Stabilizing, 1st attempt ISO

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M

Mortalis

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Bardstown, Ky
My first attempt at stabilizing using Cactus Juice.
When I left the blanks after placing in oven, it seems to be heat leveled at 197ºF to 205ºF. I left it overnight and when I went out this morning I noticed the oven was at 218ºF. There is a lot of leakage and I am wondering is this normal leakage for when the temp gets so high? I know they will leak more as the temp gets higher but this looks excessive. With that amount of leakage did the stabilization likely fail? The leaked bits are rather crumbly. I am looking for opinions.
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Looks pretty normal to me and that's not what I consider a really high curing temp by any means. Looks like you had them wrapped in foil... not wrapping them and just putting foil under to catch the leakage will give you cleaner pieces to work with in the future.
 
McKenzie Penworks said:
Looks pretty normal to me and that's not what I consider a really high curing temp by any means. Looks like you had them wrapped in foil... not wrapping them and just putting foil under to catch the leakage will give you cleaner pieces to work with in the future.
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Thank you for your reply.
Not using foil wrap? If I have them stacked will they meld together if not wrapped?
 
Looks like the first batch that I stabilized. I didn't read the directions particularly well and started them soaking in the cactus juice within the vacuum chamber prior to cooling them off first-- the cactus juice polymerized on the surface and not much made it into the blanks themselves. Hopefully not the same for yours! I now use ice packs over an airtight bag to cool them down prior to stabilizing.
 
Looks normal. I wrap each blank in foil. I find it easier to clean up the blank than my oven.

After baking my blanks to dry I transfer to a ziplock and then the fridge to cool before hitting the "juice".

It also good to let them soak in the juice after releasing the vacuum for 12-24 hours.

Danny


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More4dan said:
Looks normal. I wrap each blank in foil. I find it easier to clean up the blank than my oven.

After baking my blanks to dry I transfer to a ziplock and then the fridge to cool before hitting the "juice".

It also good to let them soak in the juice after releasing the vacuum for 12-24 hours.

Danny


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app
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That is what I did. I dried the blanks at 220+ overnight and then allowed them to cool. The blanks once cool then went into the vacuum. The blanks were under vacuum for almost 30 hours. They sat in the vacuum chamber at normal atmosphere afterwards for 3 days. I took them out of the after vacuum soak and allowed them to drip on a rack for about 10 hours. I then wrapped them in individually in foil and cured them overnight in the oven.
 
I find it better to not wrap them individually , just lay them side by side but not touching , on the foil . That way , I end up with three clean sides , possibly stuck together on the bottom . Drippings are easily cut off with a knife when still hot .
 
I just use a belt sander to knock off the excess - obviously easier for square/rectangular blanks. Looks pretty normal from my experience. I have found that if I wipe the excess of good and apply the foil neat and tight to the surface then the amount of squeeze out is less (my conclusion is that this results in better stabilization, so I always foil).
 
McKenzie Penworks said:
I promise you foil isn't keeping any extra resin in the blank... :) It's going to come out either way.
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My experience and Curtis' data seem to suggest otherwise (although my experience is limited and Curtis' dataset is small): https://www.turntex.com/help-center/cactus-juice-stabilizing-resources/64-cactus-juice-test-results

Rationally it does make some sense to me that foil will help -- if the outer layer of the blank cures it can essentially lock in the resin that has yet to cure internally. The foil may enhance curing right at the surface of the blank. I suspect that this is also one reason why curing at at a temperature only slightly above minimum is preferred. Obviously there are a lot of factors, I'm not certain foil helps, but I'm reasonably certain that it doesn't hurt and seems worth the effort for me.
 
I suppose there's a small chance that you get a hardened layer over the wood and under the foil that holds the rest in but I have my doubts. For me it's not a noticeable difference that makes it worth the mess. We pretty much just stabilize live ends for casting into hybrid blanks and I want those pins nice and clean... wrapped they tend to accumulate cured resin and I don't want to spend time cleaning that up. It's one thing to touch one side to a belt sander to give me a reference point for final trimming, it's another to have to try and pick that resin out of the pins. For big square blocks I don't mind as much either way but it's still nice not having to clean up every side.
 
@McKenzie Penworks I agree, I definitely wouldn't use foil for live edge. And it seems like the larger the block the less potential benefit. It is also possible that the foil will only help if you don't get the wood totally dry or total penetration of the resin -- with more experience/skill or better equipment there may be less actual value from using foil (if there is indeed any value to begin with).
 
The first thing I tried to turn from the batch was the already started bowl blank in the left side of the picture. I dont believe it got any penetration of the cactus juice because it is turning tough and powdery. I would think that as punky as it was and if it got good penetration it should turn somewhat like plastic.
I am going to cut the rectangular piece in the top of the picture into a couple pen blanks and see if there is penetration in it.
 
I record the dry weight and the stabilized weight (after knocking off excess). Spalted woods, in my experience, soak up the juice the best. I would suggest that if you roughly double weight then the penetration is pretty good, but there is a lot of variation between species and even between different pieces that are the same species. In my experience the CJ stabilized blanks are less 'plastic' than the professionally stabilized blanks I've used. Hard, dry, and powdery is consistent with my experience with CJ.
 
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