Exotic Woods for Mods

Wow, This is what I have been searching for for the last week or so. But surely we should be able to buy exotic woods in RSA? The shipping is quite hectic. Unless we start a "choose your wood" group buy :)
 
Wow, This is what I have been searching for for the last week or so. But surely we should be able to buy exotic woods in RSA? The shipping is quite hectic. Unless we start a "choose your wood" group buy :)

The only problem with a group buy is that it will need to be done quickly because the wood on that site comes and goes at a speed especially when the popular stabilized ones come in!
 
With all the wooden mods going around at the moment, maybe we should try get an idea of how many people will be interested ? I'm going to continue my search for local exotic wood for the time being. (that sounds a bit wrong :mm:)
 
With all the wooden mods going around at the moment, maybe we should try get an idea of how many people will be interested ? I'm going to continue my search for local exotic wood for the time being. (that sounds a bit wrong :mm:)
Theres certainly plenty of exotic timbers available here in SA,I've done a lot of reading/research about stabilising,there is a Company in SA who offer a service to stabilize customer supplied blocks,unfortunately the method used is not the same as that used by the company that @Rob Fisher refers to.For anyone interested here's what can be tried,I will be doing this as an experiment within the next couple of weeks;
Take the block and put it in a micro wave for 20/30 sec bursts until it is too hot to touch with bare fingers.
Dunk it in a jam jar containing Woodoc 20 (the Polyurethane one not the polywax one)
The wood will suck in the Woodoc,this is the Koeksister effect.
Then place the jar with the wood in it, into a pot of boiling water until the Woodoc becomes very hot.
Place some cling film over the mouth of the jar and tighten the lid and seal with tape.
Remove from the pot and leave it to cool for a day.
The heated Woodoc will cool and create a vaccuum which will penetrate the wood further.
When cool repeat the process once more.
This time put your wood on a plate as the Woodoc may bubble when being microwaved.
Dunk again, boil and seal.
With most woods you will get deep penetration.
This is more effective when the block is already formed to a rough shape.
After it is cooled the second time remove the wood and allow to dry in a sunny place for a day or so.
Apparently this technique works well on harder wood,softer woods will drain very easily and the process may need to be repeated a few more times.
Please be careful.
 
Theres certainly plenty of exotic timbers available here in SA,I've done a lot of reading/research about stabilising,there is a Company in SA who offer a service to stabilize customer supplied blocks,unfortunately the method used is not the same as that used by the company that @Rob Fisher refers to.For anyone interested here's what can be tried,I will be doing this as an experiment within the next couple of weeks;
Take the block and put it in a micro wave for 20/30 sec bursts until it is too hot to touch with bare fingers.
Dunk it in a jam jar containing Woodoc 20 (the Polyurethane one not the polywax one)
The wood will suck in the Woodoc,this is the Koeksister effect.
Then place the jar with the wood in it, into a pot of boiling water until the Woodoc becomes very hot.
Place some cling film over the mouth of the jar and tighten the lid and seal with tape.
Remove from the pot and leave it to cool for a day.
The heated Woodoc will cool and create a vaccuum which will penetrate the wood further.
When cool repeat the process once more.
This time put your wood on a plate as the Woodoc may bubble when being microwaved.
Dunk again, boil and seal.
With most woods you will get deep penetration.
This is more effective when the block is already formed to a rough shape.
After it is cooled the second time remove the wood and allow to dry in a sunny place for a day or so.
Apparently this technique works well on harder wood,softer woods will drain very easily and the process may need to be repeated a few more times.
Please be careful.
Ah, looking forward to some before and after pictures, please.
 
I like the shape. Was that stabilized as you described above?
No thats the block before I try and stabilise it,I've found the right stuff so I'll be attempting to do it soon and I'll post pics of the results.
 
No thats the block before I try and stabilise it,I've found the right stuff so I'll be attempting to do it soon and I'll post pics of the results.
Roger that....had in my mind one had to stabilize the block before milling, seeing all those blocks @Rob Fisher posted. But makes sense to do the basic milling first.
 
Roger that....had in my mind one had to stabilize the block before milling, seeing all those blocks @Rob Fisher posted. But makes sense to do the basic milling first.
Iam not sure of the amount of penetration that can be achieved by this method but it won't be nearly as good as those blocks which Burlsource sell,in theirs I'm pretty sure the process would open up all the cells in the blocks which would then be filled during the vacuum process.There are ways to try and do this under vacuum using some pretty basic equipment as well.I'm simply going to weigh the block before and after and also mark the level of the Woodoc before and after and then do visual checks.I'm busy making other wooden mods the design of which which won't allow me to stabilise first,so I'll have to try and do the whole block.Theres some pretty useful info for wooden mod makers on preparation and finishing on the Burlsource site.The interesting one for me is the use of CA glue,they don't state what CA glue is but I assume its Cyanoacrylate which is superglue.Plenty to experiment with!
 
like the look and size. looking forward to the progess pics.
Thanks,its fine but it won't become a mod,I roughed this out in about 15 minutes,using a drill press,a block plane and sandpaper in order to see if I could bore holes through a small block and to see what the result would be.Something like it might become a mod later though.
 
Awesome post @Rob Fisher! And thanks for that info @Genosmate.

Am going to carefully attempt to stabalise a piece. Do you think a pressure cooker would work better?

Sent from the Dark Side of The Force
I don't think (but I'm not sure) that a pressure cooker will help,I think you need the block inside the liquid heated before you seal the jar.You could however turn the pressure cooker into a vacuum chamber and use a different method entirely to try and stabilise the block.You can even use a glass jar as a vacuum.Check out youtube theres one or two videos on there that will give you an idea.
 
That will NEVER happen... I'm not allowed to touch power tools! :confused::)

I've decided that for me to get the mod I want I will need to venture into unknown territory. So for the next month ill be doing a lot of research on regulated mods and bf mod parts
 
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