New to vacuum stabilization, questions.

[Joe Short]

I'll have my chamber and a gallon of cactus juice in a few days, I'm fairly excited to get started but I have some questions.
1) Are there alternatives to Cactus Juice and the Stickfast brand, how do these compare with one another in both quality and price?
2) What dyes are best for this purpose and where would one acquire such dyes?
3) When dyeing, how does one prevent wasting too much resin on a particular color?
4) Does stabilizing multiple blanks at once decrease effectiveness?
5) How dry is "dry enough?"

[David @ Mad Duck Game Calls]

1: yes there are alternative brands but they aren't as good as cactus juice. 4: No, I don't think so.
5: I don't think you can get wood "to dry" but 6 to 8% is good, 0% is the best, just put your blanks in a toaster oven for about a day and then stabilize when they cool off.


David

[Wane]

1. There is other juice you can get. They are a little different formula but similar. I have been told that some can be flammable and       Curtis is very competitive price wise.
2. Curtis at turn TeX has the dyes that work with his juice.
3.I reuse my resin, on color I usually mix in a pint jar. You can use a lot of different containers inside a vacuum chamber to save on the  amount of juice it takes to do a block. I use some cheap tupper ware type plastic containers just larger than the block.
 As long as there is enough juice in there so the blanks do not get air back in them when you let air back into the chamber. Turn TeX has a juice saver chamber that you can get too.
4. I use a spacer between the blocks so they all have juice on all sides and have had no problems at all.
5. The dryer the better, you can check them in a couple of ways. Weigh them before you bake them and then after they bake for awhile or I should say every hour or so and see if they are getting lighter weight, when they do not loose any more weight they are probably as dry as you can get them. Or get a good moisture meter and go for 0%. Most of the time if I get under 6% I have trouble getting dryer or I get impatient.
 I hope that helps you in getting started and dyes can be fun to play with.

[David @ Mad Duck Game Calls]

Yup what he said. Wane you made my response look like a pebble compared to a boulder. 


David

[Joe Short]

Thanks Wane and David.
I have a moisture meter, I was wondering how pivotal getting it to 0 or 2% was or if something a bit higher (and easier to attain) was acceptable for stabilizing, for instance 6%, or pick a number you're comfortable with.
Hadn't considered using smaller containers inside of the primary, seems obvious now that you mention it.
Thanks for the details guys.

[Wane]

I think it was Curtis that told me that if you bake a blank and take from the oven and bag it in plastic bag straight from oven if the bag gets condensation on it the wood is to wet and to dry it more. Kind of like putting hot bread in a bag it will condensate on the bag from the moister in the bread. Have fun and the dye to use is Alumilite dye

http://www.turntex.com/~cactusb1/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=2144&category_id=144&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=121