Pressure Pot...Good Therapy

Bob Gibson

Member
Messages
11,473
Location
Merrimack, New Hampshire
Long story short........My son is a great guy and I'm really proud of him. He has been living with us for the past 4 months or so. He has PTSD and is on Veterans disability. His marriage dissolved and he was feeling pretty worthless. (he was married to a pretty nasty and crazy woman. She probably gave him the PTSD and not the Taliban :eek:)

Anyway, I got him interested in pen turning a few months back. I didn't really expect him to take to it but he has jumped in to it whole hog :D

He wanted to try his hand at making acrylic blanks and did quite a bit of research on it. The end result was he bought a paint pot from HF and I helped him fit it out to maintain about 60-70 psi. He bought a bunch of dye, pearlizing stuff, and little jars of different color flakes of some kind :dunno: and several quarts of clear 2 part acrylic. He has spent most of his time down in my shop trying different mixtures and colors. Some have turned out fantastic and some not so well but it is a learning experience.

So, it looks like the pen and wine stopper therapy is working. He is going back to college in a few weeks to get his degree in electrical engineering (all paid for by the VA) and his spirits are at an all time high. :D He has joined a pen turning forum, IAP maybe ?, and is learning some pretty neat tricks. If any of you pen guys see him on there I would sure appreciate it if you said hello. His name is easy to remember, it's the same as mine :salute:

The only down side is I have to learn to live with someone else in my shop using my tools :pullhair: I'm pretty anal when it come to keeping things clean and organized. He is not. (he's getting much better though:))
Small price to pay for the results :)

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Sorry to hear about your son & his PTSD condition. I somehow suspect that by you introducing him to a meaningful pastime & trade, that he'll become absorbed in it and hopefully that just might help his situation.

Looking further, it sounds to me that this could be a new project for you. Build a new shop for your son, have him sell his product & then pay you rent to pay off the new shop. Then you'll have your original space for yourselg, or if he decides to go on his own (elsewhere) you'll have two (2) shops! Now how good is that? LOL
 
I like the pieces he's created so far. Sounds like it's been a very positive experience and worth any inconveniences it may be.

So does the pressure pot create a vacuum? Just trying to understand it's role.
 
Well Darren asked what i was wondering. I thought it was vacuum the guys that made these blanks used.:dunno: Bob its nice to start the new year with a positive story like yours. Glad to hear the VA is taking care of him getting a meaningful education. Thank him from me for his service and wish him a happy new year. :thumb:
 
What a nice way to start out the new year. A great story Bob, and congratulations to you both for working together to get through the tough times. Best wishes to your son on his new career path.
 
Hi,

A wonderful story.

My greatest thanks to both of you, him for his stint in the service and you for helping him.

I'm curious about the "pressure" bit also.

Enjoy,

JimB

I really respect and desire neatness. However, I cannot seem to achieve it. It cannot be heredity because neither of my two sons inherited it (except when teenagers).
 
A couple of those came out really nice and the rest look pretty good to me as well. Also curious about the process? (its not JUST that I'm to lazy to google it, I'm also not quite sure on the terminology to search on so am coming up with some blanks :D)

I'm not very well organized either (understatement :eek:), but I kind of just know where everything is so I get irritated when working with someone else because its not in the corner where I left it :rolleyes:

Congrats to your son on going back to school. The sheepskin is worth something even if you don't use much of the learning (not that the learning is bad mind you). I've gotten into a few jobs where you couldn't even apply unless you had a degree (oddly it often didn't matter what degree, one job was as a computer sysadmin and one fellow had a degree in pastoral ministries - he was pretty good but the degree had nothing to do with the job.. but you had to have the paper).
 
Thanks guys.

From what I've learned by watching him is the pressure pot is just used to remove air bubbles from the curing 2 part acrylic. Nothing to do with the actual curing of the product itself. The air pressure inside the thank forces the bubbles to the surface.
What he is looking for now is a vacuum pump and tank so he can stabilize blanks. This, I think does the opposite. it replaces the air bubbles with a product that has to be heated in an oven to cure it.
 
What he is looking for now is a vacuum pump and tank so he can stabilize blanks. This, I think does the opposite. it replaces the air bubbles with a product that has to be heated in an oven to cure it.

I think he could use that same pressure pot and connect one of these to reverse it as a vacuum tank:

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-vacuum-pump-with-r134a-and-r12-connectors-96677.html

He'd probably want to put the items and stabilizing solution in a jar to keep the pot clean

I've got one and have been planning to build a stabilizing system based on using it for the vacuum. There is an article here that covers how to build it...

http://www.rodbuildingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=22478
 
The pressure pot is great for a couple things...squeezing bubbles to a microscopic size, pressing resin into wood pores if you get into worthless wood casting. Alumilite will not cure unless under pressure. Never get close to the pressure limit of your pot!! Typically a pressure of 40 to 60psi is used. Stabilizing is usually done in a vaccum. When I run a batch, it's easy to see the air bubbles being displaced by stabilizing fluid. I have a big tank from Curtis Seebeck from IAP. Achievable vaccum varies by elevation and equipment used. It's important to remember that the ability to stabilize a blank or block depends on size and type of wood. Typically the solution will only penetrate to a depth of 1.5-2". Starting with a refridge compressor and when that died I bought a Harbor Freight pump. Without trying to hard, I pull 27" mg. There are some great videos on Youtube on the major difference in puiliing 25" vs 28" mg. My set up paid for itself really fast. On a limited basis, I stabilize for others.
Thank you to your son for his service Bob!!
 
Good on you for letting him have some of your shop space, and good on him for finding some type of diversion to focus on instead of the past. Please pass on another "thanks for your service" from me, too. :thumb:
 
Bob there is a place right next to Wendy's just off exit6 (93N) Take a right at the bottom of the ramp and it on the left in the same building as HE Harris (I think that's the name of the concrete supply place) Don't remember the name but they have used electric motors and what not, any rate they regular have vac pumps for cheap money. I got mine for 40 bucks.
 
Bob there is a place right next to Wendy's just off exit6 (93N) Take a right at the bottom of the ramp and it on the left in the same building as HE Harris (I think that's the name of the concrete supply place) Don't remember the name but they have used electric motors and what not, any rate they regular have vac pumps for cheap money. I got mine for 40 bucks.

Also try pawn shops. HVAC guys sell 'em off quick when times get rough.
 
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