Stabilising green wood (peg)

[ColeyS1]

I was on pinterest the other day and saw a topic about stabilising log slices with 'peg'- polyethylene glycol.
I was trying to find a cheap source and found 5 litres on ebay for £19.
Is this the right stuff ?

It seems rather cheap, so I'm thinking it's probably too good to be true.

I've got several logs I'm looking to cut into slices. It'd be good if I could somehow prevent them from drying/cracking as much.

Thanks

Coley


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[Normancb]

PEG 200 is a runny liquid and not much use as a wood impregnant. You need PEG1000, which is a waxy solid. Worth reading up on it first though - you need quite a bit of PEG and it takes a long time to impregnate thick sections. The solution tends to grow all kinds of fungal life! It took 20 years or so to do the timbers of Mary Rose.

There's a good book by Patrick Spielman called "Working Green Wood with PEG" - if you can find a copy.

 

[custard]

This is an interesting thread, thanks to Coley for raising it. Back in the 1980's there was a lot of talk about PEG, primarily for wood turners but it was also used for several furniture applications. But then PEG seemed to pretty much drop off the woodworking radar and I hardly here about it these days.

The Barnsley Workshops make some beautiful cabinets where the panels are solid burr, with a shaped profile so it's clear it is solid and not veneer.

I've had some suitable burrs drying for a couple of years, ready to try something similar, but I've wondered a few times if PEG might be a way to speed up the drying process, improve "plane-ability", and add some dimensional stability to boot?

 

[ColeyS1]

PEG 200 is a runny liquid and not much use as a wood impregnant. You need PEG1000, which is a waxy solid. Worth reading up on it first though - you need quite a bit of PEG and it takes a long time to impregnate thick sections. The solution tends to grow all kinds of fungal life! It took 20 years or so to do the timbers of Mary Rose.

There's a good book by Patrick Spielman called "Working Green Wood with PEG" - if you can find a copy.

So do the numbers just give an indication of the viscosity ? I was planning on filling a bucket and leaving the slices in overnight- would the runny stuff still be majorly unsuitable ?
I've ordered the book you suggested- thanks It'll make interesting reading as I never realised a product existed to deal with sopping wet timbers.

Coley

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[ColeyS1]

This is an interesting thread, thanks to Coley for raising it. Back in the 1980's there was a lot of talk about PEG, primarily for wood turners but it was also used for several furniture applications. But then PEG seemed to pretty much drop off the woodworking radar and I hardly here about it these days.

The Barnsley Workshops make some beautiful cabinets where the panels are solid burr, with a shaped profile so it's clear it is solid and not veneer.



I've had some suitable burrs drying for a couple of years, ready to try something similar, but I've wondered a few times if PEG might be a way to speed up the drying process, improve "plane-ability", and add some dimensional stability to boot?

Those burr panels look really good Custard. I am a little wary of how it'll perform tbh. Surely if it was good as it claims to be,people would be shouting about it from the roof tops- much like tuffsaws gets mentioned.

I wish I'd been aware of it before bringing in my 5ft diameter log slice to dry. It's got some whopping great cracks in it now, atleast I think it should be dry enough to begin finishing it.

Coley

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[Normancb]

The numbers refer to the molecular weight of the polymer. At 200 it's a liquid - they go up to 2,000,000.

If you impregnate with PEG200 it will still be a liquid in the pores of the wood and will give you endless trouble with bleeding out and leaching. PEG1000 is solid, albeit waxy. For impregnation it is dissolved in water and the wood is immersed in the solution. After soaking for a long enough time the wood is allowed to dry and the PEG in the cells stops them from collapsing. There are all sorts of restrictions on what kind of finish you can use, because of the waxy stuff in the cells.