# Stablized curly maples



## Flacer22 (Jan 2, 2021)

Got the itch to try something big so I stablized a couple of 2.25x4.25x24in pieces of curly maple. It sure likes alot of resin but I was pretty happy with how they turned out and wowsers heavy lol!

Reactions: Like 2 | EyeCandy! 4 | Way Cool 3


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## Tony (Jan 2, 2021)

Dang those are sweet! Plans for them?

Reactions: Like 1


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## barry richardson (Jan 2, 2021)

Look great! You must have a big chamber....

Reactions: Like 1


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## Eric Rorabaugh (Jan 2, 2021)

Purdy!

Reactions: Like 1


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## T. Ben (Jan 2, 2021)

Man those are gorgeous.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Maverick (Jan 2, 2021)

Wowzers! Nice.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Wildthings (Jan 2, 2021)

barry richardson said:


> Look great! You must have a big chamber....


Exactly my thinking

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1 | Great Post 1


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## Flacer22 (Jan 2, 2021)

Tony said:


> Dang those are sweet! Plans for them?


Just selling them there is one blue one I made (I actually made 2 of each color) I might keep and add to my collection (it's awful I have so much cool wood and no talent to make anything! so I have a collection of blanks as pieces around my house friends think I'm nuts lol!)

My large chamber is 6x36in

Reactions: Like 3


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## Karl_TN (Jan 2, 2021)

Mind sharing about your process? I’m mostly wondering about the dye process. It reminds me of Chestnut Spirit Stain that I use on wood bowls and platters, but this is mostly a surface treatment. Wonder if it be worth the effort to do platters this way so they can withstand being cut on, or would it be too expensive?


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## Flacer22 (Jan 3, 2021)

Karl_TN said:


> Mind sharing about your process? I’m mostly wondering about the dye process. It reminds me of Chestnut Spirit Stain that I use on wood bowls and platters, but this is mostly a surface treatment. Wonder if it be worth the effort to do platters this way so they can withstand being cut on, or would it be too expensive?



So I'm definitely no expert and there are alot of guys on here who know waaaaaay more then I do so hopefully they chime in too but here is how I do it. 

I start by picking whatever piece of wood I plan to stablize. Once ive decide what pieces I wanna put in a "load" I'll put them in my lightbulb kiln to get them as close to zero percent as I can (depending on size and what it is this can take 12 hours to 2 weeks) my light bulb kiln isn't fancy it's just a junk commercial oven with heat lamps in it it ranges form 190-225 degrees. This part is very important as if you don't dry the wood enough it causes problems with resin and mostly the vacuum pump. Like enough sap from 10% dry wood will blow a pump trust me on that haha!!

So once you have your wood dry you place it in the chamber. I put my wood in a clean chamber and put lid on and let the wood cool down a couple hours while inside the clean chamber. Pouring resin on hot wood will cause resin to get hard right on edges u don't notice it but it clogs pours of wood and wood won't suck up resin like it should (again learned this the hard way). Once wood is in I pour resin in (cactus juice) I try to make sure resin in couple inches over top of wood. If your useing dye to get the brightest vibrant colors you can't be shy with dye I mix 4-6oz of dye per gallon of resin. I turn vacuum on and baby it for about 10 mins till it stops violently bubbling before I can leave it on. Very important to not let bubbles get to within 3 ins of the lid of your chamber ( again hard way resin in vacuum locks it up. Plus to this is u learn how to rebuild vacuum pumps kinda quickly) once resin is bubbling stable time to wait I've found 20-48 hours is best to keep it under vacuum. Also found that a 24 hour soak in resin prior to vacuum being turned on can cut this down by quite alot. I also tend to once or twice in the 24-48 I'll power my pump down and let off vacuum this seems to let resin In so you can top it off if needed and also seems to release some trapped bubbles as when you turn pump back on it tends to bubble alot more then it was when turned off. 
So once the pump is turned off and vacuum released time to let them soak. Again add resin to make sure wood never goes above it but let it soak 2-3 times as long as under vacuum. The more crotchy it burly the wood or harder the wood the longer you will need to soak. Buckeye burl takes 24-48 hours soak ycb or oak crotch can take week and half for a basic idea. 
Once it's been soaked and "done" time to Cure the resin that take 2-4 hours at 190+ degrees extra hot does not make it go faster just causes more resin to run out of wood. So best to hover just over that 190 as best you can. I use the top section of my commercial oven to cure in it stays right around 200 degrees. I don't wrap in foil waste of time imo and way easier to clean blanks up when done. I use a drop pan and just toss them in I also tend to leave them in more like 12-24 hours just to be on safe side. Once cooked clean the up with sander or saw and done unless you are double dyeing then that's a new subject!

As far as cost goes it's not a cheap thing. I buy resin 8 gallons at a time (anything over 4 you get bulk discount) and with the bulk discount it's 70$ plus shipping a gallon. The dye is 20$ for 8oz. There are tooons of different kinds of pumps and chamber you can get set up for little to nothing as far as pump and chamber up to hundreds. I bought my chambers right from turn Tex and I believe they around 280$ for the larger one and 180$ for the smaller one. I bought my vacuum pumps from zoro though there online first time buyer deal and got it like 15% off and pump was 350$ I believe after that deal. First one I got broke haha and I sent it in to be fixed for some reason they sent it back due to covid and sent me parts to fix it and a brand new pump?? I still don't understand it but I ended up with two pumps for price of one so I got kinda lucky there. 

To do a platter blank would be possible but it would definitely be costly to get a chamber going large enough to get it in and probably be alot of resin to submerge it. But definitely possible. Every wood takes different amounts of resin and the resin that's left can be re used ( obviously not what is soaked Into the wood but what the wood is submerged in can be) but to give you a rough idea the 2 pieces of maple 2x4x24 took about gallon and half of resin. So about 3/4 gallon in each one. 

I'll attach some pics of everything I use 

O and the pics of wood in my chamber soaking is a major mess up accidentally put way to much wood in for how much resin hence way half my wood is over top of resin. Soooooo gonna cool them and try to double due the top ones that aren't fully done!

Reactions: Like 2 | Great Post 1 | Informative 6


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## Eric Rorabaugh (Jan 3, 2021)

@Flacer22 
Andy, if you make all this cool wood but don't make anything with it, why don't you put some stuff up for trade? Have someone make something for you from the wood you dyed/stabilized or even raw wood. Just my thoughts

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Flacer22 (Jan 3, 2021)

Eric Rorabaugh said:


> @Flacer22
> Andy, if you make all this cool wood but don't make anything with it, why don't you put some stuff up for trade? Have someone make something for you from the wood you dyed/stabilized or even raw wood. Just my thoughts


I've done quite a bit none recently but there will be more for sure!!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Wildthings (Jan 3, 2021)

Eric Rorabaugh said:


> @Flacer22
> Andy, if you make all this cool wood but don't make anything with it, why don't you put some stuff up for trade? Have someone make something for you from the wood you dyed/stabilized or even raw wood. Just my thoughts


Man that's a great idea!! Send me the 2.25x4.25x24in pieces of blue curly maple. In return I'll make and finish a small block of blue 
curly maple (2.25x4.25x 2in) and send it back to you so you can display it! You got my address!!

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 3


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## Mr. Peet (Jan 3, 2021)

Flacer22 said:


> I've done quite a bit none recently but there will be more for sure!!



And it pulls the complete thickness? I wondered if it made it clean through. Way cool.


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## Mike Hill (Jan 4, 2021)

YOu've got a great set-up Andy! And make some purdy wood - BUT - not as purdy as that crotchety walnut!

Reactions: Funny 1 | +Karma 1


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## Flacer22 (Jan 4, 2021)

Mr. Peet said:


> And it pulls the complete thickness? I wondered if it made it clean through. Way cool.


I've not cut it in half or anything but my guess is ya it's all the way based on how heavy it is. Kinda amazing really

Reactions: Like 1


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## Gdurfey (Jan 4, 2021)

I thought you planned it that way, then you turn it over for the other color.......


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## Gardnaaa (Jan 4, 2021)

So do you prefer a tall narrow chamber rather than the short fat ones like most people use? I notice a lot of the people on YouTube like Casey Martin, zac higgens, and others use those kinds of pots, and I think they are cheaper as well. Just curious to see your reasoning


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## Flacer22 (Jan 5, 2021)

Gardnaaa said:


> So do you prefer a tall narrow chamber rather than the short fat ones like most people use? I notice a lot of the people on YouTube like Casey Martin, zac higgens, and others use those kinds of pots, and I think they are cheaper as well. Just curious to see your reasoning


Tbh I called curtis at turntex and ordered everything to start with right from him so I didn't really pick out a tall vs a short chamber just kinda what I started with. That being said I'm talking with him he advised me to buy a tall chamber and then I could run various "loads" at different heights with less resin. Doesn't take much resin for a 6-8in tall batch vs a large short chamber still takes alot of resin to submerge stuff. So I can see where the tall narrower ones would work well for most stuff. My little 4in one can run a 6-8 in little batch with about 1/4 of a gallon so that's nice especially if you want to make a bunch of pen blanks or something along those lines. I do want to buy a short 12-16in 8in chamber from him to run some larger diameter blanks but for now I don't really have a market for those size and don't wanna spend the money. So overall yes I guess I've grown to like the tall narrower chambers but that's all I've ever known too so I'm biased

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Igor (Jan 5, 2021)

a high chamber is good in that it is unlikely that resin will enter the pump. In low chambers, a resin trap should be placed between the pump and the chamber.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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