>Guys - - Thanx for the recent input on another posting. I liked the comment about "turning is a black hole to which you and your money gets sucked in to". I'm starting to understand that.
Have read many notes on drying with soap & boiling, but in a discussion here at work, is there any merit to using a pressure cooker on the wife's stove ? Seems a local commercial bowl works runs their newly turned bowls into an autoclave prior to air drying on the shelf. Thoughts ?
>Boiling is a way to prevent cracking and warping in wood as it dries. The heat from the boiling softens the lignin that bonds the cellulose in the wood torgether, allowing the wood to move, and thereby relieving any internal stresses in the wood. There are some problem species where this "stress relief" is the only way we can use it.
The advantage of the pressure cooker is that the water in the pot boils at a higher temperature in a pressurized container. Higher temperature makes the lignin softer, the wood moves more easilly, and less time is required. Carried to its extreme and at very high pressure, the resulting high temperatures will melt the lignin, leaving the wood fiber behind as the pulp for making paper.
I have always heard claims that boiling makes the wood dry faster. Others may have different experiences with boiling, but I have never seen it make drying faster. My experience has always been the opposite. Because of the boiling, the moisture in the wood is usually greater than it was before putting it in the pot, and it takes just as long, or longer, to get it out.
If there is any shortening of the drying time, it is because we think we can dry the wood faster because we don't have to worry about cracks and warp. Sometimes we can get away with that kind of thinking, but at other times we cannot.
