System Three Rotfix in Vacuum?

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WillieD

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Feb 7, 2012
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Location
Nashville, TN
I just got a vacuum chamber last week and I've stabilized two batches of pen blanks and one burled bowl blank with Cactus Juice. Love it!

I was also recently given a 1 1/2 gallon Rotfix kit by someone that ended up replacing rather than stabilizing the problem wood they were restoring. I've used this stuff before to fill cracks and heart checks in both Rosewood and Bocote logs. I like it because you have 30 minutes of working time before it starts to gel AND because it has 100% solids with no solvents along with only 325cps viscosity.

Has anybody used Rotfix in vacuum before? I'm planning to try it with burled blanks that have bark inclusions and am wondering what level of penetration to expect with the bark. Plan B would be to stabilize with Cactus Juice first to get the bark (leaving voids empty), then use the Rotfix under vacuum to fill the voids. But that seems both redundant and like I'm doing the same thing twice. ;)

Thanks!
 
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You will need to pull full vacuum and the release it before the resin begins to gel to have any chance of it working. If you hold vac until it cures, it is not going to do much of anything. Remember, vacuum pulls air out, releasing vacuum gets resin back in.
 
MesquiteMan said:
You will need to pull full vacuum and the release it before the resin begins to gel to have any chance of it working. If you hold vac until it cures, it is not going to do much of anything. Remember, vacuum pulls air out, releasing vacuum gets resin back in.
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Curtis - I was thinking about full vacuum for 15 minutes and then release. I also have a partly baked idea of adding a port to the chamber where I can delay the introduction of the resin. For lack of a better description, sort of like starting an I.V. so the vacuum can be run for a longer period before I've even mixed the resin. (One of the big reasons I love C.J. is that you have full control over all timing in the process.)

magpens said:
Where can you buy Rotfix ??? .. Please.
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Mal - Both woodcraft.com and amazon carry it. I also think System Three has an online store. Google Rotfix or System Three. I've worked with other similar products in the past and truly think Rotfix is the best that I've tried.
 
Just remember, those hoses and valves that you will be introducing the resin through in a delayed manner will have to be cleaned every time!
 
Initial thoughts on 1st test runs

Now I've run 2 Rotfix batches.

The resin foams up and the bubbles don't dissipate very rapidly. This is significant where the blanks had more bark (more air, more foam). Blanks that just had voids rather than bark had less of this and a higher vacuum could be used before the foam became an issue.

The first set turned out fairly nice, at least looking from the outside. I'll know more once I use them. I ran vacuum for 10 minutes and had to manually control how much vacuum was in the chamber the whole way through.

I ran the second batch 15 minutes before releasing the vacuum. Even though this product says 30 minutes to 'gel', it does begin to thicken somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes. After the resin cured, there were bubbles on the top of the blanks (I created forms to hold each blank with foil with a couple of mm's of space on the sides and ends.). The tops were like really firm sponge. All 3 of these blanks had at least some bark. After cutting the foamy part off of the tops, these will be usable. Lucky me.

Going forward, I'll only use this product under vacuum where voids exist and there are no visible signs of bark. If I ever get time to try the I.V. method (briefly described earlier), I'll try it on bark again.
 
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