Blasting old oak? Then resin?

[julianf]

This is for effect, so please hold back on the "fit for firewood only" comments.

I've got a load of old oak boards. They're full of worn holes and other general defects.

I'm wondering about blasting them with "somthing" (not sure what) and then doing a resin pour into the holes. Maybe even with clear resin.

I'm not trying to hide the defects at all, far from it. There's a chance (I don't know yet) that the reclaimed vintage / old angle might be a sales pitch.

The boards are from the 1800s.

So, questions -

What blast media? Somthing I can buy and load into my stock blaster please. No vapor blasting or esoteric stuff.

And...

Has anyone tried clear resin on worm damaged wood? Rubbish or ok?


Again, I'll make a sales pitch out of it, but it has to look novel also.

Thank you.

 

[Droogs]

Regarding the resin you would be looking at a stablising technique using cactus juice or similar, intended to both stop any degredation of the wood and to probably add strength. Vacuum impregnation is probably the proper way to go but you will have problems finding a pot big enough. As to the blasting media probably something nylon bead based I suppose

 

[KingAether]

Walnut shell possibly for the blasting

 

[mikej460]

Blast Media Chart - Grainger KnowHow

and

Guyson Blast Media Guide

 

[marcros]

my feeling is that this wont work very well (aside from the views on resin projects).

firstly, if you are doing it to stabilise, anything bigger than small turning blanks would be very expensive and probably too difficult to deal with - ie soaking under vacuum and baking. I dont think this was your aim though.

secondly, generally when you blast wood, you do it for texture, or to give it the look of age. I am not sure whether you are wanting to do it for this, or to clean it up a bit. I think that woodworm holes will be too small as a feature and the square edges to boards look a bit off when making a feature of imperfections. Some of it is personal choice, and I have seen splits and defects made a feature. My preference is where these are done with bowties and no resin. Resin projects and river tables have their fans- the better ones seem to make a feature of the live edges and natural defects, plus figuring and burry areas/edges. Your designs may suit the timber you have, I dont know what you have planned.

Since you have the boards, I would probably get a BRASS wire brush and clean one up. It will be slower than blasting, but you should be able to achieve a bit of texture. Maybe try half a board with texture and half without. Then get some cheap casting resin- polyester stinks and I wouldn't recommend it for the finished thing, but it will allow you to try out what you are suggesting. I have used small amounts of resin here and there. If you want to disguise a defect then I find a glass clear resin to be a way of making it less noticeable. You may want to try a coloured resin. You could even try filling the defects with a powder and dripping thin ca glue on- this gives you some options such as metal powders, or even things like printer toner powder. Take the necessary precautions when mixing and handling resins and powders. Again, it will give you an idea of what you might achieve with minimal investment.

 

[julianf]

Thanks to all.

These are old boards - i figured blasting lightly would clean off all the junk from the recesses, but i was also worried that the media would just fill the recesses never to be gotten out again.

The holes are not actually wood worm, but the larger one - some sort of beetle?

I dont need to join the bits at all, and the wood is actually stable enough without the resin. Most of it is not rotten at all, just eaten and a few splits.

All i need is flat planks to load onto the cnc machine and cut shapes from, theres no real joinery or anything.

I posted some photos the other day to some thread or other, but im not going to find them right now - theyre just end "cheeks" for boxes that hold electronics - think 1970s style stuff, but for this years buyers.

 

[Inspector]

Any chance of a picture or two of the wood? Might help. Are you okay with the colour of the Oak that has been blasted being different than that which isn’t?

Pete
Guess I was too slow.

 

[JoshD]

I use an old air-dried French walnut slab to make this table. It had serious shakes and cracks right through the middle of the bits with the nicest figuring as well as as worm holes. I cut ît into oversize pieces and immersed in epoxy, then planed and sanded the epoxy off. Didn't get into that many of the worm holes but did a great job with shakes and cracks: here's a close up

If you try this suggest you put some epoxy down underneath before you lay the slab down in the epoxy bath; and try and warm the epoxy a bit to reduce viscosity, but not so much as to make it go exothermic

 

[Droogs]

better not let the other half see this table -I'll never hear the end of it. she plays it constantly on her phone. If we had that my life would be over. very nice though