Stabilizing Slabs Cactus Juice Vaccum Chamber: My adventure

Hello . A very interesting topic. I hope everything worked out for you as planned. I once also experimented with a vacuum. I have a powerful vacuum pump for jewelry purposes. He does a great job, but not always. I also tried to impregnate the plates, but the cracks are very small. In this case, the impregnating liquid does not get into them. If you sawed the plates with oil, then it remains in the cracks and can greatly interfere. In order to somehow protect the rock from oil, I recommend putting the sample in water for a long time before sawing. Especially porous materials. And before making the plates, wipe thoroughly. After sawing, immediately boil in water with the addition of ordinary baking soda. And for impregnation I used a solution of epoxy resin in acetone - 50/50. You can experiment with many resins and stabilizers. But from personal experience, I can say that it is best to impregnate an already formed cabochon, which has already been shaped. In this case, it is much lighter and better impregnated. The easiest way to create a vacuum is with a medical syringe. They come in different sizes. You need to cut off its end, and we get a kind of vacuum chamber. Press it (when the impregnated sample is inside) to the rubber glued on a flat surface, and pull it towards you. Sometimes, when I'm in a hurry, I just press it to my hand)))) To improve the effect, you need to create a vacuum several times, this applies to both the syringe and the vacuum pump. In addition , there are manual vacuum pumps . When I worked as a geologist, we used these to take samples from the soil. This pump is very similar to a manual ( automobile ) pump , but slightly larger . But the old car pump can also be converted into a vacuum one - turn the cuffs in the opposite direction and put the valve at the inlet. A vacuum chamber can be made from an ordinary pan by soldering or gluing a fitting onto silicone (either into the pan itself or into a flat surface to which it is pressed. But you also need to put an ordinary ball valve to release the vacuum. It is better to take soft rubber for the substrate (there is a special vacuum rubber, we have it white) It needs to be glued on a flat, sufficiently strong surface... As for heating, I use an ordinary hair dryer (my wife does not mind)))))), but you can also buy a building hair dryer. Epoxy resin is not capricious in terms of temperature, although it is clear that in your case it is necessary to adhere to the temperature regime.