jsolie
Member
My stabilization chamber from Curtis arrived today. 
Even though I was dog tired from a crazy busy day at the office, I had to get things set up after dinner and see how things work.
Packaging: Whoever packaged up my chamber and small jug-o-juice knew what they were doing. It seemed like everything was cross supported and everything was perfect.
Chamber & accessories: again, perfect. The vacuum tube was securely held by a couple of zip ties so there was no chance of it uncoiling during transport. The fittings seemed to be more than adequate for their task. The adapter fit without issue on my cheap Harbor Freight vacuum pump.
Jug of juice: I ordered a half-gallon of Cactus Juice to get me started. I wanted to get the hang of it before getting into the larger quantities. I was surprised at even the zip tie holding the knot at the top of the bag.
I acquired a toaster oven from Wal-Mart a few weeks ago, and had toasted some mostly cross-cut spalted pen blanks, as well as a few others. These have been waiting patiently in a big Zip-loc bag for this day.
My first task was getting things set up to be able to run my oil mist spewing vacuum pump for an hour. Since it's a nice night, I set up outside. After getting the pump situated and getting the activator into the Juice, I selected a few of the pen blanks from the aforementioned Zip-loc bag and used the provided holder to keep them in place in the chamber.
With things ready to go, I hooked everything up and turned on the pump.
Wow, did those blanks foam! The bubbles would get up close to the top of the chamber, then I'd open the valve a bit so they would go down. I didn't count how many times I did this, but it was quite a few. Eventually things settled down and I let the pump run for a little over an hour.
I just got back inside after putting everything away. I'm going to leave the blanks to soak in the juice until I can get home from work tomorrow night to roast them. :biggrin:
Even though I was dog tired from a crazy busy day at the office, I had to get things set up after dinner and see how things work.Packaging: Whoever packaged up my chamber and small jug-o-juice knew what they were doing. It seemed like everything was cross supported and everything was perfect.
Chamber & accessories: again, perfect. The vacuum tube was securely held by a couple of zip ties so there was no chance of it uncoiling during transport. The fittings seemed to be more than adequate for their task. The adapter fit without issue on my cheap Harbor Freight vacuum pump.
Jug of juice: I ordered a half-gallon of Cactus Juice to get me started. I wanted to get the hang of it before getting into the larger quantities. I was surprised at even the zip tie holding the knot at the top of the bag.
I acquired a toaster oven from Wal-Mart a few weeks ago, and had toasted some mostly cross-cut spalted pen blanks, as well as a few others. These have been waiting patiently in a big Zip-loc bag for this day.
My first task was getting things set up to be able to run my oil mist spewing vacuum pump for an hour. Since it's a nice night, I set up outside. After getting the pump situated and getting the activator into the Juice, I selected a few of the pen blanks from the aforementioned Zip-loc bag and used the provided holder to keep them in place in the chamber.
With things ready to go, I hooked everything up and turned on the pump.
Wow, did those blanks foam! The bubbles would get up close to the top of the chamber, then I'd open the valve a bit so they would go down. I didn't count how many times I did this, but it was quite a few. Eventually things settled down and I let the pump run for a little over an hour.
I just got back inside after putting everything away. I'm going to leave the blanks to soak in the juice until I can get home from work tomorrow night to roast them. :biggrin:
