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estebanana -> RE: Side bending problem (Jan. 19 2010 20:29:47)
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You might be having a problem with residual water in the ribs. Like Anders said only a little water. If you are too heavily wetting the ribs and heating them with a silicon blanket, you might not be cooking all the moisture out of the rib.
When you let the rib sit in the side bender all night with the rib covered in foil and the two steel sheets that can trap a small amount of moisture in your wood. It may feel dry to the touch, but the moisture content of the wood, especially inside, may be enough to cause a reaction with room temperature and even exposure to minimal heat sources like 20 minutes under 100 watt light bulbs. One side of the rib gets hotter and it dries faster or more completely than the other side and the wood cups.
Two things you can try is to use much less water and then do two cycles of heat with the blanket. After you bend the ribs and the first cycle has elapsed, wait a few minutes then then do another shorter cycle at lower heat.
The second thing is to run another heat cycle the next morning when the ribs have cooled all night. Then let them completely cool before removing them from the bender.
I bet your problem is residual water in the ribs from too much water application before bending. Unless you have some other issue with your room moisture or you are inadvertently cooking the ribs under your work lights and warping them.
One more thing you can try is to bend your ribs in plain artists newsprint paper. It's very cheap and does not have the potential hold moisture like foil. The water will steam out of the paper faster than it will steam out of the wood and then you will not have as much of a problem with the ribs sitting all night in trapped moisture.
When you spritz your wood, set the spritz bottle nozzle to the fine mist setting. If you don't have an adjustable mist setting in the bottle you might want to get one so you don't over wet. Garden supply places tend to have more sophisticated spray mist bottles for watering house plants. They work very well, in addition to being more dainty and stylish.
I hope that information helps. It sucks to ruin expensive ribs and we've all done it one time or another.
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