Homemade stabalizing setup tutorial

I found a tutorial on doing home stabilizing using Minwax Wood Hardener.

I thought it would be a good idea to show my process and share with everyone here!!

First off I got the supplies needed:
Hand vacuum pump
brake bleeder repair kit(auto parts store)
Two 1/4'' washers
1 seal able glass jar(thick)
epoxy
rubber hose
Bicycle inner tube
Minwax Wood Hardener
Wood!!

First off I epoxied the washers to the top side of the bleeder seat and the bottom side of the bleeder insert. Then I cut out a rubber washer from the inner tube.


I then drilled a hole the size of the bleeder insert into the lid, Then put the rubber washer on the insert and stuck through the lid. Then I threaded on the bleeder seat and tightened down.




I then poured in some Minwax Wood Hardener(2 pints)


Then I put in a piece of wood and screwed the lid on, then pumped the vacuum pump. I brought the vacuum up to 23 in hg, let out the vacuum and then pumped up to about 23 in hg again. then let sit for about an hour. Then I let out the vacuum. I then pumped to 23 one more time and let sit for an hour.




I Did a piece of hickory and it seems really hard. Here are some pics of said piece, It was cut in half and sanded to 600 grit then buffed. In the pics the wood is not wet.





If anyone has any question please feel free to ask!!!

Thanks for looking!

Hey Ernie , It seems that every day you've challenged another aspect of knifemaking . Challenged and come out on top ....! Pretty soon we'll all be asking you " How did you do that ? " Way to go !! Bill

Good idea Ern! I think you will find that there is a chemical in that wood hardner that will eat any rubber and plastic stuff over time. That has been my experience with it anyway. I would kink the line with a clamp and disconnect the pump to save it. Eventually you will probably need to replace the hose too, but this will all take a while. I used a similar setup when stabilizing blanks for penturning.

Awesome! I have some nice looking wood that I may try this on. How much do you have in the total setup?

Well lets see.......

Vacuum Pump - Harbor freight(coupon) - 17.00
Brake bleeder repair kit - 6.00
Jar - Freebie
Minwax Wood Hardener - 10.00 x2 - 20.00
Inner tube - freebie
two washers - .05 x2 - .10


I would say about $45.00

I need to get another can of wood hardener though With this jar I can only do really short blocks or scales with the original 2 pints.

Great stuff here Ernie.Simple ,but effective.

This may be a stupid question, but not knowing how the wood hardener works, can you reuse it? Do you just leave it in the jar until next time? Either way, this looks really useful.

Also, about how dry was the wood when you treated it?

The wood I am stabilizing right now came from other makers, I do not know of dryness.

I am reusing the wood hardener, I do just keep it in the jar.

GREAT IDEA !!!!

I use a similar setup for soaking wood with Tung oil
http://www.myvideo.at/watch/5457013

AL

I'm fixin to make me one of these. I bought the pump yesterday but I forgot to get the valve.

An inexpensive way to get a vaccuum, is the pump from an old refridgerator. One tube compresses, the other is vacuum. I have pulled about 27hg average from some pumps.
Your setup looks like it did a good job Ernie.

Ernie Im not trying to discourage you or other but to get the wood stabilized right through on very hard woods you will need combination of pressure and vaccume. I have used min wax wood hardner for 8 months and it works ok but not for all woods. Ive found on the woods like claro walnut and stuff it works good on. It s a very inexpensive way to start out with.

Can someone please tell me how this works id like to make one but for some reason i cant get my head around it any help would be appreciated2thumbs

The Vacuum pressure sucks the air out of the wood and the wood hardener into the wood.
If there is any other specifics you need to know just ask!

There was a thread a while back that said that when wood painted with wood hard turned white when exposed to moisture,,,, and that the white went all the way thru the wood.

Ernie, I don't want to rain on your parade but you might check that out. I was told about wood hard last year at Tannehill. I bought a can and painted it on my carry knife with a black walnut handle that kept getting scratched up. I have been carrying in everyday since and it has not whitened. So I don't really know the answer to this issue.

Wayne Coe said:

There was a thread a while back that said that when wood painted with wood hard turned white when exposed to moisture,,,, and that the white went all the way thru the wood.

Ernie, I don't want to rain on your parade but you might check that out. I was told about wood hard last year at Tannehill. I bought a can and painted it on my carry knife with a black walnut handle that kept getting scratched up. I have been carrying in everyday since and it has not whitened. So I don't really know the answer to this issue.

Click to expand...

Wayne, Thanks for the info I will have to look into that.


One of the knives I recently finished has spalted birch scales on it that I stabilized using this method. I have so far washed the knife twice and have played around with it plenty. It has not changes color on me yet. And I must say that when I was shaping and sanding the scales I was pretty happy with how hard the wood was. I sanded it down and buffed it out and have not put any finish on it.

:duh:BTW, what is usually used for stabilizing?

I guess that I should think things out before hitting the send button.

I just copied this from Ellis Knifeworks: http://elliscustomknifeworks.hightemptools.com/index.html

[SIZE=+0]Nelsonite 30B02 Wood Stabilizer:

[/SIZE]1 qt = $17.50

1 Gallon = $50.00


Nelsonite 30B02 is the wood stabilizing compound that leaves your wood/bone/horn/ivory handle material feeling natural, not like plastic! This stabilizer has long been used in the woodworking and pool cue fabrication communities, and is just now being discovered by knifemakers as an alternative to products such as MMA and Resinol 90C. Several prominent knifemakers use this stabilizer and prompted us to start carrying it.



Nelsonite has a very long shelf life in the unopened container, approximately 10 years according to the manufacturer. However, exposure to oxygen (air) degrades the material and starts to affect its efficacy within 3 - 4 months. It is advisable to either purge your opened containers with an inert gas (nitrogen, argon, etc) or top up your container with something like ball bearings or clean pieces of steel to keep the air head space to a minimum. You can also store your opened container in your vacuum chamber (if you use one) and keep it pumped down.

Thanks for throwing that link up. I read about that stuff before and was planning on buying some when I could afford it.

Thanks for the answer Ernie2thumbs something else to make