Drying pinblock before stringing

[Richard Brekne]

Ron Nossaman wrote:

> >Let me understand this.  You have a piece of wood with a hole drilled in
> >the middle.  You saturate it with water and the wood expands away from the
> >hole and the hole gets larger.  Now lets drill five holes in a close
> >pattern.  Saturate the wood with water.  Now the wood expands away from the
> >hole, except when expanding away from the hole directs the expansion toward
> >another hole.  The expansion stops short of the adjacent hole and reverses
> >direction in order that that hole will also get larger.  Doesn't make
> >sense.
> >
> >David Love
>
> No, it doesn't make sense, because that's not how it works. The hole(s)
> will act similarly whether there is only one, or a hundred of them in the
> piece of wood. If you saturate the entire piece of wood, all the holes will
> expand  in a similar way. If you steam just one hole in the middle of a dry
> piece of wood, that hole will get smaller because the rest of the wood
> hasn't gotten wet, and doesn't change dimension. The expanding steamed wood
> around the hole has to go somewhere, so it goes in the direction of least
> resistance.
>
> Incidentally, the wood doesn't expand away from the hole. The wood just
> expands and the hole goes along with it. The wood defines the hole.
>
> Ron N
>
> _______________________________________________

Grin... ya gotta admit...this is going to make the uninitiated scratch their
heads quite a bit... for example... why does the expanded steam hole have a
"least resistance" situation that makes the hole get maller..... where as it
doesnt when the wood is soaked entirely with water ?... ok.. I think I
understand its because the whole chunk of wood is reaacting equally when its
soaked, and when you just steam the hole... the wood immediatly surrounding hole
will try to expand in the same manner... but gets forced to do something else as
the wood just inwards is still dry as a bone... as it were...

So why do I still feel like someones sent me off looking for a padeye wrench ?

RicB



--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html