Dry heat looks un-promising. From the document that Brian referenced:
Only air-dried wood of an appropriate species
should be used.
Kiln-dried wood must not be used; the lignin in the
wood has been permanently set during the hot, dry
kilning process. No amount of steaming or soaking
will weaken the lignin bond sufficiently for successful
bending. The same applies to air-dried wood that has
been allowed to dry and stabilize below 10% moisture
content; the lignin will only partially plasticize with
steam, not enough for successful bending of anything
beyond a shallow curve
If your wood is below 5%, it might be too late.
On Fri, Mar 4, 2016, at 01:39 PM, BRIAN GLACKIN wrote:
> Gene,
>
> Two items,
>
> First - check out http://www.leevalley.com/en/html/05F1501ie.pdf
>
> has a nice writeup on wood bending. You are likely to find your answers
> there.
>
> Secondly, in using the foam, a quick and airtight technique is to connect
> your corners of the foam boards with the 3X expansion foam they sell at
> home stores. Once it cures, its locked in giving you a nice strong
> corner. Make sure to leave a 1/2" gap between the pieces so the foam can
> expand around each of the adjoining slabs. I have made air stoppings (in
> underground mines) using styro blocks and expanding foam. It created
> surprisingly strong barriers and gave an airtight seal.
>
> Good luck.
>
> On Fri, Mar 4, 2016 at 1:10 PM, Gene Heskett <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Greetings; Mouse miss-fire before;
> >
> > The lids for these chests were the first things I tried to make out of
> > this crappy, poorly seasoned & dried mahogany.
> >
> > So by now they've had about 90 days to warp, and warp and wind they have
> > done.
> >
> > Now I know its a popular thing to warm up oak in a steam setup, getting
> > the lignite in the oak above 180F softens it and allows it to be bent,
> > and it will retain that bend when cooled again.
> >
> > I'd druther not use steam as this stuff reads 5% and below for moisture,
> > and if its temp alone that allows this, it stands to reason that lignite
> > is lignite and I'd ought to be able to heat this mahogany, and rather
> > than bending it, take the bend/wind back out of it.
> >
> > So obviously I have to make a chamber big enough to take these lids, all
> > 3 of them, which with the bearboards ends and all are around 1 and 1/16"
> > thick, around 23" wide, and about 47" long. Thats a 2x6 frame for
> > height, and half a sheet of plywood for top and bottom. But without
> > some insulation, hard to heat. So I am contemplating giveing it a wrap
> > with some 2" blue styro, thats r11 by itself. That should, because it
> > reduces the cooliing at the far end away from the heat source, even the
> > internal temps. As for the heat source, I'm considering demolishing an
> > old hair dryer, mainly to remove the plastic as much as possible, at
> > least cutting off the handle, and doing a light dimmer type of control
> > externally to set the heat. I don't care if it takes days to warm it up
> > as theres probably 40 lbs of wood to heat without scorching that which
> > is nearest the heater, only that it does get hot enough eventually. The
> > slower the better and more evenly would seem to be best when dealing
> > with 1/4 a barn door sized stuff.
> >
> > So my lack of info basically consists of how hot do I have to heat this
> > mahogany to the point where it will sag of its own weight and flatten,
> > and, how hot can I get the outside of the box before that blue styro
> > starts getting soggy? I can put a small probe thru the box resting on
> > the high point, or even stack 20 some pounds on it to add some
> > counterforce to the wind its taken, and by that see it start to flatten.
> > But that may need 200F or a bit more inside the box. IDK about mahogany.
> >
> > Maybe this is something Les Watts can advise on? Maybe, because the wind
> > is direction in-consistent, I might have to heat each one by itself.
> >
> > Advice needed OIW.
> >
> > Many Thanks to the wood people I know there are a few of here.
> >
> > Cheers, Gene Heskett
> > --
> > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> > soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> > -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> > Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
> >
> >
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