# Should have known



## Mark. (May 11, 2019)

Recently I been thinking about getting into stabilizing. After doing research on many different systems it came to me. Why haven't I ask this question of my friends on WoodBarter? So I ask Y'all where do I go for the best for my buck. I have seen that it will cost pretty good to get into this, so why waste money on something that is gonna leave me still wishing to have a better system. Where to go & what to look for, is my question. What's going to preform & yield the best results.


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## Mike1950 (May 11, 2019)

Curtiss at Turntex

Reactions: Agree 4


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## rocky1 (May 12, 2019)

Best Value Vacs makes an excellent product, bought a 1 gallon and a 10 gallon pot and having used both I can say quite honestly...

Buy the biggest chamber you can afford. You don't have to fill it with resin, you can stack plastic lunch meat dishes, Tupperware, whatever. I have a bucket for chlorine tablets for the pool that holds about 30 - 5 1/2" pen blanks. Load it up, fill with resin, pull vacuum, release, refill with resin, repeat... If I want to do multiple colors dying, dye a batch while stabilizing others, whatever, stack smaller bowls in there and pull vacuum on several batches at once. By the same respect if I need to stabilize an 8 - 9" bowl I have that option as well.

Just stay with the Glass Vac series. Mine has the acrylic lid, and they craze terribly.

BVV makes a pretty decent low dollar pump, pretty easy to work on when it needs servicing, although it can be a pain going back together and getting everything to work perfectly again, at times. Once you get the minute incremental tightening routine down on the pump cover, it works fine, but until then it'll make you pull your hair out.


Cactus Juice off the Turn Tex site in quantity is your best buy. Stick Fast makes a quality product, and the Best Value Vacs resin uses a label very similar to Stick Fast with exception of name, so I assume them one in the same. Stick Fast's label appears to have changed slightly now, but the two were identical when BVV first offered Wood Stabilizing Resin. Cactus Juice is available on the BVV site, as are their dyes too, but price breaks on quantity aren't offered there. All are available on Amazon... As well as the SOS stabilizing resin that Stan swears by.

You can shop E-Bay and see what you can find for prices on chambers and pumps, occasionally someone will be rotating stock and clearance price things. I saved enough on the 10 gallon pot and pump purchased separately to pay for the 1 gallon pot, so don't fall for the first package deal you find there. SHOP!!

Otherwise... When you get everything, search for discussions on how everyone pulls vacuum, pump maintenance, cooking blanks, etc. everyone does it a little different. Some of us do it way different, but it works.

Reactions: Like 2 | Informative 4


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## woodman6415 (May 12, 2019)

I use the turntex from Curtis Seebeck .. great product .. great service ..also a member here and has a Facebook page ..


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## Mark. (May 15, 2019)

Thanks for the advice. I have a very old pressure cooker & it must have been a commercial one.. It's 16&3/8 in diameter & 15" in depth. This thing has flip up bolts with wing nuts that are about 2&1/4" centered that holds the top on. My problem there is finding a Good scilon gasket. Think I may as well to bite the bullet & come off 4 or 5 hundred & get a decent starter? I don't want to spend that much & still be wishing I had a wood stabilizer. Fixing to check out the sites Y'all told me about. Thanks again


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## Gdurfey (May 15, 2019)

My buddy took a heavy duty 10 quart cooking pot (first lighter one collapsed), but a 1 inch acrylic block on top and a silicone gasket. Drilled/tapped the top for outlet, relief valve, and gauge and that is what I am using. But, takes forever to do any quantity; but I am also not in the production business. Will try to get a picture of this home-grown contraption, but definitely economical to start with.


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## Mark. (May 16, 2019)

Ever scene I turned my first bowl I have said that I was gonna try & laminate a bowl with the University logo in it. First one was gonna be the Auburn University, second one Alabama. The latter one will be one I hate to do because fear that it may ruin my tools. Off track, back to point. After seeing the possibility of stabilizing punkie wood & injecting the die for school colors this old idea has came back with a new light. When I said, this is a Old Idea, I mean it, like 1982. Did two then, didn't turn another one until 2016. Because of love of wood, I stumbled upon, "WoodBarter". May not be in the rite place to post this & hope I don't get bared for it. Because of WoodBarter my Dream has new Light

Reactions: Great Post 1 | Funny 1


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