Hi Casey, I've been following your channel for a few days and it's very interesting and well explained. I am writing to you from Mexico and I am telling you that it is very difficult to get cactus juice here.
So looking for options that can be used in Mexico I found paraloid b72 resin , This has been used to stabilize wood since approximately 1970 and your opinion on the matter would be interesting.
I would love to buy some blanks, that I don't make, for pizza cutters and ice cream scoops but they look a little light on size for that. Never made money on pens. Lee
Great video Casey. Where did you purchase your glass lid chamber or the glass for a pot I’ve already purchased? I have everything I need including cactus juice to begin stabilizing other than a glass lid? Thank you for any help. Kevin.
This is the second video I've watched mentioning Cactus Juice. If you know what that is then you're fine but for a video for novices it sounds like something you'd make drinks with. Cactus Juice is however apparently a brand of resin which I'm assuming is a type of resin which hardens via heat.
Not really unfortunately. They were stabilized pretty well, so there really shouldn’t be any normal wood left for the dyed juice to penetrate and cure in.
Do you ever make blanks that are longer than 5"? I make dip pens with a spur center so I need my blanks to be atleast 7". Beautiful work! I need to try that if I ever get the tools LOL
Hi ZAC . I want to give me information on wood stabilization. I am from Greece and can only find olive wood. Can I stabilize olive wood? I do tests and I don't get good results. The resin together with the color does not get in. I use small pieces. I use a refrigerator motor for a vacuum pump. this stops - 0.9 bar. I believe it's enough for stabilization. the woods are below 10% humidity and I let them soak for 24 hours. Then I put them in the cactus juice in vacuum for 4 hours. When he was finished I cut them in the middle to see and he didn't get in. What am I doing wrong please help me.
I tried using my vacuum chamber to dye a slice of pine 2X4. The dye wouldn’t penetrate into the wood. I let it sit at full vacuum for an hour after the bubbles stopped and then it soaked for 3 hours after release. Any reason it wouldn’t penetrate?
Hello casey Good morning: You have some video where you explain how to stabilize wood in 2 colors and how to do it and the process of stabilization, temperature and times. Thank you
I buy them as pen blanks. But even when I make knife scales I cut them first. And I would in this case too if I was. Better penetration on smaller pieces, as well as it being easier to make straighter cuts on non stabilized wood. There’s really no benefit to stabilizing it as a slab if you’re going to cut it into blanks
It’s unfortunately not possible to dye wood with pearlescent pigments. They essentially are tiny tiny pieces of plastic themselves and that’s why they sparkle. They technically don’t fully dissolve in liquid like pigments do and wont be able to penetrate the wood. It’d be sweet if they could though!
Hi Casey, similar to JohnK2112 I was wondering about why you didn't wrap them in foil before "cooking" them. Process nicely explained especially about the extra Cactus juice before starting the vacuum chamber and the tip about bleeding the pressure if the bubbles get out of hand. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and will look at you Etsy page with a view to buying a couple if you ship to the UK. Cheers, Huw
Hey Huw, just replied to his comment so you can see that there. Ultimately it’s too messy, this requires less clean up from bleed out. Thanks for the order and compliments my friend! Cheers!
@@CaseyMartin707 I will send you a picture of the pen I make from it if you want. Cheers, Huw. PS If there is another Makers Central next year are you coming over as I hope to say hello to Zac this year.
@@CaseyMartin707 Hi Casey, Maybe this is a stupid question but as I only have a small toaster oven would it make any difference if the blanks were laid flat? Cheers, Huw
I like my metal chambers because they’re much wider than the PVC ones you can get from turntex or best value vacs. This allows me to do my larger burl pieces much more easily. I have links to all of the stuff I use on the tools I use page which is in the video description!
How long did you bake them for? And have you ever experience an oily residue in some spots. Not a whole lot but enough to see. I’ve stabilized burl at 200 degrees for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours and I get the hardened residue where the piece sits on the rack like yours but sometime get a tiny bit of oily residue. Not sure if it’s residual sap from the wood itself or if it’s uncured CJ.
24 hours. I always go that long or like 16-18 (basically overnight) for big batches like that because I want to make sure every part of the wood throughout the whole big smoker gets cured. In my smaller toaster oven with less pieces I’ve gotten away with 3-4 hours. But still like to do 6+ to make sure, especially with any dye stabilized pieces. I’ve heard if the cured CJ is kind of crumbly it’s because there was a good amount of moisture left in the blank. Not sure if that’s what you’re describing. What it sounds like you’re referring to is it just not being cured. You should be able to touch a hard part like I showed on my bottom, and your finger shouldn’t be wet. Same with dyes, touch a hard piece of dyed CJ and not get color in your finger. It just wasn’t cured long enough. 2-1/2 hours is not that long for bigger pieces. Especially if you’re only at 180-190 F Best of luck!
Got it! I also make sure my pieces are completely dry but I’m pretty sure it just needs to sit in the oven for a few more hours than usual. Thanks Casey!
Hello, I was just wondering if there was any way to stabilize wood without a vacuum chamber or pressure pot? I would like to try to make my own wood and resin pen blanks, but don’t have the funds or the room for all the equipment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Not in traditional terms. You can buy wood hardener which you just soak in it, but it’s not the same as stabilizing. It can definitely work for some things but not all. Hope that helps!
moisture (water) does not boil at room temperature at 27.5 Hg. It takes a larger vacuum pump to boil water at room temperature. also vacuuming the cactus juice for 5 hours just makes most of the juice vapor away. And you wont smell the cactus juice and the carcinogenic poligomer. also you vapor away most of the aceton in the cactus juice making the hardener to react worse and the juice to get thicker. also harding in oxigen enviroment makes the hardener react with the oxigen and the result stabwood being really poor. i want to see you try color stabilize poplar burl...
I’m not sure the chemistry behind it, if it’s because wet wood has more air than dry wood trapped in it, but I’ve just been told by Curtis (owner and founder of CJ), that if a wood will not stop having the fine small bubbles come up after 12-24+ hours, it’s because there’s still a bit of moisture in the wood. So that’s where that comes from. As for your other comment, CJ does not fume. I’ve been told for a fact by the owner/maker that it does not. And it does not cure exposed to normal air as long as it’s below 85 F. I also don’t know what you mean by vacuuming 5 hours harms the process in any way, that’s what you’re supposed to do. I know the owner of CJ sometimes recommends running a pump for 24 hours if need be. I’m just going by the book on the process the owner/maker of Cactus Juice recommends and it works for me!
@@CaseyMartin707 i have a chemistry degree here in germany. Water and solvents have a lower vapor point under vacuum . The solvent in CJ does vapor away at 27,5 Hg room temperature. Also the mma monomers do vapor away under those conditions. The owner of cactus juice has no degree in chemistry and has imported CJ from china and just given it another name. Of course he would tell you it is ok to vacuum it for 24 hours. In professional wood stabilizing you vacuum the air first and then bring in the stabilizing resin. When the wood is capped with juice, you return to normal pressure, leaving the juice in a closed environment. And if you harden the juice in an oxigen environment atleast the outside layer of the wood hardens worse since the oxigens reacts with the hardener (AIBN in this case) and colors become less rich. You can do whatever you want i was just trying to give some tips of how the pros do it.
@jimmi Kater @Casey Martin I think this is very interesting. I’ve been stabilizing wood for a while and I’ve never thought of this. I’m an engineer and don’t have a crazy knowledge of chemistry but this does make sense. I will play around with it. If there is a process that produces better results we should absolutely look into it and make it known to improve everyone’s stabilizing results! Thanks for the sharing of knowledge, this is what crafting/art is all about!!!
Yes you can and I forget what the shelf life is but it’s very long. It says somewhere on the bottle and I’m sure is somewhere on the website but I’d never worry about it
Hi Adrian I don’t share my supplier as they are one of the few unique things I do in this industry. I share a lot of stuff on here but that’s the one thing I don’t
Have a random question for you do you wait 3 days after you take alumilite out of the presure pot to turn it. I was told it takes 3 days to completely cure.
Do they glow under a black light? I watched a video earlier in which some charcoal was stabilized and after he turned a resin bowl with the charcoal in it on the lathe it glowed under a black light.
No they don’t. I heard from a friend that years ago when CJ was first on the market there was a black light additive to see how well it penetrated. I wish it still had it! It’d actually be helpful. If the video was old or he had old CJ that could’ve been why ir maybe some reaction with the charcoal I’m not sure
@@CaseyMartin707 I don't know if it was an old video but it was a recent upload by Peter Brown. :) I can see where it would be helpful so they should do it. Bonus is that it is also cool. :D I love things that glow under a black light.
@BlackCat2 I have been trying to come up with an easy additive for checking penetration with a black light without changing the color of the wood or other material being stabilized. Hopefully I will have results to share within the next week. If it works I’ll let you know!
You don’t have to. It is definitely recommended if you’re doing hybrid casting, but for normal wood it just helps a lot. It makes the wood much harder, stronger, resistant to moisture changes, and emphasizes the wood figure more. If a wood is really light and weak, it really really benefits from it.
Not really. I mean you can get maybe like 40-50% penetration if you let the wood soak submerged in the cactus juice for weeks, but you’ll never get full penetration without it.
I can’t go on Etsy… I end up exploring unique stabilized blanks and telling myself “I NEEEEEED IT!!!”
Thanks for sharing your technique. I am a big fan of Cactus juice...
Great tutorial
Hi Casey, You ship to the UK so have just bought a blank. looking forward to turning it. Cheers, Huw
Hi Casey, I've been following your channel for a few days and it's very interesting and well explained. I am writing to you from Mexico and I am telling you that it is very difficult to get cactus juice here.
There is a problem with the importation of that specific product and what little there is costs more than triple what it costs in the United States
So looking for options that can be used in Mexico I found paraloid b72 resin , This has been used to stabilize wood since approximately 1970 and your opinion on the matter would be interesting.
I would love to buy some blanks, that I don't make, for pizza cutters and ice cream scoops but they look a little light on size for that. Never made money on pens.
Lee
Shoot me an email Lee and let’s make it happen! I can make blanks of any size for you
Do you ever let them sit overnight after vacuum, I’ve heard of people doing that
Ciao complimenti per il tuo lavoro ...ti scrivo dall Italia 🇮🇹 mi potresti dire cosa è di preciso il succo di cactus? Grazie un saluto Nicola
Great video Casey thanks for all the great content!
Thanks for enjoying it!!
Great video! Thanks for sharing your process.
great video!
Great video Casey. Where did you purchase your glass lid chamber or the glass for a pot I’ve already purchased? I have everything I need including cactus juice to begin stabilizing other than a glass lid? Thank you for any help.
Kevin.
I have a link on my website for tools I use at winecountrywoodworks.com It has a link to the yescom chamber with the glass lid!
@@CaseyMartin707 Good morning Casey. Thank you, my acrylic lid started spidering on my first try. But everything turned out well.
what is the right size for pen blanks?
This is the second video I've watched mentioning Cactus Juice. If you know what that is then you're fine but for a video for novices it sounds like something you'd make drinks with. Cactus Juice is however apparently a brand of resin which I'm assuming is a type of resin which hardens via heat.
Cactus Juice is the name of a stabilizing resin. It comes from turntex.com. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Great video once again Casey! Just a silly question...can you dye these blanks,as they have already been stabilized?....? Thx for your time!
Not really unfortunately. They were stabilized pretty well, so there really shouldn’t be any normal wood left for the dyed juice to penetrate and cure in.
Do you ever make blanks that are longer than 5"? I make dip pens with a spur center so I need my blanks to be atleast 7". Beautiful work! I need to try that if I ever get the tools LOL
Yes all the time! Send me an email at casey@winecountrypens.com if you’d like me to make you some!
How to make it
Good Stuff Casey!!
Hi ZAC . I want to give me information on wood stabilization. I am from Greece and can only find olive wood. Can I stabilize olive wood? I do tests and I don't get good results. The resin together with the color does not get in. I use small pieces. I use a refrigerator motor for a vacuum pump. this stops - 0.9 bar. I believe it's enough for stabilization. the woods are below 10% humidity and I let them soak for 24 hours. Then I put them in the cactus juice in vacuum for 4 hours. When he was finished I cut them in the middle to see and he didn't get in. What am I doing wrong please help me.
I tried using my vacuum chamber to dye a slice of pine 2X4. The dye wouldn’t penetrate into the wood. I let it sit at full vacuum for an hour after the bubbles stopped and then it soaked for 3 hours after release. Any reason it wouldn’t penetrate?
Good video, did not waste time
I am more confused than I was when before I watched the video. What's cactus juice ,why does it look like dirty water? I'm so confused lol
Hello casey Good morning: You have some video where you explain how to stabilize wood in 2 colors and how to do it and the process of stabilization, temperature and times. Thank you
Yes I do! It’s how to dye Stabilized
wood
Amazing work 🙌
Do you leave the pump running all night or once the bubble's have stopped do you turn it of and leave it ...
Once bubbles are gone you’re good to turn it off
Hi Dosbomber, Guess I'll have to get another one for the pizzas. LOL
Cheers Huw
Great job !
Hi Casey
After you stabilize a live edge burl, how do you get the Catus Juice out of the nooks and crannies?
Great video, have you tried stabilizing the whole rectangle slab before you cut them into blanks?
I buy them as pen blanks. But even when I make knife scales I cut them first. And I would in this case too if I was. Better penetration on smaller pieces, as well as it being easier to make straighter cuts on non stabilized wood. There’s really no benefit to stabilizing it as a slab if you’re going to cut it into blanks
Great info! thanks man
what kind of wood do you upright when stabilizing them so you
Have you ever tried using pearlescent pigment powders in the stabilization resin to get that sheen into the voids of the wood?
It’s unfortunately not possible to dye wood with pearlescent pigments. They essentially are tiny tiny pieces of plastic themselves and that’s why they sparkle. They technically don’t fully dissolve in liquid like pigments do and wont be able to penetrate the wood. It’d be sweet if they could though!
Hi Casey, similar to JohnK2112 I was wondering about why you didn't wrap them in foil before "cooking" them. Process nicely explained especially about the extra Cactus juice before starting the vacuum chamber and the tip about bleeding the pressure if the bubbles get out of hand. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and will look at you Etsy page with a view to buying a couple if you ship to the UK. Cheers, Huw
Hey Huw, just replied to his comment so you can see that there. Ultimately it’s too messy, this requires less clean up from bleed out. Thanks for the order and compliments my friend! Cheers!
@@CaseyMartin707 I will send you a picture of the pen I make from it if you want. Cheers, Huw. PS If there is another Makers Central next year are you coming over as I hope to say hello to Zac this year.
@@CaseyMartin707 Hi Casey, Maybe this is a stupid question but as I only have a small toaster oven would it make any difference if the blanks were laid flat? Cheers, Huw
I've seen other videos of people using toaster ovens with successful results. Just don't use it for pizza ever again. :)
No difference if they were laid flat! May just have more bleed out to clean up but not much.
Love your videos Casey. I'm ready to buy a vacuum stabilizing chamber do you have any recommendations on PVC or stainless steel and where to buy it?
I like my metal chambers because they’re much wider than the PVC ones you can get from turntex or best value vacs. This allows me to do my larger burl pieces much more easily.
I have links to all of the stuff I use on the tools I use page which is in the video description!
How long did you bake them for? And have you ever experience an oily residue in some spots. Not a whole lot but enough to see. I’ve stabilized burl at 200 degrees for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours and I get the hardened residue where the piece sits on the rack like yours but sometime get a tiny bit of oily residue. Not sure if it’s residual sap from the wood itself or if it’s uncured CJ.
24 hours. I always go that long or like 16-18 (basically overnight) for big batches like that because I want to make sure every part of the wood throughout the whole big smoker gets cured.
In my smaller toaster oven with less pieces I’ve gotten away with 3-4 hours. But still like to do 6+ to make sure, especially with any dye stabilized pieces.
I’ve heard if the cured CJ is kind of crumbly it’s because there was a good amount of moisture left in the blank. Not sure if that’s what you’re describing. What it sounds like you’re referring to is it just not being cured. You should be able to touch a hard part like I showed on my bottom, and your finger shouldn’t be wet. Same with dyes, touch a hard piece of dyed CJ and not get color in your finger. It just wasn’t cured long enough. 2-1/2 hours is not that long for bigger pieces. Especially if you’re only at 180-190 F
Best of luck!
Got it! I also make sure my pieces are completely dry but I’m pretty sure it just needs to sit in the oven for a few more hours than usual. Thanks Casey!
Great video,just one question,what was the weight differece from before and after stabilizing....time to go to you Esty store...have a great weekend
Haha thanks Robert. Have a great weekend to you too my friend
Hello,
I was just wondering if there was any way to stabilize wood without a vacuum chamber or pressure pot? I would like to try to make my own wood and resin pen blanks, but don’t have the funds or the room for all the equipment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Not in traditional terms. You can buy wood hardener which you just soak in it, but it’s not the same as stabilizing. It can definitely work for some things but not all. Hope that helps!
moisture (water) does not boil at room temperature at 27.5 Hg. It takes a larger vacuum pump to boil water at room temperature. also vacuuming the cactus juice for 5 hours just makes most of the juice vapor away. And you wont smell the cactus juice and the carcinogenic poligomer. also you vapor away most of the aceton in the cactus juice making the hardener to react worse and the juice to get thicker. also harding in oxigen enviroment makes the hardener react with the oxigen and the result stabwood being really poor. i want to see you try color stabilize poplar burl...
I’m not sure the chemistry behind it, if it’s because wet wood has more air than dry wood trapped in it, but I’ve just been told by Curtis (owner and founder of CJ), that if a wood will not stop having the fine small bubbles come up after 12-24+ hours, it’s because there’s still a bit of moisture in the wood. So that’s where that comes from.
As for your other comment, CJ does not fume. I’ve been told for a fact by the owner/maker that it does not. And it does not cure exposed to normal air as long as it’s below 85 F.
I also don’t know what you mean by vacuuming 5 hours harms the process in any way, that’s what you’re supposed to do. I know the owner of CJ sometimes recommends running a pump for 24 hours if need be.
I’m just going by the book on the process the owner/maker of Cactus Juice recommends and it works for me!
@@CaseyMartin707 i have a chemistry degree here in germany. Water and solvents have a lower vapor point under vacuum . The solvent in CJ does vapor away at 27,5 Hg room temperature. Also the mma monomers do vapor away under those conditions. The owner of cactus juice has no degree in chemistry and has imported CJ from china and just given it another name. Of course he would tell you it is ok to vacuum it for 24 hours. In professional wood stabilizing you vacuum the air first and then bring in the stabilizing resin. When the wood is capped with juice, you return to normal pressure, leaving the juice in a closed environment. And if you harden the juice in an oxigen environment atleast the outside layer of the wood hardens worse since the oxigens reacts with the hardener (AIBN in this case) and colors become less rich. You can do whatever you want i was just trying to give some tips of how the pros do it.
@jimmi Kater @Casey Martin
I think this is very interesting. I’ve been stabilizing wood for a while and I’ve never thought of this. I’m an engineer and don’t have a crazy knowledge of chemistry but this does make sense. I will play around with it. If there is a process that produces better results we should absolutely look into it and make it known to improve everyone’s stabilizing results! Thanks for the sharing of knowledge, this is what crafting/art is all about!!!
Totally new to this... Can you re use the Cactus Juice? if so, does it have a shelf life?
Thanks
Yes you can and I forget what the shelf life is but it’s very long. It says somewhere on the bottle and I’m sure is somewhere on the website but I’d never worry about it
Always a good video wish I hadthemoneyto buy a vacuums system
What kind of lid is on that chamber
It is a yescom vacuum chamber, link is on tools I use page
Hi can you please tell me where you get your grape vine cuttings from i can't fined any on the net thanks adrian
Hi Adrian I don’t share my supplier as they are one of the few unique things I do in this industry. I share a lot of stuff on here but that’s the one thing I don’t
awesome thank you
Have a random question for you do you wait 3 days after you take alumilite out of the presure pot to turn it. I was told it takes 3 days to completely cure.
No I don’t. I think the full cure may even be 7 days I’m not sure. But after 24 hours it’s plenty cured enough. Probably 99% of the way there
Casey Martin just worried I wont get a good polish if I don’t wait
You’ll get just as good of a polish!
Very cool.
Do they glow under a black light? I watched a video earlier in which some charcoal was stabilized and after he turned a resin bowl with the charcoal in it on the lathe it glowed under a black light.
No they don’t. I heard from a friend that years ago when CJ was first on the market there was a black light additive to see how well it penetrated. I wish it still had it! It’d actually be helpful. If the video was old or he had old CJ that could’ve been why ir maybe some reaction with the charcoal I’m not sure
@@CaseyMartin707 I don't know if it was an old video but it was a recent upload by Peter Brown. :) I can see where it would be helpful so they should do it. Bonus is that it is also cool. :D I love things that glow under a black light.
Peter didn't use Cactus Juice, he used a similar product:
www.bestvaluevacs.com/bvv-wood-stabilizing-resin-usa-made.html
Yeah I saw the video since. Pretty cool! It’s basically s copycat of cactus juice. Only difference I can tell is the black light
@BlackCat2 I have been trying to come up with an easy additive for checking penetration with a black light without changing the color of the wood or other material being stabilized. Hopefully I will have results to share within the next week. If it works I’ll let you know!
Dumb question but why do you have to stabilize your blanks?
You don’t have to. It is definitely recommended if you’re doing hybrid casting, but for normal wood it just helps a lot. It makes the wood much harder, stronger, resistant to moisture changes, and emphasizes the wood figure more. If a wood is really light and weak, it really really benefits from it.
@@CaseyMartin707 Thank you for the reply. I do not make pen blanks but I do make bowls, boxes etc. and am just getting into casting.
Nice!
Can you stabilize blanks with out a vacuum pot
Not really. I mean you can get maybe like 40-50% penetration if you let the wood soak submerged in the cactus juice for weeks, but you’ll never get full penetration without it.
@@CaseyMartin707 thanks for your comments. I have burrs that I would like to stabilize in some way.
amazing
What smoker do you use?
Masterbuilt 30 in, its on the tools I use page in the video description!
🤔🤔🤔🤔👋👋👋👋👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍