Cactus Juice Wood Stabilizer

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wolftat

wolftat

Product Reviews Manager
Joined
Aug 19, 2007
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5,382
Location
Fairfield, CT, USA.
As most of you know, I had a major problem with a stabilizing company when I tried to start stabilizing for myself. Curtis has helped me out with getting started and I have finally been able to get something going again. I am now using Curtis's Cactus Juice Stabilizing resin and am pretty happy with the results. I have taken some wood that was so punky, it was actually falling apart as I placed it in my 7.5 gallon custom made vacuum/pressure tank. After a little while under vacuum and then an hour in my oven, the punky wood that was crumbling away was turned into a solid block and was sliced up into blanks for further testing. So far this is the easiest, safest, and best way I have found to stabilize my own blanks and will be doing more testing with it before I start selling them commercially. I just wanted to thank Curtis for all the time he spent with me on the phone and in PMs back and forth to get this going. I will not be selling this stabilizing resin but I will be using it on all my blanks. With 5 tanks up and running, I should be able to do a lot of testing with this product.
 
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Curtis and or wolftat,
Is there a 'blog' or something where we can keep track of all the info from the people who have had experience with the Cactus Juice and/or process.

I personally purchased the setup from Curtis when they first came out, and have only had the chance to stablilize a handfull of blanks, and the last time I added in a little coloring to the Juice. From looking at the blanks (haven't had a chance to turn them yet) it appears the coloring has penetrated through the entire blank.
 
wolftat said:
As most of you know, I had a major problem with a stabilizing company when I tried to start stabilizing for myself. Curtis has helped me out with getting started and I have finally been able to get something going again. I am now using Curtis's Cactus Juice Stabilizing resin and am pretty happy with the results. I have taken some wood that was so punky, it was actually falling apart as I placed it in my 7.5 gallon custom made vacuum/pressure tank. After a little while under vacuum and then an hour in my oven, the punky wood that was crumbling away was turned into a solid block and was sliced up into blanks for further testing. So far this is the easiest, safest, and best way I have found to stabilize my own blanks and will be doing more testing with it before I start selling them commercially. I just wanted to thank Curtis for all the time he spent with me on the phone and in PMs back and forth to get this going. I will not be selling this stabilizing resin but I will be using it on all my blanks. With 5 tanks up and running, I should be able to do a lot of testing with this product.
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+100 on the Cactus Juice. I have tried 3 or 4 different kinds in my chamber and this stuff has performed flawless. I just wish he didn't live so far away. Costs me way to much in poastage fees.

Lin.
 
Same goes for me with the Cactus Juice. I have even used it now for casting punky bowl blanks. I just wish I had a larger vacuum chamber to do bigger bowls.

Dave

Sent from my-phone.
 
I have stabilized about 4 or 5 dozen blanks with the Cactus Juice. Almost all turned out very good. Some woods just are not meant to be stabilized (HRB and Cocobolo) are the ones that did not turn out well for me. Cactus Juice has my vote for best product of the year for pen turners. Do I still buy stabilized wood blanks? Sure, sometimes, but most of the time I can stabilize some of my top shelf wood and not have to worry about what my next $6 blank will look like.
 
First failure with my system. I tried to stabilize a natural Loofa sponge.............. Nope, did not work. The sponge was just too porus and the juice had nothing to grab onto. Sponge would be great in a pressure pot.
 
Finatic said:
First failure with my system. I tried to stabilize a natural Loofa sponge.............. Nope, did not work. The sponge was just too porus and the juice had nothing to grab onto. Sponge would be great in a pressure pot.
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I had issues w/ Redwood, but Curtis told me I would but I had to try.:) I am thinking for the same reason, just too soft.
 
The Loofa has a skeleton similar to cactus. The veins are a lot closer and tighter so I hoped it would work. I guess you can push everything over the edge. I stick to stabilizing punky wood. It can't be beat in that application.
 
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