Hi

"Gregg Germain" skrev i en meddelelse
...
steamer wrote:
: --Looking to see if someone's got a technique or guidelines to
: follow; i.e. how long to steam a particular wood with a certain thickness.
: Are there tables for this sort of thing?
: --TIA,

Big Snip.

Now there are two important issues ; with mahogony the one hour pr Inch. is 45
min.
------- Trust my words this is common boatbuilder knowleage.
Beside, ---- what make the wood bend, is the layer of proteins between the cells
and cell walls being liquid first time the wood is heated just under 100 deg. C.
This way the fibers can move when bended , but wood can only be steamed and
bended once. You can also only boil an egg once and somthing like the same
happen with the proteins in the wood as what happen with an egg being boiled ,
as when first the proteins have "hardened becaurse of the heat , it will not
again go liquid and allow the fibers to move.
Please know that I talk fom hands on experience as I once had a producion of
mast rings in both Ash and Elm. Youy can easily over steam but this is often
about to high a temperture when you have a decent boiler working with say 1.2
Atm. preasure , making sure the steam isn't down some 60 Deg.C. when it reach
the steam box.
Acturly the difficult part is to make sure that the steam is not so hot that you
dry out , boil out the water from the green wood.
Proberly easyer to steam wet wood, but that is becaurse this is not so easily
oversteamed , but done right your wood will be dried in the steaming process.
Just my million kroner.
P.C.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Cyber-Boat/