# First time stabilizing and cooking



## Rustburger (Dec 17, 2017)

This is my first time stabilizing and then cooking the wood.

Can anyone describe the texture/brittleness of the cactus juice that remains on the wood after stabilizing and then cooking it? 

Should it be really brittle or does it still have a bit of flex to it?

I have cooked the wood for 1.5 hours at 200-225 degrees and used an oven thermometer to check the temperature.

The wood is only 1/2 inch thick and will be used for casting so it was not wrapped in foil.

Thanks


----------



## Tony (Dec 17, 2017)

@rocky1


----------



## Rustburger (Dec 17, 2017)

I think everything turned out okay.
Olivewood burl, maple burl and buckeye burl

Reactions: Like 1 | EyeCandy! 2


----------



## rocky1 (Dec 17, 2017)

Should be hard and brittle after it cools James. I've had batches that set up rock hard cooking but many had to cool before they got good and hard.

Somewhere around here, one of the guys did a fairly in-depth study on cooking goodies off with/without wrapping them, different temps, different woods, etc. etc. and he found better results unwrapped by reducing temperature and extending cook time slightly. Lost less weight cooking, meaning he was retaining more stabilizing resin in the wood. For that reason I cook mine at 190o F. for 2 hours, in a convection toaster oven. I've had batches that were cooked off sooner, have also had batches that I had to leave longer. And, I've had a few I pulled that still looked a little wet when I pulled them, that set up perfectly when they cooled.

You shouldn't have any resin stuck to the piece unwrapped, unless you cooked them in a pan, which is going to give you the wrapped/puddled resin effect on the bottom of the piece still. Cook them on the oven rack, use a tin foil catch pan on the bottom of the oven to catch resin that drips. Your blanks will come out much cleaner and require far less sanding. They may look like bat guana when you pull them out of the oven, but as soon as they're sanded they'll polish up beautifully. Assuming you had resin puddled around your blank in the pan when you pulled it, yes it is at times flexible fresh out of the oven. Should set up hard when it cools. If you sand it while warm, it makes sanding much easier!! I've gone straight from the oven to the sander with them before. Quick as I could hold on to them, they got sanded.

Started letting them drip dry before putting them in the oven, and cooking on the oven rack, and I wind up with a few lines where surface tension holds resin around wires on the oven rack, and that's it. Takes about 20 - 30 seconds a blank to sand, unless they were really cut ugly.


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Dec 17, 2017)

Rustburger said:


> I think everything turned out okay.
> Olivewood burl, maple burl and buckeye burl
> 
> View attachment 138481


is that some of the olive i sent?


----------



## Schroedc (Dec 17, 2017)

For cooking off, you want to keep the temp of the oven just high enough to cause it to set but otherwise as low as possible. the resin I use sets at 190 so I set my oven at 195. if you go hotter what can happen is that before the resin sets, more of it comes out of the wood due to expansion under higher heat.


----------



## Rustburger (Dec 17, 2017)

rocky1 said:


> Should be hard and brittle after it cools James. I've had batches that set up rock hard cooking but many had to cool before they got good and hard.
> 
> Somewhere around here, one of the guys did a fairly in-depth study on cooking goodies off with/without wrapping them, different temps, different woods, etc. etc. and he found better results unwrapped by reducing temperature and extending cook time slightly. Lost less weight cooking, meaning he was retaining more stabilizing resin in the wood. For that reason I cook mine at 190o F. for 2 hours, in a convection toaster oven. I've had batches that were cooked off sooner, have also had batches that I had to leave longer. And, I've had a few I pulled that still looked a little wet when I pulled them, that set up perfectly when they cooled.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the advice
I did let them drip dry and then cook some of them on the rack which worked out well. The others I placed on the tray and for obvious reasons, they had more resin that had to be sanded off. 

You are correct in that when the blanks first came out the resin was a little soft but quickly hardened as the blanks cooled. ( good thing to know)

I was a little surprised to see some of the blanks warp slightly after cooking. I guess that is normal?

Next step is to cast some of the blanks with Alumilite and see how that process turns out.


----------



## Rustburger (Dec 17, 2017)

vegas urban lumber said:


> is that some of the olive i sent?


It sure is...beautiful stuff...right?

Just like you said too...cracks like crazy. I am going to cast them in Alumilite to fill the cracks and see how that turns out.

Thanks again for the trade.


----------



## Rustburger (Dec 17, 2017)

Schroedc said:


> For cooking off, you want to keep the temp of the oven just high enough to cause it to set but otherwise as low as possible. the resin I use sets at 190 so I set my oven at 195. if you go hotter what can happen is that before the resin sets, more of it comes out of the wood due to expansion under higher heat.



That is something I will keep in mind the next time. In this case, more ( Temp) is not better.
Thanks


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Dec 17, 2017)

if the olive warped it is due to it's unusually high moisture content, some not being pulled out in the vacuum that later cooks off in the oven. a longer soak in the cactus juice under vacuum or baking/heating first before going in the juice can help reduce warp in the final cook.
depending on your oven. consider a separate digital controller and thermometer that the oven plugs into. many small toaster ovens can be off by 20 to 30 degrees in their temp settings and shutoff points. 
when my brother changed controllers and thermometers he got much better results.


----------



## vegas urban lumber (Dec 17, 2017)

Rustburger said:


> It sure is...beautiful stuff...right?
> 
> Just like you said too...cracks like crazy. I am going to cast them in Alumilite to fill the cracks and see how that turns out.
> 
> Thanks again for the trade.


yeah i'm always amazed at how good the patterns look when sealed and sanded
that one in the upper left appears to have some cool curl


----------



## rocky1 (Dec 17, 2017)

On any blank, you're going to see resin seep toward the bottom as it cooks, or the top of them cooks and dries faster than the bottom or something. Whatever the case may be, they always seem to remain wet on the bottom while the top is dry. On thinner pieces I turn them about half way through the cooking process to try and prevent the top from drying considerably more than the bottom while cooking. Anything you cook in the pan, I'd remove from the pan while cooling, to prevent cooling at different rates. Personally, I got away from pans altogether, they're just too much hassle. Warping, twisting, splitting is all about different forces being applied to the same cell structure in the wood. Try and keep those forces as even as possible and you'll have straighter pieces.


----------



## Rustburger (Dec 17, 2017)

vegas urban lumber said:


> if the olive warped it is due to it's unusually high moisture content, some not being pulled out in the vacuum that later cooks off in the oven. a longer soak in the cactus juice under vacuum or baking/heating first before going in the juice can help reduce warp in the final cook.
> depending on your oven. consider a separate digital controller and thermometer that the oven plugs into. many small toaster ovens can be off by 20 to 30 degrees in their temp settings and shutoff points.
> when my brother changed controllers and thermometers he got much better results.


 Any of the warping was minimal. I really love working with Olivewood. When I use olivewood to make tobacco pipes, if the wood is still green I boil it in water for a hour per inch to remove the oils/sap and then let it dry for a few weeks. Turns out great and I think it smells good when you turn it!

I checked the temp in my oven and it was off by 30 degrees


----------



## Rustburger (Dec 17, 2017)

rocky1 said:


> On any blank, you're going to see resin seep toward the bottom as it cooks, or the top of them cooks and dries faster than the bottom or something. Whatever the case may be, they always seem to remain wet on the bottom while the top is dry. On thinner pieces I turn them about half way through the cooking process to try and prevent the top from drying considerably more than the bottom while cooking. Anything you cook in the pan, I'd remove from the pan while cooling, to prevent cooling at different rates. Personally, I got away from pans altogether, they're just too much hassle. Warping, twisting, splitting is all about different forces being applied to the same cell structure in the wood. Try and keep those forces as even as possible and you'll have straighter pieces.


Yeah, I thought that I need to get a 2nd rack for the oven.

Also, good to know that it is okay to turn them over during the cooking process.


----------



## rocky1 (Dec 17, 2017)

Just did a couple pieces of camphor for @Spinartist that were barely 3/8" thick, if they made that. Flipped those half way through the cook cycle; there was an obvious moisture line on the bottom half when I turned them over even an hour into cooking on a piece that thin. They cooked out beautifully, no problems in turning them at all. Pulled them on the oven rack and set out to cool, there was no warp or twist what so ever in those.

Reactions: Like 1


----------

