Mac, 101° isn't hot enough for bending. Steam - actually hot water vapor
at about 200° - is barely hot enough. What steam bending does is soften the
lignin, the natural binder that holds the wood fibers together, so the
fibers can slide past each other. When cooled, it hardens and binds the
fibers once more.

On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 12:17:12 -0400, "George" wrote:


"mac davis" wrote in message
.. .

I'm trying to avoid building a steam chamber, but yak never know...


Willow.

A steam chamber is as simple as a kettle and a piece of stovepipe.

At school we had a setup for snowshoes between the heating pipes where
we'd
stripped away the (asbestos?) insulation to put the pipe. Guess I'm
gonna
die....

I was actually thinking of using the hot tub.. 300 gallons of 101 degree
water...
that, or soaking in water and using the heat gun..

I used to install furnace insulation back in the 70's... got out of it
when the
2nd or 3rd one of the older guys got black spots on their lungs.. nasty
stuff..



mac

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