# Stabilizing wood with 3CFM 1/4HP pump



## ForeverLearning (Sep 29, 2019)

Hi all,

Just curious if the cheap single stage 1/4HP pumps are enough to get going stabilizing some blanks?

The 1 gallon pots seem big enough for me bearing in mind WA's are only 125x30 for me.

Appreciate all the advice as usual


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## suntravel (Sep 30, 2019)

Better spend 10$ more for double stage, and use a pot with a glass lid, plexiglass will be weakend from the fumes and crack after some time.

Regards

Uwe


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## Matus (Sep 30, 2019)

Frankly, if you want to do it right, you are not only going to need an under pressure to extract the air, but also over pressure to get the resin to fill the wood as well as possible. Pro tools go over 1 Mpa.


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## suntravel (Sep 30, 2019)

I do not use my pressusepot for stabilizing, its complete soaked from normal air pressure after vacuum.

I do use the pressurepot more to get rid of bubbles making hybrid wood.

Regards

Uwe


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## Caleb Cox (Sep 30, 2019)

A single stage pump is sufficient, but in general as you go up in capacity you'll cut down the time required to stop bubbling. Also it will probably not die as quickly, changing the oil whenever it gets cloudy is important toward that end as well. Having your blanks as small as possible and as dry as possible is crucial. Pressure after the vacuum step is not necessary but will speed the process greatly. If you follow the recommendation to soak under atmospheric pressure twice as long as you vacuum, it can take a while but this usually isn't an issue for a small level of production. Something that helps me when curing is to equilibrate my oven (toaster oven with a ceramic tile in it) just under the resin's cure temperature, add the blanks and leave at that temp for around 3 hours, then bump the temp to the cure temp or just over for about 5 more hours. This way I get a nice even cure with very little runout.


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## ForeverLearning (Oct 3, 2019)

Caleb Cox said:


> A single stage pump is sufficient, but in general as you go up in capacity you'll cut down the time required to stop bubbling. Also it will probably not die as quickly, changing the oil whenever it gets cloudy is important toward that end as well. Having your blanks as small as possible and as dry as possible is crucial. Pressure after the vacuum step is not necessary but will speed the process greatly. If you follow the recommendation to soak under atmospheric pressure twice as long as you vacuum, it can take a while but this usually isn't an issue for a small level of production. Something that helps me when curing is to equilibrate my oven (toaster oven with a ceramic tile in it) just under the resin's cure temperature, add the blanks and leave at that temp for around 3 hours, then bump the temp to the cure temp or just over for about 5 more hours. This way I get a nice even cure with very little runout.



That's a very detailed reply thanks! I guess a pizza stone could be relatively good as a ceramic stone. 

All in all minus resin I can get a pot capable of holding 4/6 blanks and a single stage 3/4HP, 3CFM pump for £100. Double stage goes to £300. Annoyingly cactus juice is equal to the setup. 

It's a near must for my future plans so I may wait for a larger chamber.


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