Epoxies use in rotten wood

[Tom Hutchinson]

I have recently acquired a large supply of highly spalted almost rotten soft maple. It has a lot of potential but needs some sort of stabilization. I chained sawed the 2' diametred trunk in to slabs (cookies) approximately 4" thick. They were then dried in my kiln down to 8-9% moisture and then flattened in the router sled.
At this point I decided to use epoxy as a hardening agent. Because my shop is difficult to get above 60 degrees in the winter I chose to use Total Boat cold weather epoxy. I cures at temperaturs from 35-60 degrees. That product has been quite successful and had hardened to a beautiful high gloss finish. However it took multiple pours to get this spongy wood saturated and at this point I have over well over $100 of epoxy in this one slab.
The question, is there a cheaper means ie. another material that could be used to harden materials like this?
Thanks,
Tom Hutchinson

[Jim Becker]

Recent thread from this past week on that very subject..

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?270468-quot-Stabilize-quot-rotted-wood-section

[Wayne Lomman]

You are trying to save what is really past its usefulness so it is going to be a challenge and an expense. It's your job though, so that being said, go and buy your epoxy from a distributor, buy a larger kit, and avoid anything with 'boat' in the description. Everything marine is expensive. Also, epoxy cures down to 10C. Your shop is 15C/60F so you can use pretty much any epoxy at that temperature. Cheers

[Jacob Reverb]

This reminds me of that old joke about planking shad...you cook the shad (or bluefish) on a plank, then throw away the fish and eat the plank. (IOW, the fish is worthless and the wood actually tastes better.)

But in this case, it's "throw away the wood, keep the epoxy"

Sounds like you're gonna need a LOT of gook. Check ebay for better prices.