Thread: Fortifying or Stabilizing of Timber

Yeah , I tried white (pva) water mix , very thin , almost like water .
I brushed it on the platter in the pic , before it came apart .
It worked ok.
Maybe , as you say , the soaking method may be the better way .

I spose I better get a big , lidded container of some sort .
One thing with pva , its plentiful and cheap

thanks OGYT I forgot that one .

Wonder how 2 pac Wattyl 7008 would go, it sets quite hard.

I've found that an overnight soak in dilute PVA only penetrates a few mm into the wood. It doesn't necessarily need to penetrate into the cell walls, just any gaps between the cells, but it takes almost as long.

It's a workable method, I've done a couple of spalted goblets like this. But you need to soak, dry, turn a 1/4", soak, dry, turn a 1/4", soak, dry... until it's closely roughed to shape.

The same is true with most other methods - it seems you either need to leave it for a really, really long soak, long enough for it to become water-logged (which ain't exactly feasible if you're using a 2 pac epoxy. ) or you need to look at other methods - such as using a vac pump to create an extra atmosphere of pressure to help "push" the stabiliser in, hopefully getting the job done more quickly.

If you're using Tung Oil, you'll probably find it's back to the "turn a bit and wait" routine as it'd take a loooong time for the Tung to dry throughout the whole blank - near the surface sets first. So it's more a case of "leave 24hr to dry, turn until wet, leave 24hr..." Oh, yeah... As you'll probably be into "wet" wood by the time you've finished turning, you've no choice but to do wet sanding... ie. the sandpaper will clog more quickly. But it also gives far better results IMHO.