Boiling Bones: Hardware

[Painting Dog]

I finally broke down and got an old pot from the thrift store to use as a dedicated Bones boiling pot. 

 

I don't want the models to lay on the bottom -- or touch the sides, really -- for fear of unwanted melting.  How do people address that?  I'm thinking about using a screen colander suspended inside the pot, but am not sure if that will have the same issues as the hot metal sides. 

 

Thoughts?

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

I use a colander.  Or sometimes I will hold it in place with tongs.  Or, in the case of Dragons Don't Share 2, I placed them flat in a pan of water and heated it in the oven to 225 degrees F.

[DixonGrfx]

ehh....  I just throw 'em in the pot and boil. Haven't had any melting issues. I am using an electric range.

[Chris Palmer]

Yes, like DixonGrfx, I just toss mine in.  I found the Bones are somewhat buoyant, and as long as you have a utensil (like Dilvish's tongs) to keep them moving, resting on the bottom or against the sides wasn't an issue.

Edited July 19, 2017 by Chris Palmer

[lazylich]

This is possibly the silliest solution, but I've used my sous vide cooker instead of boiling on a stove.

[Pingo]

I've used cheesecloth suspended in the water, held on by the lid.  A colander or strainer is okay too, for keeping the figures off the hot bottom of the pot.

 

I use bamboo chopsticks to manipulate hot Bones figures.

[Ratmaster2000]

well I basically have no feeling in my fingers, because I just stick the offending part in the water for about 15-130 seconds, pull em out and shape and immediately plunge in ice water:) Of course I don't get the water scolding hot, just enough to allow shaping:)

[spoonz202]

I don't boil my bones. I boil the water in the microwave and drop the bones in the container afterwords. much easier, have dedicated containers to do it.

 

ETA. this isnt quicker per se, as i've got an induction cooktop, but it does solve the burning on the bottom problem you mentioned

Edited July 19, 2017 by spoonz202

[Doug Sundseth]

56 minutes ago, Painting Dog said:

I finally broke down and got an old pot from the thrift store to use as a dedicated Bones boiling pot. 

 

I don't want the models to lay on the bottom -- or touch the sides, really -- for fear of unwanted melting.  How do people address that?  I'm thinking about using a screen colander suspended inside the pot, but am not sure if that will have the same issues as the hot metal sides. 

 

Thoughts?

 

The water temp, assuming that the water is boiling (superheating doesn't tend to last very long at all), won't get above your local boiling point. Thermal conductivity of metal pans is very high, and there is lots of water to keep the metal at or very close to that same temperature. I don't worry about part of the pan getting hotter.

 

In theory, you could get steam trapped under some part of a figure with the bubble touching the pan and run the temp up. But since the density of steam is so much lower than water (and thus tends to move the figures about), I have not seen this happen.

 

If you're worried about trapped steam, pans with limited thermal conductivity, like Pyrex or similar glass containers, would be more likely to cause the problem than metal pans.

 

And I use chopsticks as well.

[Bruunwald]

I don't put them in the pot. I have a bowl for this purpose. I heat the water to boil, and put the model and the water into the bowl.

 

In my experience, they only need to be in there for a couple of minutes to become dangerously soft and pliable. They don't need to be actually boiled in a pot.

 

That seems unnecessarily dangerous to me.

 

Then again, I have never had to straighten out gigantic terrain pieces. Maybe those take this kind of effort.

[ladystorm]

Yall really seem to be overthinking this.

 

We use water after running it through a coffee maker.  It isn't boiling, just coffee level of hot. (No, not made into coffee, just heated water)

When more water is needed, we'll heat water in large dish in microwave and put in a bowl on counter,

 

We never put ours in a pot on stove or pan in oven.  

 

YMMV

[etherial]

3 hours ago, Doug Sundseth said:

 

The water temp, assuming that the water is boiling (superheating doesn't tend to last very long at all), won't get above your local boiling point. Thermal conductivity of metal pans is very high, and there is lots of water to keep the metal at or very close to that same temperature. I don't worry about part of the pan getting hotter.

This. You can boil water in a paper cup (just not a wax paper cup).

[Ratmaster2000]

48 minutes ago, ladystorm said:

Yall really seem to be overthinking this.

 

We use water after running it through a coffee maker.  It isn't boiling, just coffee level of hot. (No, not made into coffee, just heated water)

When more water is needed, we'll heat water in large dish in microwave and put in a bowl on counter,

 

We never put ours in a pot on stove or pan in oven.  

 

YMMV

I think we are all "Closet" Engineers, because we always seem to be overthinking things:) Or maybe just too much "tool time" :)

 

[Grayfax]

MOAR POWER!!! and More Smarter* don't usually work together.  We're guilty of the power aspect and in pursuit of that lose the focus of the intellect component at times.

 

*I know... it's horrible grammar, but you'll have trouble forgetting it.  You're welcome.

[Laoke]

I just use a sieve - enables me to suspend the Bones in the middle of the pot, and makes retrieval a snap - just lift the sieve out and drop the floppy Bones into a bowl of iced water.