of the blanks turned...!

Good luck.

Cheers
George

 

[robutacion]

Got mine yesterday George. Nice choice you did great. Thanks. Can't wait to cast and or stabilize.

Glad you are pleased, there are no waste pieces in them, every single piece is done for the purpose of casting...!

Have fun.

Cheers
George

 

[stuckinohio]

I've never had it before either, but I've never stabilized wood with this much cracks/crevices. I usually take the casting pieces straight out of the juice and place into a pre-heated oven to bake. I don't bother with swiping off the excess juice on these blanks because they aren't being wrapped up.

Maybe on these I should shake off the excess. Basically I think it's "user error" on my part that arises because of the nature of the wood. I don't think there's anything to worry about on your part.

 

[MesquiteMan]

Cactus Juice currently has a florescent marker in it to aid in viewing your results. You can cut a blank in half length wise and view it under black light and the Juice will glow. This will tell you what level of saturation you have in your wood. In the right light conditions, concentrated Cactus Juice in cracks and such can appear purple. In normal wood, it is never seen. It has been this way since day one when I first introduced home stabilizing. The formula of Cactus Juice has not changed in nearly 6 years.

That said, I have had this issue come up from time to time and some folks find the purple tint that sometimes shows up undesirable. As a result, and based on the fact that this feature is seldom used, I am removing the florescent marker. I expect to begin shipping the marker free Juice late next week. I currently have about 100 gallons on hand that includes the marker and once that is gone late next week, all Cactus Juice going forward will no longer have the florescent marker.

 

[MesquiteMan]

And before anyone asks...no, it is not possible that some batches have more florescent marker in it than others. Cactus Juice is manufactured for me by a large chemical company with ISO 9001 certification. It is made for me in batches of 1,200 gallons at a time in a computer controlled, very precise process under direct supervision of staff chemists (yes, I have been to the plant and seen all of this!). Each batch undergoes a strict quality analysis with very tight pass/fail standards. I receive a Quality Analysis Certificate with every drum delivered and every aspect is tested including viscosity, cure times, hardness of cured Juice, color, and yes, florescence, among other properties.

 

[robutacion]

Cactus Juice currently has a florescent marker in it to aid in viewing your results. You can cut a blank in half length wise and view it under black light and the Juice will glow. This will tell you what level of saturation you have in your wood. In the right light conditions, concentrated Cactus Juice in cracks and such can appear purple. In normal wood, it is never seen. It has been this way since day one when I first introduced home stabilizing. The formula of Cactus Juice has not changed in nearly 6 years.

That said, I have had this issue come up from time to time and some folks find the purple tint that sometimes shows up undesirable. As a result, and based on the fact that this feature is seldom used, I am removing the florescent marker. I expect to begin shipping the marker free Juice late next week. I currently have about 100 gallons on hand that includes the marker and once that is gone late next week, all Cactus Juice going forward will no longer have the florescent marker.

Well, as I said before, the dye in the Cactus Juice, was never a problem to me nor I noticed that much however, and from what I had read from others experiences, if I was giving the option to buy/order Cactus Juice with or withoiut the dye, I would definatelly select thge non-dyed one just to prevent any issues as those raised here.

I don't think that I need the dye to acertain the Juice penetration and for that reason, I believe, you aremaking the right decision to have the dye removed from the formula.

Cheers
George

 

[1080Wayne]

11-16 A&B , not necessarily paired as you had them . Minor stabilization with CA . Sanded to P800 . Unfinished .

http://www.penturners.org/photos/index.php?n=29726

 

[robutacion]

11-16 A&B , not necessarily paired as you had them . Minor stabilization with CA . Sanded to P800 . Unfinished .

http://www.penturners.org/photos/index.php?n=29726

They look good Wayne, certainly very interesting figure throughout.

Look forwards to see them finished.:biggrin:

Cheers
George

 

[DLGunn]

George,

I wanted to let you know I received my shipment. The stuff is beautiful. I am definitely pleased with the order.

I am still working on getting my stabilizing set up going. As soon as I have it up and running I will be able to post some results.

Again, thank you for the blanks and casting wood. I appreciate it.

 

[robutacion]

George,

I wanted to let you know I received my shipment. The stuff is beautiful. I am definitely pleased with the order.

I am still working on getting my stabilizing set up going. As soon as I have it up and running I will be able to post some results.

Again, thank you for the blanks and casting wood. I appreciate it.

You're welcome mate...!

Glad that your parcel arrived safely and that you are pleased with what you've got.

Let's do some casting, shall we...?:wink:

Cheers
George

 

[stuckinohio]

So, I finally got around to casting some pieces again. Here's a pic of peppercorn burl casting pieces I got from George that I cast with Alumilite.

 

[robutacion]

Great job you've done with it...!

What pigments are you using with the resin, solid colours...? You should try some of the Pearlex pigments for that pearl effect withing the resin unless you prefer the solid colours, nothing wrong with that...!

I can see that the resin penetration is very good, did you use the pressure pot?

Well dome, mate...!

Cheers
George

 

[stuckinohio]

Hey George. I usedon't the alumilite dye for this. I do use pearl ex, which I love, but this pen was for a firefighters retirement gift and I didn't want to have it too girly if that makes sense.

I use a pressure pot at 60 pounds. Looking for a quality pot rated to 80 pounds, so I can pump it up some more.

Thanks for the wood!

 

[stuckinohio]

Used alumilite dye.

 

[robutacion]

Sure, no problem...!

As for the pressure pot rated at 80PSI, there a couple on the Aussie eBay site, and from where I got mine but, I don't know if they also appear on the USA eBay.

Cheers
George

 

[stuckinohio]

Thank you. I'll check.

 

[endacoz]

I have ordred from you once in the past and love the wood I got.

I'd like to purchase a large box of great casting material. It can be slabs as I can cut things up if that is easier. I will be casting into pen blanks and call blanks.

Ethan

 

[robutacion]

I have ordred from you once in the past and love the wood I got.

I'd like to purchase a large box of great casting material. It can be slabs as I can cut things up if that is easier. I will be casting into pen blanks and call blanks.

Ethan

G'day Ethan,

I have sent you a message with some info on prices and box sizes, let me know what you decided.

Cheers
George