Monday, March 18, 2019

Procedure For Making High-Quality Stabilized Wood

By Paul Thomas


The furniture industry is among the most important industries that homeowners, institutions, and business people seek every day. However, the industry is under threat due to the continued ban on timber harvesting across the globe from the ongoing climate change fight goes on. As carpenters have no option but to salvage any piece of timber that they have to make items that their customers need. The costs and unavailability of these products leave investors in these industries with no other option but to use available timber. Here is how you can simply make stabilized wood at your workshop.

Stabilization of timber involves taking soft pieces and injecting them with resin to form a hardened and stable blank that will be safe for turning. The use of resin is to displace the air pockets on the timber grain structure hence creating blanks that are invulnerable to moisture change and can absorb high gloss polishes.

People who have never worked with stabilized pieces may find it cumbersome to undertake the procedure. The initial step is assembling the pieces and drying them. For resins to get through to the innermost part of timber, it must be dry and with no moisture. As such, putting your pieces in a rack where hot sun rays will heat them for a few days will significantly lower their moisture content.

The dried blanks will have minimal moisture level that does not go beyond ten percent. Prepare your processing kit and the resins before bringing them in. The kit comprises of the inner chamber, vacuum generator, a stainless steel pot and anti-float plate. The pots are filled with a mixture of resin whereby the dry pieces are inserted and left to boil until they are confirmed to be soaked.

After 30 minutes of a running vacuum generator, your timber will be soaked with the resins and ready for another stage. However, you must check whether the blanks are floating or not because when you find them floating, it means they are not yet soaked as required. The procedure can be repeated for another half hour to ensure that every part of the blank is soaked. Complete the process by removing the blanks from the pots and cleaning it to prevent gumming up of resins and other wastes.

Once all the blanks are soaked, your next step is to have them cured. For this, you need to wrap each piece using some aluminum foils that will prevent it from succumbing to direct heat when drying them. A toaster or a kitchen oven that is capable of producing temperatures of up to 200 degrees should be used.

Is this the only way that a blank can be stabilized? No. Some traditional methods are available although they are tedious and might be time consuming for people who are new to it. Cheap commercial chemicals like wood hardeners are accessible from shops whereby they can be painted into pieces. However, their quality is low when compared to the above process.

Carpenters need woods that are stabilized for their day to day activities which makes it essential to learn these tricks. Purchasing the prepared blanks might cost you handsomely whereas making them is simple. By doing the process at your workplace, you will save costs and make high-quality items.




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