# Stabilizing redwood



## Lumptastic (Apr 23, 2021)

So I got some redwood lace. Great stuff. So upon normal protocol of putting it in the oven I did notice some sap coming out not a ton but enti leave dark lines on the wood after it came out. Made the assumption it would sand away but it doesn’t seem to be. First time messing with redwood so figured I should ask before I ruin some kinda expensive stuff. Is there something you can do to remove the oils from the wood. I’ve heard of people soaking some woods in acetone but wasn’t about to try that method at this point


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## BangleGuy (Apr 24, 2021)

I have stabilized, or attempted to stabilize dozens of wood species and some wood structures don’t do very well in either taking on resin or curing. Redwood is one of those that has a problem with both weight gain and cure. My best advice is if you want to stabilize it, try increasing the cure temperatures by about 50 to 75 degrees. Still, redwood will not take on a lot of weight in a simple vacuum setup. I have experimented with high pressure stabilization and that helps, but it’s a lot different than the simple vacuum chamber. 

If the goal is to improve machinability, then you might try clear epoxy pressure casting. I recently ran a few blanks through that process and it worked pretty well, but penetration was only about 1/2” deep.

This is an interesting topic for me and I hope some others have figured this out. Good luck!


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## gman2431 (Apr 24, 2021)

I have successfully stab redwood in the past. Now it is fighting me as we speak.... my main conclusion is its all in the resin. Certain ones will not work while a different one I tried did. It's been expensive to learn this...


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