Soundboard finishing material - what and why?

V T pianovt@yahoo.com
Wed, 3 Aug 2005 15:12:13 -0700 (PDT)


Hi Susan,

>What viscosity was it to start with?

I would compare it to something like very light
cooking oil, perhas even thinner.  Thicker than water,
but thin enough to easily drip from the brush.

>Have you tried this experiment using heat to thin the
>epoxy after you've put it on the wood?

No, I gave up on this product.  This is a
"penetrating" two-part epoxy that contractors use to
reinforce wood that has been damaged by rot.  (I have
no idea why anyone would want that kind of repair done
on their home, but there it is!)  I am not near it and
can't remember the brand.

My thinking is like this:  The trunk of the tree
transports the liquid between the roots and the
leaves,  and it's probably super efficient at doing it
without sideways loss.  I tend to think of wood as
large bunch of fairly watertight tubes running from
the ground to the leaves.  Looking at it that way, it
makes sense that no epoxy would get in.  I suspect
that an epoxy has little hope (except at the endgrain)
unless it's thinner than water, and the water molecule
is pretty tiny!

Note in that picture, there is a crack running along
the grain.  While the epoxy did make it into the
crack, this is really only the equivalent of liquid
spilling through a soundboard crack - it still didn't
penetrate the wood, it just oozed in.

Vladan


		
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