WWA Info Exchange

OK..Popeye's thread on the Portland Oregon show has a pix of a polymer infused finish on a box...I want to know more about this technique. Any one have any links to "how to"???

Bob

I am thinking the same stuff that they use to stabilize pen blanks. I don't seem to have any links to the material, but most pen supp;y sites have the stabilized blanks

You can find additional info at www.inventables.com and try a google search on acrylic or polymer infused wood.

Len

Back in 1968, my next door neighbor showed me a piece of wood about 6" square and 3/4" thick. He had me take a look at it and try to figure out how it was so strong. I tried pounding a nail and it it just bent. He worked at the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Lab, and the project he was working on was polymer vacuum infusion. Looks like it took a while to come to market !

Blue Spruce Toolworks in Oregon has been producing a
mallet with an acylic infused maple head - that appears to
be a similar process of infusion. Here's the link
Blue Spruce

Tom

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T-n-T

I'm wondering if this technique is used on wood flooring...that stuff is near bullet proof. Hmmmmm?

Bob

http://content.penturners.org/articles/ ... urepot.pdf
http://content.penturners.org/articles/ ... blanks.pdf

These links explain everything.... the penturners forum is a very (very) robust forum and these guys are as helpful as we try to be here at the WWA and are for the most part a good bunch
http://www.penturners.org/

I'm actually quite curious as to how things would look if I did something similar with my vacuum bags and if that could work

Lawrence

The acrylate-infused wood has been around for a long time, but it's not something easy to do without fancy equipment. If you do want to make something similar yourself, I suggest laminating up many thin layers using a boatbuilding epoxy. These epoxies soak in pretty well, and with thin layers it does not need to soak in too far. There is an interesting article from Woodworks magazine describing what the author calls "fineply" made this way. Here's the article:
http://www.woodwork-magazine.com/index.php/archives/86
You would not need to alternate grain direction, as is usually done with plywood.

That is an awesome article-- thank you so much for sharing it. This explains what I was thinking of doing in a very understandable format. I see tons of potential with this-- including pen blanks, waterproof signs for carving with my carvewright, etc etc...

Thanks for sharing it
Lawrence

WOW...thanks for the cool links!! Opens lots of ideas...

Bob