The Minwax stuff most of the the other DIY store wood saver products are about 70%+ acetone,,a small % of alcohol and the rest are the solids in it (25% or so) that are an acrylic.
The solid is dissolved in the acetone. The acetone when applied to the end grain or to less than stable wood (dry rot, punky, ect),,it soaks in fast and in most instances fairly deep.
The acrylic disolved in it is carried with it,,then the acetone and alcohol evaporate at a rapid rate even from deep in the wood.
What is left is that acrylic plastic in solid form interlaced within the wood to reinforce it.
Works pretty good on old window sills and stuff like that where you can end up pouring nearly the entire can or bottle onto and into one bad spot. It soaks deep into soft dryrot stuff like that.
Some wood workers that make decorative projects use the same idea to stabilize wood blanks before use in turning and other machined wood projects.
They sometimes employ vacuum pumps get the stuff to fully enter the wood pieces or sometimes let them soak for days in it.
The home-made soln of the commercial mix is the same acetone and alcohol with common plexiglass bits disolved in it.
I've read of some use of hard styrofoam in place of the plexiglass. I don't know if it's the same stuff (acrylic?,,plastic?)but the people claim it works the same. I'm no chemist, so I don't know.
Same idea,,introduce a strong stable solid into solution so you can get it into the wood.
Soaking or vacuum pumping a gun stock full of the stuff probably wouldn't be too good,,might be a weight problem (?),,seems like it would end up being your wood finish if it was saturated with the stuff.
But soaked into the end grain seems like an OK thing.
I'd think one of the ultra thin SuperGlues applied to the end grain might do the same thing with a whole lot less drama though.
