I need some ideas on building a steamer. Surely someone out there has a plan I can use.
Thanks
6" stove pipe with a cap on one end and a register adapter on the other to sit on top of a pot of water. Just that simple. I riveted my sections together. I use a chunk of 4 x 4 to hold up the capped end slightly higher than the pot end, that way it drains back nicely.
I used bubble type foil insulation and mabe a sleave and then used my wifes clothing steamer just shoved into the sleve and cliped shut around it. Workes great if you have a clothing or wallpaper steamer.
Six in pipe made to look like a "T" with a cap on each end. Dean torges gives the plans for his which is where I got em. I wrapped mine loosly with insulation as well to give a bit more heat. I mostly use dry heat now because I have better succes with it, but I do use the tube to help speed dry wood per Dean's book.
I built a cradle to set my stave on top of a big canning pot like you would can vegetables in and then wrap aluminum foil over top of the stave to keep the steam in. It's worked fine, but I like the stove pipe idea better. I do steam now and then with green staves to work out a few kinks before sealing them up, but I agree with DVS about the dry heat and I use that more than the steaming. It's also been my experience that even though I steam out a problem area when the stave is green, within a few short weeks it's contorted itself again as it dries so I end up using dry heat in the end anyway.
I found 6" pipe is too big to effectively heat with household heat sources. So, I use 4" stove pipe with an "L" on one end that flares from 4" to 6". I wrap the works in an old blanket and duct tape and set the the L on a pot of boiling water, supported by some very heavy wire mesh. I wrap some aluminium foil around the pot to keep the steam directed into the tube, and restrict the other end with a rag. I prop the other end up slightly, so condensation drains back into the pot.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww48/Alpinbogen/Greenland%20Kayak%20Build/GreenlandBuildMar-Apr2011034b.jpg
Good looking set up and cool Kayak you got going but no pics over 640 pixels please.
Please send me the kayak plans!