Thread: Stabilizing epoxy and dyes?

I want to start experimenting with stabilization of bone. I've found some inexpensive equipment to experiment with until I decide to pull the trigger on a decent vacuum pump / chamber.

My main interest at the moment is stabilizing bone and having the cavities filled with some highly colored epoxy or other stabilizing agent.

What brand / type of epoxy and / or dye do people here use?

I have seen on Youtube one of the guys using simple Minwax Wood Hardener in a Vacuum chamber for Bone parts on a knife

I have not tried my Chamber on bone, when I want color I have been using Coffee or Tea but I am after an aged look not really color..

The capillary holes in the bone are pretty small so I would imagine a thinner solution rather then thicker, don't know for sure though

I should have been more clear
I have started working with fossilized bone. Due to the fact that it spent a long time in the ground, it is pretty porous and has a fairly large area that's halfway between marrow and bone. So it would soak up quite a bit of epoxy.

Im interested to see what you come up with. I have messed around with home stabilizing , have made multiple chambers and tried, the minwax wood harder, tried acryloid b-72 , and have a pile of wood done with cactus juice by a guy that does it full time. The minwax , I wouldn't wast the time or money, the acraloid was decent , but still not IT, and Im not too impressed with the cactus juice really.

None are like the rock hard pro stabilized stuff from K&G.

If I were to try another run (or try stabilizing the bone you are trying) I would use a slow cure marine epoxy , thinned enough to flow freely and would use a sacrificial jar inside the chamber. use enough epoxy to cover and place the whole jar in the chamber (uncovered jar ) and pull vac/pressure/vac for as long as I could keep the epoxy flowing and bubbles pouring from the material then remove it from the jar and let it cure. With porous bone you may be able to get full saturation quick enough. But, there will be lots of waste, since you would need enough to cover the material being stabilized and once you mix it , its on its way to cure. plus it cures faster in larger volume, that jar would cure faster than expected...just my thoughts anyway.

yeah , I have tried a few home brew methods over the years and all have been mediocre at best. All my "pro treated" Cactus juice stabilized wood, will still soak up water, still warps when cut thin and humidity changes, not real thrilled with it and it still needs a finish to seal it up. its probably better than nothing , but not what I was expecting.

Crazy expensive industrial vac/pressure with alumalite would be money! But not sure how to get total saturation fast enough to make it work.

A majority of people I know are using cactus juice, but it seems different woods absorb it differently IE dense woods barely touch it. If it still absorbs water, I don't think it's been stabilised enough