Author Topic: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!  (Read 12363 times)

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Offline joachimM

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Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« on: April 23, 2015, 09:54:43 am »
Here's an original approach to steaming wood directly in place (or adjusting larger pieces).
http://www.core77.com/posts/35838/A-Better-Way-to-Steam-Wood-for-Bending-Use-a-Plastic-Bag
For bow making this approach seems especially useful if you have a caul.

Joachim

Offline johnfolchetti

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2015, 10:27:29 am »
Pretty slick.

Offline arachnid

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2015, 11:07:44 am »
That is way cool. 8)
I got to give it a try..... I don`t have good sucsess with bending boards, I think this method might work.

Offline paulsemp

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2015, 11:26:20 am »
that's awesome, I'm going to have to give that a go. thank you for posting that link

Offline paco664

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2015, 11:43:20 am »
and because the bag is so thin you don't have to remove the wood... thereby giving more working time...

smart... really smart...
I'm too drunk to taste this chicken"~Col.H.Sanders

Offline Tree_Ninja

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2015, 05:05:57 pm »
Smart. I had read somewhere that the first nations would use bull kelp to steam their yew bows. This method seems less smelly.

Offline Drewster

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2015, 09:16:48 pm »
That looks like it's worth a try.  I may "park" my steam pipe setup and give that a go.  I really like the time is could save transferring the wood to the caul......sweet.
Drew - Boone, NC

Offline ajooter

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2015, 09:27:37 pm »
Very cool may have to give that a go!

Offline JW_Halverson

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2015, 10:45:33 pm »
Yankee ingenuity.
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline bubby

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2015, 11:19:25 pm »
where could you get a roll of that plastic bag
failure is an option, everyone fails, it's how you handle it that matters.
The few the proud the 27🏹

Offline Drewster

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2015, 11:31:11 pm »
where could you get a roll of that plastic bag

Buddy, per a response at the end of the video page, Uline.com sells the roll material.......the 6 mil is recommended.  Dang, it come in a 1000' roll.  Several of us could share a roll :-)
Drew - Boone, NC

Offline DC

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2015, 12:12:40 am »
If you go to a shop that sells fiberglass sometimes they package it in poly tubes like that. I got about twenty feet for the asking. It was bigger, about 12" wide but it may work.

Offline tallpine

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2015, 11:50:09 pm »
Thanks for sharing that Joachim, that's really brilliant. The second video would be exactly how you would bend a stave over a caul. I have some super heavy duty,large contractor trash backs that would work if I can figure a way to narrow them up into a sealed tube, Duct tape maybe? I like this idea, I'm going to do some experimenting with this.

Offline Tree_Ninja

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #13 on: April 25, 2015, 12:00:43 am »
An expensive option are the  vacuum sealing bags for food savr.It is  already a long tube . I'm too cheap to do that, but they'd be durable.

Offline wapiti1997

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Re: Steaming wood with plastic bags?!
« Reply #14 on: April 25, 2015, 07:16:19 am »
It's not as thick, but diaper genie bags might work?