Drew Lawson wrote:
> In article >
> zxcvbob > writes:
>> Someone at my house put a nice-looking but inexpensive (Walmart) bamboo
>> cutting board in the dishwasher -- on the "potscrubber" cycle with the
>> sanitizer water heater selected, and also heat-dry. As you can imagine,
>> it warped badly and is almost unusable. I'm trying to straighten it out.
>
> Get a coping saw. Cut one end of the cutting board into the curve
> of a handle (like a ping-pong paddle), then use it to give a memorable
> beating to whoever put it in the dishwasher.
>
> Other posters are correct in that you are unlikely to ever get it
> flat. The process may be a fun experiment, but most woods (to my
> understanding) only steam bend well once, and hot water bending is
> even more detrimental to the wood fibers. A typical result might
> be almost flat, followed by milling off the high points. I doubt
> your board has that much thickness to spare.
>
>


Well, it sort of worked. The cutting board is almost flat now. (And I
*thought* about driving the truck onto it for more weight. Haven't
totally dismissed the idea yet) To actually get it flat, I probably
need to press or clamp it to a slightly convex form to overbend it just
a little -- so when it springs back it will be flat.

It is probably usable now, and it really wasn't before. And I don't use
this one very often, I use the polyethylene board or one of the small
wooden ones.

It will make good kindling this winter, meanwhile I am having fun with
my little science experiment.

Bob