pressure pot

Might try some gasket type sealant from auto parts store.

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Warped? Send it back.
OR…double or triple the gasket thickness. I use old bicycle inner tubes.

-- Gene 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

How much pressure are you trying to put in it?

-- Gerry, http://home.comcast.net/~cncwoodworker/CNC_Woodworker.html

Buy a better pot I’ve tried more than one HF there not worth the powder it takes to blow them to you know were.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

I’ve had mine for 40 years. Sears I think. Mine has a rubber sear, What is the one on the HF pot.

Are you going to try a vacuum first to take the air out of the woods before the pressure is used.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Does not appear warped.

I’m told I can infuse the wood at 40 psi and the pot is rated for 70 psi. I’ve only pressurized it to 40 psi.

There is a rubber seal on the lid and the rim has no noticeable dings. I do not know how supple the rubber seal is.

Karson, i’ve seen that there is a method to use vacuum to infuse the wood as well as pressure. I may try both over time.

I’ll see if I can find another (or a replacement) seal.

Lee

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

Lee: I was thinking about using a quart mason jar inside the pressure pot. Put the stabilizer inside the jar and the wood. Vacuum the pot for a day or two. Then pressure it. The mason jar will not break because the pressure is equalized on all sides.

I think that it might work.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Logically if you vacuum out the air from the pores in the wood the void will be filled by the liquid.
Similarly, if you press the liquid into the wood it will push the air out of the pores.

I know that the people who commercially do the stabilizing use pressure.

I was thinking of using a small pan.

I’ll probably try a number of different ways.
First, I have to stop the pot from leaking.

Lee

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

Jim,
It is my patriotic duty to buy crappy stuff from China.
If I don’t help lower the trade balance China will call the notes and I will have to learn to speak Chinese.
I never graduated from high school because I could not learn a foreign language, at least not the way they taught it.

Lee

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

Inside the lid there is welded a thin metal band. The gasket sets in the groove defined by the edge of the lid and this band.
The welds were sloppy and lumpy on the inside of the band, between the band and the lip.
I ground down the bumps.
The gasket has a smooth side and a ribbed side. I assume that the rib is supposed to fit over the lip of the pot.
Now, instead of all the air leaking out in 3 minutes it took about 30 minutes to lose 30 PSI. I’ll switch the gasket around the next time to see which way works better.

The goal is to stabilize pen blanks and to make plastic resin pen blanks so I think I am at a stage where I will be able to use this pot. The “brand name” pressure pots were more than $350.00

Lee

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

Any progress on your stabalizing blanks?

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Lee, I went to an antique shop, the kind that sells lots of junk too and bought an old canning pot. Has the pressure gage and all. The seals are still available. No where near $350 and they work well…

-- Gary, DeKalb Texas only 4 miles from the mill

Lee: I found this article

http://content.penturners.org/articles/2004/polyurethane1.pdf

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

What you should have done when you first got it was use some wd40 around the gasket to make it supple. Then you crank the opposite clamps abit and then the other 2 clamps and continue in this manner untill all are tight. You should also mark the tank and lid with a witness mark so that you place the lid back in the same place every time. Now eventually the gasket will need to be replaced. Make sure you do not go above the rated pressure. They have been known to explode.

-- John T.

I did not use WD40 but it is not too late.
I always crank the clamps like tightening a car tire lug.
I thought about just getting a new, probably better quality, gasket at Ames.
Karson, after I went there I realized I had read it before. I, too, am thinking of drilling the tube hole first.
Like I said, I got the Pen Wizard this week and JR rounds his blanks on the router table before he drills them on the lather. That would remove even more wood to make it easier to stablilize.
Lot’s of ways to experiment.

Lee

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.