JB weld wood hardener

[Jeff Nicol]

Good afternoon all you wood spinners! I was just out picking up some things I needed to finish some projects and I was at the local Menards store and they had a new section of JB Weld products in the wood finishing aisle. I bought a can of this wood hardener that states it is an epoxy based product. I put some on a punky piece of red oak burl and it soaked in fast and dried to the touch in a few minutes. What I noticed is that it is not as sticky and dried much faster than the Minwax brand. It is in a 16oz can. They had some other products there that were 2 part wood filler putty or paste and they looked like something I could use in the future for making repairs or filling voids etc.

Has anyone else seen this yet? I will give it a try and hope it works good for soft areas in turnings.


Jeff

[Steve Schlumpf]

Haven't seen it yet... looking forward to hearing what you think about it. Would be nice to have an option!

[tom martin]

Jeff,
What is the cost compared to minwax? I am anxious to hear how it works out
Tom

[Jeff Nicol]

I went out and did a preliminary check on the test piece, I took a sharp carving gouge and cut across the treated area and it cut very cleanly with no noticable tearout. The cost was $9.98 so I think comparable to the minwax. I have both products so I will do a head to head comparison and see what pans out. It smells about the same as the minwax, but it seems thinner and less sticky like I said.

I will keep you posted,

Jeff

[Jim Silva]

Neat! I'm looking forward to hearing some comparisons as I've been using the Minwax product for some time now.

Cost seems about the same IIRC, hopefully it cuts a little easier.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Jeff I am interested to in that product. Will be watching for a update.

[David DeCristoforo]

I've never used this stuff, either one, but I wonder just how useful it would be for hardening the really punky areas in a piece of heavily spalted wood. I have a few chunks and I'm afraid to even try to turn them because the last one I got into literally came apart when I hit those soft spots.

[Michael James]

I have a beautiful large pen blank that Donny L sent me; spalted maple. There are a couple of seemingly very soft spots. Is there discoloration, or should I say enough discoloration that I wouldn't want to use it on this piece?
Never used any of this stuff.... yet.:cool:
Thanks,
mj

[Tony De Masi]

David, in my experience the Minwax product works quite well in soft punky areas of the wood. You will need to make sure it really soaks in well. But I certainly have retreated areas while it's still on the lathe. Doesn't take too long to dry either.

Jeff, I'm looking forward to any comparisons too.

Tony

[Art Kelly]

...I wonder just how useful it would be for hardening the really punky areas in a piece of heavily spalted wood.

Before you heat the place with it, you might want to try some System3 RotFix. It's a two-part epoxy that's fairly runny and sets up hard in a few hours. I recently used about a quart of the stuff to restore some wood in my camper that was "scoopably rotten."

Another choice, epoxy-wise, might be epoxy thinned with DNA, but that always seems to take about a decade to get hard.

$0.02
Art

"Every experiment is a success." Scientific American, Sept. 8, 1866

[Ray Bell]

I went out and did a preliminary check on the test piece, I took a sharp carving gouge and cut across the treated area and it cut very cleanly with no noticable tearout. The cost was $9.98 so I think comparable to the minwax. I have both products so I will do a head to head comparison and see what pans out. It smells about the same as the minwax, but it seems thinner and less sticky like I said.

I will keep you posted,

Jeff

Do these products stain? If you have a chunk of wood, that is partially punky should you soak the whole piece, or just hit the punky areas?

[Jim Silva]

If it's anything like the Minwax wood hardener it's ideal for extremely punky wood. I've used the Minwax product for some spectacularly useless pieces of wood and have gotten great results.

Was it John Jordan that said something to the effect of "Life's too short to turn crappy wood"? I apparently didn't get the memo.:D

[Jeff Nicol]

I painte both on to a chunk of oak bulr that had some very spongy spots on it. Half and half on the chunk turned round before they products were applied. let them dry over night and the JB side seemed to be harder than the minwax side. What I always noticed with the minwax it takes a long time to dry and will be gummy after even a couple days if a lot was soaked into the wood. he JB weld was hard and not gummy at all and I was able to get a very clean cut on the wood.

It is very thin and there is no real discoloration, but it was on a small piece so I will know better when I use it on some lighter colored wood. They had the other 2 part products in 2 different thicknesses also. Just to many things for a guy to try out!

Jeff

[Rich Aldrich]

I wonder if it is nearly the same stuff, but just thinned down? It would make it dry faster and possibly not be as gummy.

[Jake Helmboldt]

For those asking about stains and affecting the finish; I've used the Minwax wood hardener on a few different species. I've not had any problems with pieces that I finished with lacquer or varnish. Prior to finishing it leaves a "stain", but once the finish is on it isn't noticeable. Given that punky woods typically are spalted or have other mottling I'm guessing it shouldn't be an issue with most woods and finishes.

But...YMMV.