Help with Boiling Cotton

[Deadkaiser]

Hi Just wondering if anyone knows a method of boiling cotton and drying it that does not result in half the pads being destroyed..... Got my cotton of fasttect so its defiantly getting boiled....

cheers any help would be great!

(can we please not turn this into a Boil vs dont boil thread)

 

[MattyTny]

I've never tried boiling the pads, but a few years back when I did it with cotton balls I noticed that a lower heat boil was better with not that many cotton balls.

I would try the low heat and a few at a time, if you boil a lot of pads they might get all stuck together. Is there some sort of clip or something you could use to secure like two of the edges to keep them in shape? When I boiled my ramie wick I tied the ends and it came out nicely, although that was not a pad form.

 

[Deadkaiser]

hmm cheers not a bad idea unfortunately i don't thing i have anything that would do the trick.... maybe a small saucepan lid would hold them in place on the bottom of the pot... thanks for the suggestion

 

[93gc40]

Well I don't use pads I use regular cotton balls. Which I unroll after boiling. Here's what I do.
1. place small pot (4cup) of water on stove.
2. turn stove on full.
3. toss in a hand full of balls
4. let boil a few minutes
5. dump water and refill
6. reboil another few minutes
7 dump water.
8. spread towel on picnic table in backyard.
9 place wet balls onto 1/2 of towel. Cover balls with other half.
10. Let SUN do it's thing.
11. when dry, stuff into plastic baggie.

 

[Deadkaiser]

Thanks!
It was a sunny day so it all done already been 24h and there only now sort of dry!
Anyway I figured out a method if anyone else wants to have a go you just need say 10-20 cotton pads in a stack then place them horizontally into simmering water and they expand against each side of the pot! This way they seem to keep there shape for the best part I turn down the heat (thanks that helped alot)
I had 80 pads to boil so I made like 3 horizontal lines of cotton pads, I then just picked up the whole line of cotton with 2 forks and put them on a towel to dry! nearly all my cotton pads retained there shape which is great since just having all those cotton fibers facing the same way makes life really easy!
This method is way better than just throwing them all into a pot as you end up with pads instead of a bunch blobs of cotton! hope this helps someone Cheers Mattytny for making me think about securing them!

 

[Flt Simulation]

Do what you want, but boiling cotton is just a big waste of time.

Be it expensive Japanese cotton pads or cheap Walmart cotton balls.

 

[Deadkaiser]

Do what you want, but boiling cotton is just a big waste of time.

Be it expensive Japanese cotton pads or cheap Walmart cotton balls.

(can we please not turn this into a Boil vs dont boil thread)