I watch a lot of your live stream replays, but I also like these videos a lot since they are quick to get through. Good information for those of us who are wanting to get into casting.

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching John =D

@johnrepp8646

4 жыл бұрын

You're welcome. I appreciate your skills and the information that you take the time to show and explain.

Great job as always Zac! Can't wait to see what you do with that burl.

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Mike! I already cast it on the livestream, and it will be a bowl: kzread.info/dash/bejne/mHxtro-gg9e6lKw.html

Very interesting. Thanks for the information!

Great review on stabilizing, Good one to archive and refer to. I did get the fire ball for the top of the oven as well, and added a few more around the shop just in case. Good instruction. Cheers, Craig

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Craig! You can never be too careful, and for how cheap those fireballs are, it's a no brainer =D

Hi Zac! Always a great tutorial/demo from you! Thanks buddy!

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching =D

Hi Zak. Great video! You are an excellent teacher!

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jerry! Glad you enjoyed it =D

Really interesting video! Always something to learn in your videos, thanks. 😎👍👍👍

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Steph! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and even better if you took something new away with you =D

Great Video Zac👍

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Steve =D

Thanks for the video! I have a larger piece I was wondering about....

Good stuff Zac!! 👍👍👊

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks brother!! =D

Ha! I have the same shirt. Love it!

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

My wife bought it for me for Christmas, it's one of my favs!!

Hi Zac. Thank you so much for all of your videos. It really helps. Can you tell me how long you left this larger piece in the oven after stabilized with cactus juice

As for the absorption of moisture after drying - Maybe one could put the blank directly into cactus juice after drying and cooling? Then come back later and apply the vacuum?

Zac, have you ever tried a food saver bag and a vacuum to keep your blank from sucking up moisture if you have to leave it for a while?

I use an old stainless steel colander and leave the wood to drip dry for a while. I also like to use a lint free clean rag so there isn't paper towel fluff catching up on the surface of the wood.👍

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Great tip!

Hi Zac, excellent video and timely! (I have a large burl to do!) After the vacuuming how long did you let that large burl soak? And would it have made a difference for less later clean-up, if it cured in the oven pointy side down?

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

It depends on the piece of wood how long I let it soak, but I let this one soak a couple days. There's no harm in letting it soak for longer, it will continue soaking it up until it's saturated. I actually did put it in upside down, but I didn't get all the surface liquid off on this one. Probably should have blown it off

Sorry if you've answered this before but can you use compressed air to blow off the remaining juice after it's dripped dried for a while? For instance if you had a really spiky burl cap?

@HodgePodgeWoodWorks

4 жыл бұрын

Lol, I watched the video for about 2 minutes longer and you answered my question!

Also after the vacuum process is done and it’s soaking what do you think it about putting it in the pressure pot to aid the absorption of cactus juice into the wood?

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

I'm not sure if it does much or not, I've never tried it myself

@dengudomlige8644

4 жыл бұрын

I was about to ask the same question, I think i´ve seen someone do it.

Question, I recently ran a bit low on cactus juice, there was enough while under vacuum, but as I was worried, afterward the tops of a couple pieces were above the level of the cactus juice.... I know that book from Turntex says you need to start over... is that true?

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah, unfortunately it kind of negates the vacuum stage since it got exposed to air and atmospheric pressure will push air back in rather than Cactus Juice. It's best to run it again. Technically, it is probably partially stabilized, but if you want the best results I'd run it again

Hey Zac since I can dry more wood than I can stabilize at any one time I store my wood in airtight cereal containers sometimes for many months. Do you think i should re-dry them or should they be good to just stabilize?

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

The best thing to do is weigh them and mark down what the weight was once it has bee fully dried out. If it hasn't picked up any more weight, then there's no need to redry them

@490heaven

4 жыл бұрын

Zac Higgins perfect that’s what I do. Thanks for the reply.

Zac, would vacuum sealing the wood for storage work

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Perhaps. It would probably work for flat/square pieces. Not so much for something like this that has pointy edges

Subscribed....... If that's big...then I'm going huge. I'm taking rifle stock. Fortunately I work for a fab shop so the vacuum chamber is probably doable. You're right...nobody does bigger pieces.......and seeing as how I just found out about you. What's up with the sparkling stuff/color change stuff.....that's got me curious.....= )

What about storing the oven dried prestabilized wood in a vacuum sealed bag? Like the ones used for storing meat in your freezer. Then I think it would be sealed and ready to go as soon as you can stabilize it.

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

You might run into issues putting odd shaped or sharp pointed things in a vacuum sealed bag. If you've already stabilized it, a ziplock is good enough to keep most of the moisture off it. Plus I still would recommend heating up the material before casting, resin likes warmth, so it's not like it would provide any extra benefit. If it's not actually stabilized, but only dried out, vacuum bags are a better choice, but I'd still rather just get it stabilized right away

Hi Zak. What temperature do you run your oven at when initially drying the wood before stabilizing?

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

I usually set it to around 220. It's best to get it over the boiling point of water, 212, but I don't think there is much gained by going too much higher than that

What was that chamber?

Great video zak! I was wondering how can i stabilize a wood burl if i cant get cactus juice and a pressure pot?

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

You can send it to someone who can stabilize it I suppose

@ichraklak9604

4 жыл бұрын

@@ZacHiggins i'll try. Thank you

Sorry for the Noob question but what is "cactus juice" and why use it??

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

Cactus Juice is stabilizing resin, it's a brand name

Zac, you mentioned your gravity lab oven. What about a dehydrater ? The Wood Whirler on KZread uses one to dry his wood before casting in resins.

@ZacHiggins

4 жыл бұрын

I'm not sure if that method will actually pull all the water out of it or not, and I suspect that it would take forever to get wood down to 0% MC if it will. I'm definitely no expert at wood drying methods though

Where do you guys get your music? Geeze. sounds like you live in an elevator