Wood hardening

[Rich Stewart]

I was just reading the punky wood thread and I would like to know something. I just tried the epoxy cocktail on a couple punky pen blanks. I used and entire container of epoxy. The kind that has the syringe type tube and it squirts out the two compounds. Then I put DNA in with it, stirred it up, and dropped the 2 pen blanks in it. I rolled them over and over until the liquid was gone. I let it dry over night. Next day when I started working on them it seemed as thought the mixture had only penetrated about a 16th of an inch into the wood. That much would be turned away and I was right back into punky wood. So my question is, do you have to submerge the blanks in the mixture for a while and if so how do you get that much mixture without spending a fortune on epoxy?

[Mike Vickery]

Rich I usually just use thin ca as I turn but to try to answer your question.
I would assume epoxy is to thick for what you are trying to do. Most people I know that was doing this were drilling the holes for the tubes to increase penetration,and stabelizing it either by soaking for several days of using a vacuum for better penetration (I did it with a handheld brake bleeder for vacuum). What they soak it in is usually poly urethane, wood hardner, or a plexiglass acetone mix.
Hope this helps.

[Matt Haus]

That minwax wood hardner usually allows more penetration before it cures. Try that.

[Rich Stewart]

Does the piece need to be completely submerged? How long? What do you do with any leftover? Can it be reused? Stored?

Thank you for the responses.

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Rich and anyone else interested, this stuff has worked well for me:

http://www.polyall.com/

[Bernie Weishapl]

Rich I use two things. One is the minwax wood hardener which is painted on and let it soak in. Once that is done I continue turning. Or I will mix 5 minute epoxy and then mix in DNA till it is about the consistancy of milk. I paint it on and let dry then finish turning. I just did a punky soft box elder bowl I am going to post that I used the epoxy cocktail as I call it on the bowl. It came out pretty nice.

[Ron Erickson]

I also just used the minwax wood hardener with great results.