# Stabilizing Rig, V2



## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

So a while back i did a post on stabilizing wood with a handheld vacuum pump, but ive noticed that lately we've had a few people asking about stabilization and ive upgraded my rig since then, so i figured it was time for a redux. It also didnt hurt that woodnthings sent me a box of fun new woods to play with as a bribe, so ive been doing a lot of stabilizing anyway. So, heres the new rig:








Ive got an actual pump now, nothing fancy though, just a single stage ebay special that i think i paid $50 all told for. A couple mason jars, some various brass fittings and some vinyl tubing complete everything, in all i think i spent less that $70 putting my little rig together, and that could be a lot less depending on what you already have on hand.









A closer look at the chambers, and you can see off to the right the valves i use for controlling the pressure. The jar on the left is the actual stabilizing chamber, the one the wood goes in. Its presently occupied by some Flamed Box Elder im really excited to see how it comes out. The jar on the right is what im calling the reservoir, i actually just added that into the system. Its purpose is mainly to prevent any of the juice from foaming up into the line and getting to the pump, but it also serves to top off the main chambers resin levels to account for what the wood absorbs. More on that later.









A closer look at the reservoir chamber. Little hard to see, but to the right of the jar you can see the line coming from the main chamber, through the lid and extending down to the bottom of the jar, so that that line can suck up resin from the reservoir and deliver it to the main chamber. The line going to the pump is attached much further up by the jars lid, so that the pump wont suck up the resin

Ive got another batch of wood going in tomorrow, so ill get back with a 'how it works' post then, showing most of the steps. Stay tuned!


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## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

Nice set up, Epic. I went a little more expensive route and got the large chamber from an online source. Stainless pot with a plastic lid.

Once again, my main problem is lack of space. If I want to do some stabilization, I've got to get it all out, get it all set up and ready.
So, for the time being, I am not using the equipment.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*how about a diagram?*

It would help to see which lines run where. Also would a pressure cooker work for the large chamber? Cheap enough at the Salvation Army or other sources like yard sales. :smile3:


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

woodnthings said:


> It would help to see which lines run where. Also would a pressure cooker work for the large chamber? Cheap enough at the Salvation Army or other sources like yard sales. :smile3:


Huh, diagram... Didnt think of that. Ive gotta stop making these posts at 3 in the morning... :grin:








Youll have to forgive my crude sketch, im not the artistic type. Anyway, the line runs from the pump to what im calling a 3 way T, pretty much just a standard T with ball valves on 2 of the branches. The pump line is connected to the valveless leg of the t/ From there, one of the valves goes off to the chamber side, the other valve is open to air. This allows one to control how much vacuum is applied to the chamber, as well as gives a way to shut off the pump without it being under vacuum. 

Going off to the chamber side of things, you can see the line running into the reservoir, marked R, hanging out at the top of the chamber, way above the fluid level. This keeps the juice from getting sucked into the pump. From there, a line in the reservoir goes below the fluid level, and into the actual chamber, marked C, that holds the wood.

The way that this all works is you put the wood in the chamber, fill it with juice, kick on the pump, the reservoir catches whatever gets sucked up from the chamber and holds it there, vacuum until the bubbles stop, and when you kick off the vacuum pressure forces the juice from the reservoir into the chamber, keeping it full and making sure the wood stays submerged. More on that in a bit


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Nearly forgot to add, a pressure cooker would work perfectly for a vacuum chamber, thats what most people choose to do actually. I went this way because its a slightly less space-intensive way and i didnt want to have to fabricate a lid for the cooker, you need to be able to see inside the chamber. Plus, all things considered, this way is cheaper, the pump, line and fittings would be the same with a pressure cooker, but with the cooker you have to factor in the cost of the 1/4ish piece of acrylic or similar to make the lid out of. The cooker would allow for larger pieces to be stabilized though


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Okay, so heres what im tossing in the tank today:








Couple pieces of pretty nice walnut and the last of that FBE. Into the chamber they go, with a piece of wire mesh being used to keep them from floating to the top of the jar:








That mesh is important, the blanks have to remain submerged. The chamber and reservoir topped up with resin:








Then we kick on the vacuum pump and move over to the valves. Right now, ive got them set so the lines are open, and the pump is just pulling background air:








Ball valve on the left is going to air, the one on the right is going to the chamber setup. The ball valve on the left is closed to start sucking the air out of the chamber:


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

This is why i like having the reservoir, it used to be i had to feather the vacuum to the chamber to keep the resin foaming up too much and being sucked into the lines, now i can just run it full on from the start. Still foams up, but it just gets sucked into the reservoir:








Nice and foamy, means the air from the wood is getting sucked out, but nothings in the line going to the pump. Now, from here you just have to keep the pump running until bubbles stop coming off the wood. With my setup, stabilizing walnut, ive found it takes about 1 hour, but ymmv. Now, i went ahead and closed off the lines running to the chambers, to show you the purpose of the reservoir:








You can see that the reservoir now has a lot more resin in it, and the chamber has emptied a bit, so much that part of the wood is exposed. No bueno! If this were to happen while the wood wasnt under vacuum, like it is here, air would rush back into the wood, displace the resin and completely defeat the purpose. Now watch what happens when i open the valves back up and let the air back in:








The reservoir gets pressurized, forcing the resin back into the chamber and filling it back up. Neat, huh? Anyway, from here youd let the wood soak for as long as possible in the resin. Turntex, the maker, says to soak for at least twice as long as the wood was under vacuum, but i like giving it 24 hours or so. After that, bake at 250 for a while to set the resin and boom, stabilized wood!








Thats right, my setup is so good it turns walnut into zebrawood!


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## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

Nice write-up. Amazing, that transformation into Zebra Wood !!! :wink2:

I didn't realize that the walnut would suck the FBE wood into itself like that !!!
:vs_laugh:


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

mikechell said:


> I didn't realize that the walnut would suck the FBE wood into itself like that !!!
> :vs_laugh:


Now THATS how you pull a vacuum!


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

It occurred to me that despite showing how to stabilize wood, ive never gone over why. Bit of an oversight on my part, the people who know why usually also know how after all. So, a quick example of why:








The wood on that one is some spalted buckeye crotchwood that our own Tennessee Tim was fantastically awesome enough to send my way. Now, clearly the wood has some serious character, but in its raw state it wouldve been completely useless for an application like this. Being buckeye, it was already an extremely soft wood, prone to easily denting, dings and the like. Being a crotchwood piece didnt likely didnt help the durability, and being spalted didnt help in the least. In addition, buckeye isnt rot-resistant in the lease, not a characteristic you want for something thats meant to be handled a lot.

Stabilizing, though, transformed this piece from "pretty but useless" to "one of the most awesome pieces ive had the pleasure to use". For one, the stabilizing resin being absorbed into the wood adds a load of strength, both in terms of durability and hardness. The stabilizing process also pretty effectively well seals the wood from season movement, and being that the wood is essentially plasticized, rot and decay are a worry of the past. That said, it still feels like wood, no plasticky feeling. Workability has also massively gone up because of the increase in hardness. Think trying to get a smooth cut in a spruce 2x4, vs a piece of hard maple

So, in short, in addition to mitigating seasonal movement with humidity changes, stabilizing can also be used to nearly eliminate negatives effects you can find in a piece of wood, like softness or instability, allowing you to use a piece for a task you otherwise may not. This isnt limited to knife handles either, the same advantages can also be used for things like pen turning, tool handles or really anything else, skys the limit


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## TimPa (Jan 27, 2010)

she's a beaut, Clark!


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

TimPa said:


> she's a beaut, Clark!


...whos clark?


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## Tennessee Tim (Dec 15, 2010)

epicfail48 said:


> ...whos clark?


I think that's a movie line!?!?

Post that other knife.....it's purdy 2!!!! Am. Chestnut is a good example of a softer wood that needs stabilizing for handles also.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Tennessee Tim said:


> I think that's a movie line!?!?
> 
> Post that other knife.....it's purdy 2!!!! Am. Chestnut is a good example of a softer wood that needs stabilizing for handles also.


Ask and ye shall receive! For anybody curious, Tim is the one who sent be the wood i used in these, so hes already seen (and claimed one of) these 2 knifes. 








This one was done with some American Chestnut that Tim had pulled out of a 1950's(?) house(?). Some really gorgeous pieces, beautiful color and more character than you know what to do with. As pointed out though, chestnut, of any vintage, isnt very appropriate for knife or tool handles, or most things that get handled a lot. At a hardness of 540lb on the Janka scale, its about half as hard as walnut, which is about the softest wood ill use untreated. Plus, with the age on this piece, there were some slight cracks along the grain. Overall, here again an awesome piece of wood, but not the first choice for a tool handle/knife/pen and the like.

Stabilizing here again saves the day. Beyond the intended benefits on stabilization, i.e mitigating movement and the associated benefits. The hardness is increased, and while it wont turn balsa into lignum vitae it will harden an otherwise soft and unusable piece of wood enough to turn it useful. Spalted or punky woods in particular benefit from this. The stabilizing resin also does an excellent job kinda gluing all the individual wood fibers together, so a wood like this is less likely to split along the surface splits that come with age and just overall holds up better

Another thing i keep forgetting to note, stabilized wood is a lot easier to work with. Grinding, sanding and the like all seem to go better, though id be hard pressed to describe how. Sanding in particular is massively improved, with most 'natural' woods are limited in how fine a grit sandpaper you can reasonably use. Oak, for example, doesnt see a lot of benefit sanding past 220 or even 180, the wood just isnt dense enough to take the finer scratches from finer papers. Stabilize the same piece, you can go up to 320-400 grit, then buff, and get a beautiful glossy finish on the wood with no actual finish. Thats actually exactly what i did with these 2 blades actually, theres no actual finish on the handles.

So, now that you know both how and why to stabilize wood, go forth and make a pen from that gorgeous piece you cant bring yourself to toss!


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## Tennessee Tim (Dec 15, 2010)

Thanks to start with....that one is purdy too!!! 

The Am. Chestnut came out of a large barn built in 1950's around a 20x22 log crib with a loft floor...it's unknown when they restacked the logs in the crib and built that only section of loft area... BUT they were repurposed from what owners thought the ancestry had told her "the log home place". We think the loft floor was recut from older chestnut logs as this was a common practice in that time era and as usual it was mixed species but we think mostly beech or elm.

Again thanks for the article!!!


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Not many wood related articles get my ole heart to galloping any more, but this one sure did, I for one really appreciate you taking the time to show us how you do this. I have some antique chestnut that pews were made from, which came out of an old church building around Oxford Mississippi, used by slaves in the very early 1800s. Like said already, it is soft and very light, your process would really make this wood usable for a few things other than just box turkey calls.


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## Tennessee Tim (Dec 15, 2010)

*Oh I Forgot......been busy....*

I forgot to post .....I purchased the spalted Buckeye knife.....I couldn't resist....only one problem... the picture, it doesn't do it justice...It's beautiful!!!! The stabilizing does so much for the wood and different lighting shows different results. I've shown it here lately on overcast days and the first comment would be how they loved the camoflauged or rock handle until closer inspection only to be amazed that it's wood and viewing under good lighting I have a hard time getting it back as they keep looking at the chatouancy in the wood (fancy word for deep beautiful grain!!)

I never would've guessed stabilizing could change the use of a soft trash can scrap of wood.

This is a quality knife that I'm pleased with.....and yes I'm picky and checked it out, even the shaving edge....all the joints are tight, handle and blade are ground symetrical, even the case is finely handcrafted. Thanks Epic!!!!


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