I recently spun a bunch of 7" needles. Tailweighted and level sink versions. 3 woods, maple, birch and walnut. Epoxy sealed heated maple and 60/40 spar for others. I always sealed at room temp for birch and walnut. I decided to microwave the birch and walnut. 45 min in sealer. Interestingly the birch sucked in approx 7-9grams of sealer and the walnut barely increased in weight. Knowingly that, my next batch will try a lessor time with periodically checking during soak weight increase. Im ok with first batch increase since my target blank weight was somewhat lower than last year. I will experiment heating maple and sealing in spar. If i get a nice increase I would assume this penetration should hold off splitting to a point. If so, it would an easier method to the epoxy sealing. Believe me i rather use birch but i have a source of rock maple at work which is scrap when under 1 1/2" diameter. I will post with findings soon.

I would assume the maple will suck up the spar pretty good.if weight is an issue keep a good watch on them as they may end up too heavy. I much prefer birch over maple.
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Billy if the wood is not kiln dried the microwave will expel some moisture from the wood. I had some plugs bubble out moisture before LOL... I'm thinking I'm worrying about sealing the plug from water intrusion and here I am sealing the water in. if you heat the plugs in the microwave or oven and then use any type of non-epoxy sealer, let them dry for a longer time than normal.

Hi Matt. Missed ur post. The rock maple is kiln dry. This is the maple we use in the wood shop. Interesting find I found sealing. I heat up in micro and pending how many plugs in micro time is variable. 1 plug 30sec. 8 - 7" needles 90 sec. They go in hot. 5 min. Soak in 7gr. Thinner needles about 4gr.
One thing i did notice my weights are glued in and bondo filler. The heat seems to bulge the filler. So I lightly sand them down. My next batch Ill heat less and try.
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See my post on Sunday morning plug building
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I been turning jumbo maple needles. I weighted them and min wax wood filler putty . Heated in micro, 35 seconds per 1, 45sec for 2. Thinned 25% w/denatured alcohol. Messy but soak in well. One little problem the( bondo) minwax wood filler swells a bit . So i just lightly sand the epoxy body and sand flush the putty. Prime and paint.
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