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BAMBOO HEAT-TREATING

EXCERPTS CHAPTER III

Usefulness of heat-treatment

Heat-treatment is a simple process. The triangular rough strips are heated to the temperature where the small amount of sap remaining in the bamboo is polymerized and the moisture expelled. There will be a small loss in weight and volume … (...)

Heat-treating bamboo requires equipment that can be built by the amateur, but it is necessary to have a good knowledge … (...)

While the professionals have at their disposal big fire-brick drying ovens that are able to accept large quantities of rough strips built, the amateur has only four possible models...

OVEN MODELS

The "tube" of Serge Bodeau

Mr. Bodeau, an outstanding maker and one of the first members of the Club Français du Refendu, solved the heat distribution and temperature stability problems in a simple way.

It is indeed, the best oven I know (photos 3.1 & 3.2).

  
photo 3.1 - click to enlarge -    photo 3.2


An insulated ribbon resistor is wrapped around a copper tube with two thermal breakers controlled by thermocouples that ensure temperature stability … (…)

Actually, the 4 minutes heating time and the 20cm bundle size were established for my own oven. Both could vary according to your own experience. The advantage of this oven type … (...)

In order to check the oven and to know where the hottest part is located, and then where exactly to install the thermocouple controllers, it is necessary to place … (...)

The oven with a hot air gun

Antoine Petit's design is a very interesting solution for a bamboo oven.

Antoine Petit's oven
3.3   Sketch of the Antoine Petit's
oven with a thermal dipper.

Rather than attempting to solve the problem of providing even heat distribution, this oven design circumvents the difficulty in a similar way as the tube of Serge Bodeau : the strips are placed along ... (…)

Antoine Petit's proposal is a very interesting solution for a bamboo oven


Building principle (Figure 3.3)


A 50 to 60 mm diameter copper tube at least 100cm long is fitted along the inside of a wooden box with double insulated walls. The hot air gun blows hot air … (…)
Another option
It is possible to replace the hot air gun … (...)

The Garrison oven

The tempering, according to Garrison, takes place at around 176°C (350°F), but the rough triangular strips are inserted in the oven … (...)

The rough strips are rotated and then, after a while, extracted, rotated end-for-end, and reinserted. The rough tip strips should be extracted first… (…)

The Garrison oven was heated by a gas strip burner. This oven type features easier temperature control than the electric resistance heaters,... (...)

The torch oven

This is the simplest oven and the easiest to bring into operation. The strips are put in a closed metal … (…)
The baker's oven
There is an economic solution : the baker's oven! If a friend of yours is a baker... (...)


The impregnation
In the first edition of this book, I praised impregnation. I have now changed my mind and think that, … (...)

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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