Part 2
My Wood Baluster Is Missing Pieces, Now What?
Now that we have the wood nicely filled with Abatron Liquid Wood, we can concentrate on restoring damaged wood with Abatron Wood Epox Compound. This is an epoxy wood filler for damaged wood
You will notice that the wood feels much heavier.
This is a good sign that the resin was able to penetrate where it needed to go and filled in the wood and strengthened it.
Don’t worry if any resin dripped down the sides of the wood. It is easily sanded off and accepts the paint very nicely.
I absolutely love the Wood Epox Compound. It is somewhat of a miracle worker.
Exhibit A:
What in the world do we do with almost 1/4 of the bottom of this turned baluster missing?
Abatron to the rescue!
Abatron Wood Epox Compound comes in easy to use plastic containers
Part A is bright white and Part B is a pale golden beige color
The compound will feel very light and spongy
Wear gloves and gently knead EQUAL portions of Part A & Part B together.
Keep mixing it until it is ALL ONE color. No streaks. It will initially get softer.
This product does tend to cure faster than the resin.
It helps if the area that you are filling in with the Abatron Wood Epox Compound has had some of the resin previously applied. If not you can mix up a tiny bit to keep in a cup nearby and brush it on the raw wood areas that will be in contact with the epoxy compound.
Be sure to mix up slightly MORE compound than you will need.
It’s better to put too much than not enough.
You will be sanding it when it cures.
I like to brush a bit of denatured alcohol over the area I will be applying the epoxy compound.
Firmly press the compound into the area to be repaired.
I use 2 of the stirring sticks to create the flat 90 degree edges.
This is still in the early stages but you can see it is already taking shape.
I used the edges of the wooden sticks to gently shape the epoxy compound and brushed a bit of denatured alcohol over it to help smooth and shape it
Do not try to do detailed sculpting in this stage, it is too soft yet.
This is my favorite part.
As you can see below, Abatron Wood Epoxy has really come thru.
I love how these few balusters came out.
These are some of my favorite images. The 2 photos of the bottom of the balluster show the one that was so rotten it was mushy and falling apart.
It is incredibly solid now.
I intentionally built up the reservoir to make it a bit taller than before
This enabled me to sand it down to the proper height.
It is now completely waterproof on this end.
I love how any part of the wood can be recreated to save these beautiful little pieces of history.
If you have any questions or ideas, please don’t hesitate to contact me. If you missed Part 1 of this article, please see Restoring Rotted Wood With Abatron Liquid Wood
