This is junk wood that was soaked in polyurethane then placed in 20 psi. I am thinking doing the pressure a few more times then placing these shards in a vacuum chamber and the applying more polyurethane a curing process open up more poors. Has anyone tried similar experiments? At what points does this cross over into being pladtic?
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Check out wood stabilization that might be the answer you’re looking for. Cactus uses used for returning projects, for spongy or punky wood.
You’re talking about using a polyurethane based product where cactus juice is a acrylic product
Thank you, I was more curious about polyurthane as it seems to be a much more stablized
chemical. Acrlyc is a plastic that dissassociated via a an alcohol and polyuryhance is cleaned with acetone.
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Just to let you know, fully cured polyurethane can’t be dissolved in acetone (Trust me, I’ve tried…).
I’ve never used acrylic before, but shellac needs high proof alcohol to dissolve. I think acrylic would be the same way.
Also, you can get polyurethane to soak in more by thinning it with mineral spirits if it’s an oil-based finish or distilled water if it’s a water-based finish.
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Cactus Juice is pretty popular for use in making knife scales out of otherwise punky, soft woods like mesquite and spalted wood. It’s thin enough and soaks well into the fibers so that it stabilizes the wood without making it look plasticy.
It’s a multi-step process:
- activate the CJ after purchase (it’s stable for several years before activation and good for several months after).
- drown the wood in a surplus of resin
- Put in a vacuum chamber and pull 26-29 inches of vacuum
- leave in liquid resin under vacuum until bubbles stop forming and a while afterwards (overnight is good)
- Remove from liquid resin (excess can be put back in the original bottle and reused)
- Bake at a low temp (200F) for two hours. Wrapping the piece well in foil first reduces cleanup mess.
