Thread: Should I stabilise, cast, CA soak, all of the above ?

Unfortunately Cactus Juice does not work on green timber, it has to be dry. CA could be used, but you risk getting white spots if the wood is too wet.

Once dry I would recommend just thin CA, gets expensive to go the stabilising way for just a few blanks. Start with soaking from the outside, to help hold the blank together, plus seal the outside. Then drill the blank with a smaller size than necessary, not all the way through, then flood with thin CA ensuring it ponds. Let dry properly then redrill with correct size.

Thanks for the reply Neil. I wasn't sure if CA was the way to go, but I will give it a go once the blanks are dry. Would a vacuum help the CA penetrate the wood or would it just set it off quicker?

Cactus Juice would be the ideal but the initial outlay is too high for me at the moment.
BTW I've watched all your videos, Curtis's, and others. Facinating stuff and I would really like to get into it in the future.

I might try casting some PR blanks and making my own moulds soon, as I've made silicon moulds before and done some polyurethane casting.

Thanks again

Tony

No need for vacuum on the CA, plus I'm not sure of the affect of vacuum on CA. I have dunked blanks in small bottles of thin CA and it worked well, but it must start the setting action, as a week later the left over in the bottle was solid.

Here's an update on my attempts to stabilise these blanks. I decided to glue the inclusions with some CA to stop them falling out while the blanks were drying. The idea was to use minimal CA so as to not interfere with the drying process. On the first blank I started to use thin CA but it just soaked into the wood and spread everywhere. I then used some thick CA to hold the inclusions. The second blank I used only thick CA and that didn't spread at all.

Dry_tas_euc_brl.jpg

After the blanks were dry I started to soak them with thin CA. It started to get messy so I put each blank into a resealable bag. I then put in thin CA until there was enough cover the blank when the bag was tight against the blank. I squeezed out as much air as I could and sealed the bags, this caused the bag to hug the blank and the CA level to rise above the top of the blank. The CA around the first blank started to gel after several hours, have no idea why. I ripped open the bag and left The CA to set overnight. The CA in the bag with the second blank stayed liquid, though I had to replace the bag twice as they started to leak. Pulled the blank out after sitting there overnight and let it set.

ca_tas_euc_brl.jpg

Anyway I sanded off some of the excess CA on the first blank and made a pen out of it. It held up very well. I didn't bother drilling a small hole down the centre and soaking with CA as the wood was very solid, just drilled the 10mm hole for a cigar pen. There were some small air bubbles in the CA and some of the inclusions may of chipped out a little. I should of also blackened the tubes as some of voids went all the way through. The colour of the tubes shows through these with the clear CA.

cgr_f_tas_euc_brl.jpg

Overall it worked well but I think, once the wood has dried that casting in PR under pressure would work the best with this burl. For now I may make some more using CA to stabilse.


Forgot to mention 20 coats of CA, spot fill after intial sanding, smooth the resulting bumps with scraper, then another 10 coats of CA, pain to finish

My understanding is that the curing process of CA involves and requires moisture.

As I understand it the CA draws moisture from the surfaces being bonded or the surrounding air as part of the curing reaction

This is why it goes off so fast on skin

This is also why, CA seems to sit for an age on bone dry timber, in dry weather with out even looking like going off

By moisture I don't mean much.

This may explain many things.

cheers

Yes, CA does set with moisture. But both blanks were dry and one went off in 3 to 4 hours in it's bag. The other didn't, even after 20 hours.

I suspect that the first blank still had accelerator some where on or in it. I had used accelerator on it when I started to glue in the inclusions, not on the second. I would of thought after 2 weeks of drying indoors and also a full day at 70 C in an oven it would of all gone. Perhaps it gets incorporated into the set CA and can still trigger a reaction but with such small amounts takes hours instead of seconds ?

As you can see the first blank looks like it was cast in clear PR.

There is "dry" and there is "dry".

Air drying will be lucky to get you below 20% moisture content and some of thes guys are drying, "dry blanks" in their dehydrators for 2 days before thay are satisfied they are "dry enough".

And remember as soon as you take a bone dry blank out of wherever it was drying it starts to absorb water again.

From wat I understand it is almost impossible to find a peice of wood sitting in the open air with less tha 6 to 10% moisture content.

So one was sealed in a bag for 20 hours and did not go off......I gather it went off when it was exposed to air .

cheers

I'll admit I'm no expert and it's the first time I've dried wood.

The blanks had stopped loosing weight in the oven and actually gained slightly once cooled overnight. I'd say that they just equalised to ambient humidity. So they were as dry as they were going to be. After all, the rest of my "dry" wood blanks would be the same.

What suprised me is that one blank set off the all CA in the sealed bag, while the other in a sealed bag did not. If both blanks had roughly the same amount of moisture I would expect that if one went off then the other would too. In fact the second blank and CA was exposed to more air as I had to change the bag twice due to leaks. Once the second blank was taken out of the bag and exposed to air/moisture it did go off.

cheers

Looks like it turned out Ok

If you had the equipment time and money, yes after drying, casting then stabilising is best. However, we all have to make decisions based on what we have and what we can afford

Well " Ya get that sometimes"

cheers