Thread: Stabilizing

Hi Rich, I do not know anything about stabalizing but I have heard that you can coat real soft stuff like your rotten part, can be strengthened with super glue.
Toni

Toni's right, CA can stabilise a blank nicely. But if it's spalted all the way through, then you've got to turn a bit, recoat, turn a bit, recoat... get's a bit expensive in the glue dept.

I like to plonk such blanks in a bell-jar full of PolyU, Tung or Danish Oil then vac it down with a vac pump, (mine's an ex-fridge compressor) and leave it overnight. You can do the same thing without vac'ing down, but need to leave the wood in the jar for a week or three to make sure the wood's fully saturated with whatever it's soaking in.

Either way, then it's a case of removing the wood and putting it aside for another week or three to dry. If Tung or Danish is used, it tends to stay wet in the middle, so it's a bit stop/start like the CA, 'cept you can usually remove more before stopping but when you DO need to stop, ya gotta wait another few days for the exposed bit to cure.

Time consuming but very simple... and it lets you use timbers that would otherwise be thriown in the firewood pile or cost a fortune to stabilise quickly.


Ohh... and yes, you've got the right idea of where it's used. Any timber with soft spots from spalting, rot or whatever and sometimes just to "harden" some timbers that don't machine well. Occasionally I'll treat cheap'n'nasty plantation Oregon, so I don't get the raised ridges between the rings when sanding.

Thanking you both for your X Pert Ezze

Time to go dunk some timber.

Cheers heaps


Rich.