Worthless wood thats punky

[CrimsonKeel]

So i cast some worthless wood blanks and tried to turn them. one was fine and the other had a soft spot that even with trying ot soak in CA would not harden up. So what im asking i guess is how do you prep your wood for casting and what percent of your casts are toss aways because some part of the wood is bad? Can you tell if a wood will have bad spots?

 

[ed4copies]

Hey Ben!

I have just started playing with stabilizing. IN THEORY, if you get your blanks dry, then stabilize them, you shouldn't get punky spots. I am having a great time learning about stabilizing, by making a bunch of blanks. Next, I will be turning some, we gave away quite a few at "Turn on Chicago" and asked the guys to let us know how they turned.

We have used Cactus Juice, exclusively---so I expect I will get results similar to Curtis.

I can tell you it is addictive!

Ed

 

[sbell111]

My concern with stabilizing prior to casting worthless wood is that sometimes stabilizing goo oozes out of the blank and sticks to the outside of it. Normally, this isn't a big deal as you will just turn away the outside of a blank. With 'worthless wood', however, the edge of the material is retained and actually showcased in the finished pen.

 

[MesquiteMan]

My concern with stabilizing prior to casting worthless wood is that sometimes stabilizing goo oozes out of the blank and sticks to the outside of it. Normally, this isn't a big deal as you will just turn away the outside of a blank. With 'worthless wood', however, the edge of the material is retained and actually showcased in the finished pen.

Try curing your blanks without wrapping in foil and turn the void side down so any bleed out will drain away. Then any little bit of excess can be cleaned up with a wire brush and or Dremmel.

I stabilize everything that is the least bit likely to pick up color from the casting resin prior to casting.

 

[sbell111]

My concern with stabilizing prior to casting worthless wood is that sometimes stabilizing goo oozes out of the blank and sticks to the outside of it. Normally, this isn't a big deal as you will just turn away the outside of a blank. With 'worthless wood', however, the edge of the material is retained and actually showcased in the finished pen.

Try curing your blanks without wrapping in foil and turn the void side down so any bleed out will drain away. Then any little bit of excess can be cleaned up with a wire brush and or Dremmel.

I stabilize everything that is the least bit likely to pick up color from the casting resin prior to casting.

Thanks. I'll try that.

 

[denniszoomy]

I have had some red fir bark stabalized and it never does work it just stays soft. I have casted it alumalite as well, still soft. When turning you just have to be aware of these areas and use alot softer touch.

 

[CrimsonKeel]

Thanks for the answers guys. I have a local guy who can stabilize so mybe ill ask him to do a few blanks to test out and see if that helps or not. I do like the idea that it will help with color bleed into the blank also.

Are there any other suggestions other than stabilizing?

ON the blank in question I ended up scraping out the area that was soft and i recast just that area last night. Ill pull it out of pot later today to see if that works. Im hoping it just was a spot and not some sort of contamination that i couldnt get rid of.