Microwave - Harden surface, reduce weight?

[virtuososiu]

Hi all
Just came across some videos of Stiga's, about their new blades, and it reminded me about something i read long time ago in a Hong Kong forum.
I remember people were saying something about using the MICROWAVE to both harden the blade, and reduce its weight. Not entirely sure, if im correct, people were heating the blade for 10, 20 sec.
What do you guys think? My guess is some water will be gone, hardening the surface, and maybe some weight lost. But will the feeling of the blade be change? or even worst, destroyed?

 

[cmetsbeltran15]

i tried it once and sparks started flying and burned a hole right through my handle like a lightning strike. no joke. i probably did it for too long though

 

[virtuososiu]

i tried it once and sparks started flying and burned a hole right through my handle like a lightning strike. no joke. i probably did it for too long though

What blade?
How long did u "cook" it for?

 

[cmetsbeltran15]

i think it started around 30 seconds

 

[Steven]

I've heard about microwaving rubbers as well.

 

[azlan]

I wouldn't do it in a million years..but I would if you pay me a million hahaha. I think most of the wood is dried before they put them together. But if the blade is carbon composite, I think the carbon layer will warp. Also, we don't know how the glue will react under intense heat, after all, most blades have different of types of wood glued together

 

[fongchengloy]

We shouldn't do this (putting the blade or rubber in the microwave), it is too dangerous as we are not the expert in manufacturing table tennis equipment. Our knowledge on this area is almost zero. We only know what we are doing if we know best.

 

[judah000]

and with our common sense the blade is not for eating it is made for playing. hahahaha

 

[Giangt]

I wouldn't do it for a million!!! It would be dangerous. If there are any, even small air inclusions in the blade construction it will expand and explode in worse case scenario...

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

i tried it once and sparks started flying and burned a hole right through my handle like a lightning strike. no joke. i probably did it for too long though

Nah, it was not that you had it in too long. There was probably metal, like foil in the logo on the handle.

Not really that intelligent to put a wood racket in a microwave though. It probably would not do anything but waste electricity. But, if the blade you have, has metal in it, you are not supposed to put metal in a microwave. Things like what cmetsbeltran15 describes could happen.

But from a theoretical standpoint, a microwave should not do much of anything to a block of wood. This could be tested and I could be wrong. But if you put a plastic bowl in microwave oven and set the microwave for 30-60 seconds, it should not heat the plate at all. This is because the microwave works with substances that are liquid by making the molecules move faster. This is how the substance heats up. This is also why, when you heat something in a microwave, there will be parts that are really hot, in close proximity to parts that are really not hot or even still frozen if what you were heating started frozen. There probably is not enough liquid substance in a block of wood or a racket to get any substantial heating from 60 seconds in a microwave. But I could be wrong and this could be tested with a regular block of wood that has no metal. If the theory is correct the block of wood, or even a wooden bowl, should not heat up. Then, if you took some water and put it in the wooden bowl, the water will heat up, and it, being heated, will heat the bowl.

Try with just some regular wood and see if it gets heated. 60 seconds should be a good test.

I think this idea may have come from people reading about blades like the Andro Temper Tech or Donic Burn. But I am guessing that what ever those companies are doing to the wood, and I think those blades are nice, I know the Temper Tech ones are, what ever the process is, the marketing descriptions are not giving you a real, full picture of the process.

And 10-30 seconds in a microwave would not cause the wood to be lighter, lose moisture and harden the surface. That sounds like fantasy. If it was able to do that, 10-30 seconds in a microwave would give you a blade with a very inconsistent topsheet since only parts of the blade would be hit by the microwave at a time. Like that piece of food that is steaming hot in one place and sort of cold in another.

 

[Giangt]

I a regular piece of wood there will be some kind of moist in it and it will probably heat up. I think when companies like Andro dry their blades they do it in ovens where they can control the relative humidity and temperature to get a consistent product in the end.

 

[YosuaYosan]

Microwaving a pips out will make it similar to past frictionless ones

Then I realize that my post is very irrelevant.. Sorry..

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

I a regular piece of wood there will be some kind of moist in it and it will probably heat up. I think when companies like Andro dry their blades they do it in ovens where they can control the relative humidity and temperature to get a consistent product in the end.

I don't have a microwave because I don't really like them. But I am going to go to a friends who has one and I am going to try my test out. I want to see if 60 seconds in a microwave will do any noticeable heat change in the wood.

Also, I don't fully buy that what the heating process Andro uses pulls the moisture out of the wood, or that this is what makes the heating process valuable. Why do I think that it is not accurate? Physics. Okay, say I take a sponge that is dry. Now if water contacts the sponge it will absorb the water, right. If I bake water out of a piece of wood and it is then exposed to water or humidity, or perspiration it will reabsorb water. I honestly doubt that there is a noticeable amount of water in the wood of most blades.

My guess is that, what the heating process actually does is a very slight chemical change to some of the molecules of the wood. What do I mean? When you really burn a piece of wood it starts turning black and there is a process of chemical change that causes it to turn into charcoal. When you cook most foods they actually undergo a chemical process of change. Carrots have completely different vitamins and nutritional value after they have been cooked than they do raw.

So, probably, in a real baking process the wood is changed a little and the surface becomes harder while the wood becomes more porous. Balsa is a porous wood that makes very fast, light blades. But I doubt that a microwave will do anything to a blade.

Microwaving a pips out will make it similar to past frictionless ones

That would make sense.

 

[WiWa]

I don't have a microwave because I don't really like them.

How can you not like microwaves? :O They bring me dinner in 5 minutes everyday. If anything can do miracles to a blade, it should be a microwave
Personally I don't think it helps much either. (Haven't tested this of course) If companies create frames, they try to make them light already. If there was a process as simple as putting it in the microwave to make it even lighter, I'm sure they would pick up on it soon enough.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

How can you not like microwaves? :O They bring me dinner in 5 minutes everyday. If anything can do miracles to a blade, it should be a microwave
Personally I don't think it helps much either. (Haven't tested this of course) If companies create frames, they try to make them light already. If there was a process as simple as putting it in the microwave to make it even lighter, I'm sure they would pick up on it soon enough.

My wife brings me dinner and no matter how long it takes, I don't usually have to wait 5 minutes. I just show up on time.

Nah, I am just kidding. Sometimes I wait.

No, I don't like the way food tastes from a microwave. It gets sort of soft and mushy like it is fake food to me. Fresh cooked. I like that better. I guess they have their purposes but, I don't have the need for one, so I don't have one. The best example I could give is, if you toasted a piece of bread it tastes way better to me than if you heat the same piece of bread up in a microwave. Yuck. I will take the toast.

 

[olvarox]

No, I don't like the way foot tastes from a microwave.

That's a nice typo

 

[WiWa]

My wife brings me dinner and no matter how long it takes, I don't usually have to wait 5 minutes. I just show up on time.

Nah, I am just kidding. Sometimes I wait.

No, I don't like the way food tastes from a microwave. It gets sort of soft and mushy like it is fake food to me. Fresh cooked. I like that better. I guess they have their purposes but, I don't have the need for one, so I don't have one. The best example I could give is, if you toasted a piece of bread it tastes way better to me than if you heat the same piece of bread up in a microwave. Yuck. I will take the toast.

Haha that's even better. But trust me, when I cook it tastes worse, and WAY worse, than microwave stuff.^^ Of course you don't make toasted bread in there 8) But for a lot of other stuff it works really well.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

That's a nice typo

Hey, how'd you catch that. I corrected it pretty fast.

Nice catch.