Free 186 More Best Homemade Tools eBook:  
Get tool plans

User Tag List

Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: Extreme wood bending with ammonia

  1. #1
    Jon
    Jon is offline Jon has agreed the Seller's Terms of Service
    Administrator
    Supporting Member
    Jon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Colorado, USA
    Posts
    26,438
    Thanks
    8,100
    Thanked 40,248 Times in 11,775 Posts

    Extreme wood bending with ammonia

    Video depicting a heavy-duty wood steamer that uses ammonia instead of steam.



    There's an interesting patent linked in the video description: https://www.google.com/patents/US5360631 . Essentially, the patent is for wood treated with ammonia and then sealed. The patent description proposes that the sealed ammonia-treated wood is then provided to the consumer, who breaks the seal, bends the wood, and then lets the ammonia evaporate.

    The end user physically removes the outer protective film and bends, twists, or compresses the wood into its desirable, final shape. This can include compressive molding, or embossing, the wood to simulate carving for carved wood panels useful for doors and drawers, carved table aprons, carved rails or styles for doors and cabinets, etc. The wood can also be bent into tight radius bends, e.g., bends with a radius of 0.5 inch, without breaking or splintering, and with very low clamp loads. In most applications, the wood can be bent into the desired shape with hand pressure, and clamps are only used to prevent sagging of the wood until the permanent stiffness is restored.

    186 More Best Homemade Tools eBook

  2. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Jon For This Useful Post:

    Christophe Mineau (May 9, 2015), jere (Apr 30, 2015)

  3. #2
    kbalch's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Clermont, FL
    Posts
    5,034
    Thanks
    2,275
    Thanked 532 Times in 384 Posts
    Very neat stuff. The guy presenting this video has an absolutely fascinating YouTube channel called Applied Science. It would be easy to spend hours watching his work.

    Ken

    2,000+ Tool Plans

  4. #3
    Content Editor
    Supporting Member
    DIYer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    3,055
    Thanks
    793
    Thanked 1,888 Times in 1,683 Posts
    Never heard of bending wood with ammonia before! Learned something new today.
    Last edited by DIYer; Apr 29, 2015 at 08:29 PM.

  5. #4
    Supporting Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Brisbane,Queensland, Australia.
    Posts
    26
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked 10 Times in 4 Posts

    Ron B's Tools
    Wow, his treatment of ammonia is a bit laissez-faire . Ammonia WILL kill you and stinks like a public toilet on a hot day. He doesn't mention what he did with the ammonia in his pipe but when working on Fridge plants we had to run a evacuation line to a large container of water (around 5000 gals) The ammonia was allowed to run into the water eventually saturating it ,but perfectly safe. Then the water was simply sprayed onto grass .The grass usually got on a great spurt of growth with a few days.
    Even the slightest amount of Ammonia in gaseous form will suffocate you so if anyone is considering using this stuff like this get a respirator .

  6. The Following User Says Thank You to Ron B For This Useful Post:

    Christophe Mineau (May 9, 2015)

  7. #5
    Content Editor
    Supporting Member
    DIYer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    3,055
    Thanks
    793
    Thanked 1,888 Times in 1,683 Posts
    Good info, Ron B. Sometimes, diyers do things that skirt the boundaries of safety and this is a good reminder.

  8. #6
    kbalch's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Clermont, FL
    Posts
    5,034
    Thanks
    2,275
    Thanked 532 Times in 384 Posts
    I regularly see guys doing stuff that goes far beyond the mere skirting of safety boundaries and well into the "Holy moly, I can't believe he's doing that!" range.

    As a classic TV show used to say, "Let's be careful out there!"

    Ken

  9. The Following User Says Thank You to kbalch For This Useful Post:

    DIYer (Apr 30, 2015)

  10. #7
    Supporting Member Altair's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    12,020
    Thanks
    1,365
    Thanked 30,313 Times in 9,998 Posts
    Interesting technique, but a little too dangerous for my taste.

  11. #8
    Supporting Member Christophe Mineau's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    France, Brittany !
    Posts
    913
    Thanks
    832
    Thanked 1,705 Times in 481 Posts

    Christophe Mineau's Tools
    Yes and what about his questionning about the tanks he uses, and wheter aluminium will react or not ...
    He feels confident ...
    I think steam would do as well and much safer (though can be dangerous also)
    Cheers !
    Christophe
    ________________________________________________________________
    Visit my Website : http://www.labellenote.fr/
    Facebook : La Belle Note
    All my personal works, unless explicitly specified, are released under
    Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.

  12. #9
    kbalch's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Clermont, FL
    Posts
    5,034
    Thanks
    2,275
    Thanked 532 Times in 384 Posts
    He's got a really cavalier attitude toward a potentially hazardous reagent. If he doesn't know whether or not ammonia at that molarity will react with his storage vessels, then he's already behind the curve and asking for trouble.

    Still, neat stuff to watch - from a distance!

    Ken



    2,000+ Tool Plans

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •