Thread: Dymondwood

Originally Posted by Ian007

I got some Dymondwood donated to my fundraiser by the Penturners Paradise

I have never turned this stuff before and its very nice to turn, smooth off the chisel (thats not my skill I can tell you)

I sanded to 2000 grit and it looked like it was already polished and then I hit it with some EEE and it glowed

The pen blanks where 16x16mm so you need to make sure your nice and square when drilling the blank.
Also that you support the blank well, I had a blow out on the first one I drilled as I had it supported but not the right way and the blank split across the lamination, lesson learnt.

I dont know what they make this stuff from but they must add something to the timber as its harder to drill than most blanks, but it sure is nice to turn and there is quite a variety of colours going by the amount I had donated for the fundraiser.

Well worth a try if I do say so myself.

Cheers Ian

Pic 1: Lovely coloured shavings, and the lathe was spinning amazing what a 1/1600 shutter speed will do.

Pic 2: The finished pen

i like that pen well done ian... wen in canberra (april) i'll get some and experiment. it'll be good to see (and read) what diifferences it has to wood...

cheers

Wow! Very nice.

I am a tad jealous!

The wood is some pale hardwood that they force dye into and then bond under pressure forcing resin into the wood - thus making it very hard. Good pen material.

Cam

Thanks for the info Cameron

I wonder what kind of resin it is.

I wonder if we could do that at home with some of our more fragile timber like burls or the like?

and I wonder how we would do it?

Pressure tank?

I think we need to find out more info.

Cheers Ian

I think that it is pretty high tech stuff. ie beyond backyard operations.

Still, wouldn't hurt to try, but really that is just basic stabilisation.

I stabilised a piece of wood the other day that simply blew apart on my first trial (from the same tree) the stabilised piece was excellent.

What about vacuum?
Just as efficient with less equipment.
Put the dye timber etc in a bag and suck like buggery.

Al

Originally Posted by ozwinner

What about vacuum?
Just as efficient with less equipment.
Put the dye timber etc in a bag and suck like buggery.

Al

That's a powerfully big suck. I mean I always reckoned buggery sucked big time.

Originally Posted by Ian007

I wonder if we could do that at home with some of our more fragile timber like burls or the like?

and I wonder how we would do it?

Pressure tank?

I think we need to find out more info.

It's simple enough, once you assemble the right gear.

The method I'm using to stabilise those spalted tree-hugger blanks goes along these lines; a small pressure jar, 3/4 filled with PolyU, is sucked down using a vac-pump. At first this timber floats on the surface, but as the air is leeched from the timber, being replaced by PolyU, it'll settle to the bottom. Once it hits bottom, it's ready to set aside for curing and run the next batch through. Hopefully. Fingers Xed. Denser timber's will settle straight to the bottom, so then you really need to work on time. 24 hours is a good, safe time although some timbers need more while others can do with less. It's an experiment as you go thing.

My problem is with the vac-pump... my li'l bro has taken mine (well... he did buy it. ) and is using it for air-con work. So I'm looking at converting an old 2HP air-con compressor... I've just gotta work out how to lube it, as the refrigerant usually carries the lube and that's long gone in this particular beast.

My set up uses a Vacuvin wine pump (same as the Roarockit vacuum veneering kit's pump).

It pulls a LOT of vacuum (surprising amount really).

I use canning jars from KMart.

I can post piccies tomorrow if people are interested.

Cam

Originally Posted by CameronPotter

My set up uses a Vacuvin wine pump (same as the Roarockit vacuum veneering kit's pump).

It pulls a LOT of vacuum (surprising amount really).

I use canning jars from KMart.

I can post piccies tomorrow if people are interested.

Cam

yes please Cam pics would be great

Alright, I will try to sort it out tonight.

Cam

Dymondwood is a trademarked product. Basically what it is is 1/16" birch that is immersed in the dye until it has soaked completely through. They then take the various colour sheet laminating them together user a plastic/resin mix under high pressure and fairly high heat. If I remember correctly they make it into sheets of about 4ft by 2ft. It can be made in any thickness (multiples of 1/16" plus a bit for the plastic/resin bond).

Here is the shameless plug if any one is interested in stock that is larger than pen blanks please let me know.

So before anyone says it is not real timber - I want to assure you it is but impregnated fully by the plastic/resin mix. If you use micro-mesh to finish it down to about 12000 then there is absolutely no need to use any other products with it and strange as it may sound constant use keeps the shine up.

Yeah, I would just like to clarify that stabilised wood won't act exactly like Dymondwood - it is a slightly (far less technical and expensive) process.

Here is my set-up.

Canning jar with a two part lid
Plastic threaded plumbing part (perfect fit for the rubber seal).
Rubber seal for vacuvin pump
Epoxy to set the threaded pipe onto the (flat) lid.

About the only thing you have to do is epoxy on the plastic and drill a hole in the lid (so it lines up with the hole in the middle of the plastic plumbing part).

Then fill with 50/50 turps and PolyU (50/50 is to make the polyU better at soaking into the gaps).

Pull as much vacuum as you can with the wine pump.

Leave for 24 hours.

Then remove the wood being stabilised and leave for about a week to dry thoroughly

Cam