Stabilizing Questions

[raar25]

Ok so I am getting ready to start stabilizing wood blanks and I have some questions for the smart people here:

1. Why doesnt anyone stabilize after they drill their blanks? Seems like this would make the stabilizing faster and waste less cactus juice?

2. How is cactus juice different from the stabilizing material used for commercial sellers like PSI? I use alot of their spalted Tamarind blanks and they are really hard and finish very nicely.

3. Will I get a similar finish after polishing on non-spalted wood which is stablized compared to spalted wood (considering spalted wood absorbs more resin)?

Thanks,
Ray

 

[NittanyLion]

Ok so I am getting ready to start stabilizing wood blanks and I have some questions for the smart people here:

1. Why doesnt anyone stabilize after they drill their blanks? Seems like this would make the stabilizing faster and waste less cactus juice? Some do. You would need to know what kit you are going to use for the blank, or just drill them out for 7mm(I've done this on wood that's very dense).

2. How is cactus juice different from the stabilizing material used for commercial sellers like PSI? I use alot of their spalted Tamarind blanks and they are really hard and finish very nicely.Cactus Juice and StickFast are the same thing essentially, with one key difference: Support from Curtis on the CJ.

3. Will I get a similar finish after polishing on non-spalted wood which is stablized compared to spalted wood (considering spalted wood absorbs more resin)?As long as properly stabilized, you should get about the same result in finish. If the non-spalted wood did not accept any resin, then you would see a difference.

Thanks,
Ray

Hope this helps

 

[HamTurns]

I stabilize after I drill and do some shaping on blanks.

I stabilize pen blanks as well as call blanks.

I've found that drilling and shaping before stabilizing uses less stabilizing fluid, plus you turn off less waste.

I DO NOT drill to final size, I do that after stabilizing. I always start with a hole smaller than what I need, then after stabilizing I size it to fit the job at hand.

Happy turning
Tom

 

[MesquiteMan]

My comments in Blue!

Ok so I am getting ready to start stabilizing wood blanks and I have some questions for the smart people here:

1. Why doesnt anyone stabilize after they drill their blanks? Seems like this would make the stabilizing faster and waste less cactus juice?

The air coming out of the wood is generally going to follow the path of least resistance which is the direction of the grain. Having a hole parallel to the grain does not do much to reduce the amount of time pulling vacuum. Pre-drilling does reduce the amount of Juice needed but you will need to re-drill after cooking to clean up the hole. Based on that, the effort required to drill, then stabilize, then drill again is not worth the $.15 of Cactus Juice that was saved!

2. How is cactus juice different from the stabilizing material used for commercial sellers like PSI? I use alot of their spalted Tamarind blanks and they are really hard and finish very nicely.

As for Cactus Juice compared to what the "pros" use...there are a nuber of "Pros" that use Cactus Juice. The chemistry is pretty much the same except for some of the older guys still using MMA. These blanks are the ones that stink like fiberglass when turning. IF you do the job right and follow the directions, you will get blanks just as good as any "professionally" stabilized blanks.

3. Will I get a similar finish after polishing on non-spalted wood which is stablized compared to spalted wood (considering spalted wood absorbs more resin)?

A very spalted, punky piece of wood will certianly absorb more Juice and the finished blank will be a higher concentration of resin. In punky spalted pecan, for example, I can usually triple the weight of the blank or more. In that case, the finished blank is 33% wood and 66% resin. Naturally, the higher the resin content, the better it polishes by itself and the more it acts like plastic instead of wood.

Thanks,
Ray

 

[MesquiteMan]

Cactus Juice and StickFast are the same thing essentially, with one key difference: Support from Curtis on the CJ.

Also, CJ is cheaper and will be fresher when you receive it. And yes, StickFast did indeed copy Cactus Juice so they are very similar but I don't think he was asking about CJ vs SF.