Stabilizing setup ?

Keith Willis

Well-Known Member
Does anyone know of a tutorial on building a stabilizing setup,or can anyone help me out with this.I have a vaccum pump,but don't know what else I need,as far as material for setup,or stabilizing material.
Thanks for any help.

God bless,Keith
 
Go to the tutorial section, Shaughnessy has a link you can go to. Good luck with your build.

Larry
 
Just a word of advise.

Use a catch jar if you are pulling a vacume directly on the jars. Stabilizing liquid in the pump will ruin it!!!! (dont ask me how I know!))):mad:

Also ask yourself what results you are trying to achive.
If you are wanting the results that you get from WSSI, K&G or other professional stabilizers. STOP.

I do not want to discourage anyone who is wanting to try this. But I want to make sure you are aware that without a fairly large investment you will not get the results we expect from professionally done stabilized wood.

Now having said all that, I am still experimenting!

My best so far has been a mix using acraloid B72 (Thank you Indian George!!!!)

So far I have used the following mixes.

B72/Acetone/Minwax wood hardener - to date this is the best mix. Although I did not get the penetration I was hoping for (all tests done on a 1.5x 5 block) I have only used vacume, and not pressure. I think this may be a big factor.

I have tried the above mix and added Thompsons brick sealer. It seperates.

Brick sealer alone looked good, but would still absorb water when finished. (not acceptable with me)

There are tons of recipies out there. you are only limited by your knowledge and imagination!!!!

But on a last note: SAFETY

Most methods use a acetone carrier, so yo will be creating a LOT of fumes doing this. Highly irritating and explosive fumes. Use a well venilated area away from an ignition source.

Glass jars can and will implode/explode if over loaded. I would suggest placing the jar into a safe container ( I made mine from a steel milk crate lined with 1/2" lexan sheets I had. (May not be the safest but I felt better with it)

Some methods require cooking to cure. All the ones I tried ignited at temps above 160 deg. So be careful here and be prepared to deal with the fire if it happens. This wasnt a violent explosion, the block just burst into flames. But the risk of explosion is real, again use a venelated area!

Didnt mean to hijack your thread, or try to scare you from trying it. Just the opposit! I just want you to be aware of the trouble Ive had and to be especially aware of the danger so you can engineer around it.

We all learn from others, so post your results good or bad!

Good Luck and God Bless
Mike
 
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Mike those guys never just fell into a recipe it was either given to them or simply taken and used their methods a just as dangerous as anthing else with making knives forgeing steel and so on . I too will be doing my own scales but will be doing bothe presure and vacume and to do it right yopu need over 120 psi and draw 28 plus mercury. Im a firm believer if your gonna do some thing dont do it half arsed cuzz thats what youll end up with .
 
Thanks for the advice.I know that I have a lot to learn,but I can say it has to be better than what I have been doing.I'll learn what I can and play with it till I get it like I want.

God bless,Keith
 
Hellgap

I agree most things we do in the shop are dangerous.

Just wanted someone trying this for the forst time to be aware of some of the hazards inherant to this process, and to possibly share where I made mistakes.

Just curious. Are you doing stabilizing? If so, what are you using as a stabilizing medium?

Has anyone used the Resinol 90C? If so what were your results??

I work as an NDT inspector in the petrochemical fields. I work with welders on a daily basis. I plan on trying to get some of the guys to build me a couple of schedule 80 pressure vessels on the next job to give the pressure part a try. I have not done it this way yet.

God Bless
Mike
 
I have not got my system set up I actually still doing more research on this as well as a friend has a chemical engineer helping us to formulate. We are going to try Indian georges soup recipe and I hope it works as good as resinol 90 cuzz that will be the second test. We have a third recipe but its a secret and could be dangerous so Im not saying. As far as dangerous , tell me what part of knife making isnt danderous. I have a broken ground wire on my grinder and the blue arching spark hit my baby finger so hard I thought it broke the skin not to mention 10 amps of current. I have a head ache now this happened 10 min ago thats why im on the computer lol
 
Two questions...
  1. Has anyone tried Ultraseal?
  2. How do you beat the aprx 80 psi gasket limit on the paint pots folks make into vacuum and pressure chambers so you can get up to 125 psi?
Thanks, Phil
 
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