Home Spalted Jacaranda

[bdar]

I am still experimenting with my spalting garden, this is the latest product to come from it. May have left it a bit to long as there are a couple of soft spots in the stuff. There is a company in the US that stabilizes pen blanks for turners, does anyone know if there is such a business in Australia? Until I can afford a set up i will rely on thin CA :) Well see what you think of the progress of the spalting.

Cheers
Darren

[wood hacker]

They look like they could turn into very interesting pens. If I remember properly Neil (Dai Sensei) uses a product from the states called cactus juice for stabilising spalted and punky blanks.

cheers
WH

[bdar]

Yeah WH I wish I had a cactus juice set up, but bills, kids, family dictate the terms though. I have my wish list of what I want when I win lotto lol. There are more than one way to skin a cat :) Will cut the rest over the weekend and see what I come up with

[Penpal]

Darren,

Home grown indeed looks tremendous if only one goes soft who cares plenty more there. Good luck with the lotto and other methods, Jacaranda is beautiful both as a flower and timber IMHO. Plant more species so far great mate.

Kind regards Peter.:2tsup:

[wood hacker]

Yeah WH I wish I had a cactus juice set up, but bills, kids, family dictate the terms though. I have my wish list of what I want when I win lotto lol. There are more than one way to skin a cat :) Will cut the rest over the weekend and see what I come up with

I hear you Darren. One trick Neil did show me was to drill the blank with a bit just a tad smaller than what you want and then run thin ca into the hole whilst rotating the blank. The CA penetrates into the surrounding timber. Just keep adding and rotating until it stops absorbing into the timber. Allow it to set and then redrill the blank with the correct sized bit. This ensures that the timber close to the tube is hardened and hopefully prevents any nasty little supprises as you take those final cuts.

cheers
WH

[Black Ned]

Just a chance - I saw a product in Bunnings called Wood Hardener.
It is used to salvage wood rotted timber. Do not remember the brand.
It was in the section where they keep the fibregass resin.
May be a long shot.
Hope it works for you.
Regards, Ned

[bdar]

Thanks WH it is a method I have used before when drilling even into more dense timbers, you just don't know what hides inside. Have seen the stuff from Bunnings but haven tried it may be worth a shot. Thanks for the replies

[Perfect Pens]

I believe John, Gawdelpus usese or has used the wood hardener he me be able to advise as too how good this stuff is.

Cheers
Tony.

[plantagenon]

You can also buy a wood hardening product (liquid) from a ship building supplier. It's used to repair rot in timber frames in a boat and sets like petrified wood. A mate bought some over to repair a piece of timber in the transom of an old boat I owned. When that stuff sets a jackhammer is needed to break it. I can't remember the name of it but I can find out next week if you are interested.
Greg

[Pariss]

Re: Home Spalting. After cyclone Yasi's 'blow through' up here in the tropics, I ended up with some Mango tree logs from next door. They had been laying around on the ground for a good 6 months or so, and were just starting to really become 'Punky'. I managed to get one decent log from the badly decayed stuff, and have made some really great pens and box feature lids & corners from it. To stabilize it, so it can be turned OK, I first cut the log into 25 X 25mm blank sizes. Then I cut & drilled to the selected pen kit sizes. I used a cotton bud to flood & coat the inside of the tube holes, & left for 24 hrs. Then started to turn using a VERY sharp tool. It was like turning Balsa Wood. When I was 2/3rds down to final size I flooded the blanks with thin CA, then after it had soaked in and set, I began turning again. When I got down to the sanding size I flooded the blank again & left to set, then sanded to size. Then the usual 20 coats of thin CA etc, etc. etc,. A lot of mucking around, but worth the effort I think. Worked out great. :2tsup::D

[bdar]

Yes, drilling the hole and soaking from the inside and the use of a sharp skew and flooding of CA is what I do now. Just looking for another way to economically harden the timber than heaps of CA. Pariss you are right it is well worth the effort at times, I just want to remove the effort part lol

[Grommett]

Beautiful pen, a snr gent? How come your bandsaw is so dust free, workshopped the pic is my guess. Nice work.

[plantagenon]

Did you use someone else's band saw to cut the timber Pariss and then pretend you used your unused saw :o That workshop of your is just too spotless.

[justturnin]

Nicely Done:2tsup:. I have a spalting Experiment going on begind the shop with some sweetgum. It is in a large trash bag w/ the shavings, Fertilizer, Ammonia & Beer. It is starting to warm up here and the spalting is really taking off.

I have the Cactus Juice set up and it is great. I am not sure if you have this but Minwax makes a wood hardener. I also have read about folks diluting White Glue in water and soaking, Styrofoam in Acetone, Plexi in Acetone and many others. If you have access to a vacuum pump you can place them under vacuum to really draw it in.

[Pariss]

Did you use someone else's band saw to cut the timber Pariss and then pretend you used your unused saw :o That workshop of your is just too spotless.

Hey Greg, the most used machine in my workshop is my ever-faithfull Ryobi shop vac from Bunnings, best $120 ever spent. RYOBI Tools (http://www.ryobi.com.au/Products/WorkshopVacs/WetDryVacuums/VC30) I have to keep the shed clean as I get the occasional business customer turn up to get stuff done. ( Sorry Daren I don't know of any product to impregnate a 'Punky' blank with, but WoodHacker might be onto a winner. Check out Bunnies. :2tsup:

[bdar]

Hey Greg, the most used machine in my workshop is my ever-faithfull Ryobi shop vac from Bunnings, best $120 ever spent. RYOBI Tools (http://www.ryobi.com.au/Products/WorkshopVacs/WetDryVacuums/VC30) I have to keep the shed clean as I get the occasional business customer turn up to get stuff done. ( Sorry Daren I don't know of any product to impregnate a 'Punky' blank with, but WoodHacker might be onto a winner. Check out Bunnies. :2tsup:

Hey Pariss I think I might have to hire you out with your shop vac to come do my place :)
I will check out Bunnings today, but will check out the local marine shop for the other stuff as well. Hope you have a long extention lead :2tsup:

[gawdelpus]

The stuff I used is called "Earls wood hardener" I got mine from Mitre 10 ,not cheap about $50 for a small container,its a milky stuff, but dries clear ,not tried on vacuum ,but should work ok ! I found you can reuse it, it doesn't seem to go off or be unusable over time ,my main usage was for some very punky and soft Buckeye burl that was like balsa :) worked ok on that :) cheers ~ John

[bdar]

The stuff I used is called "Earls wood hardener" I got mine from Mitre 10 ,not cheap about $50 for a small container,its a milky stuff, but dries clear ,not tried on vacuum ,but should work ok ! I found you can reuse it, it doesn't seem to go off or be unusable over time ,my main usage was for some very punky and soft Buckeye burl that was like balsa :) worked ok on that :) cheers ~ John

G'day John,

Went to Bunnies and got a bottle of the Earls wood hardener. I will drill out the center for a Sierra and let the blank soak until it drowns and then let it dry and see how it goes.

[Black Ned]

Just Another Thought #2

Try BondCrete - used for concrete but is also a great wood glue.
I think it will harden wood and is cheaper than PVA.

regards Ned

[Pariss]

Just Another Thought #2

Try BondCrete - used for concrete but is also a great wood glue.
I think it will harden wood and is cheaper than PVA.

regards Ned

You would have to dilute Boncrete with water as by it's self, will dry rubbery and would fail to soak into the wood. 50 X 50 dilution might be worth trying. I have use it to seal concrete fish ponds and also used in cement rendering jobs etc.

[bdar]

Well I finished cutting the rest of the stump, it yielded 101 full-size blanks and similar amount of shorts suitable for Polaris, Knights and Sierras. Next job is to grade them from light to heavy spalt and then decide what to do with them. They will need stabilizing but the effort will be well worth it I feel.

[dai sensei]

Yeh I currently use Cactus Juice, but to be honest, using CA is just as good. I do 8-12 blanks at a time in the CJ, vacuum for ~3 hours then bake for 45min, so still a lot of work and it isn't cheap. I get my CA from the US in 0.5 litre bottles at similar price to CJ.

At the end of the day both CA and CJ do a good job, but neither like the pro's do in US, the blanks are hard but not like plastic. I don't think there is a pro job done here in Aus yet.

Wood harder or the epoxy version (from boat building suppliers) both work, but do not use them on pen blank size if punky. This stuff takes weeks to go off properly on the inside and will twist your blanks. I found best results were on 1" slabs by flooding (or vacuum), as per instructions, then leave for 2 months weighted down before cutting into blanks. Again this is not a cheap option.

Cheers