I’m not going to eat steamed veggies on a Friday, no way, but how about some delicious mahogany. I first learned of steaming wood in plastic bags in a Runabout restoration book years ago. I thought that author had a lot of “out there” ideas about boat work, but this one is pretty good. If you need to steam something in place, or just need to make a portion of the wood limber, this is the way to do it. You just need some polyethylene plastic sheet (vapor barrier) and some good duct tape. Make a bag of whatever shape you need and pipe some steam into it, and you’re good to go. As a side benefit, the bags seem to hold the heat better than my wooden steam boxes, and they’re easier to seal up the inevitable leaks (with the tape). My wooden steam boxes never seem to get over 180 degrees F, but these bags hit over 200 easily. Another nice thing is that you can start clamping the piece into shape before the steam starts heating things up. This makes for a somewhat relaxed steaming experience, which is quite different than the Chinese fire drill that steaming usually is. My apologies to all the Chinese Firemen out there, I’m sure your fire drills aren’t really that crazy, but I think you know what I meant.
