Lack of dimensional stability and susceptibility to the action of xylophagous organisms make wood a challenging material to work with. E-Caprolactam is a water-soluble cyclic amide chemical with low mammalian toxicity, that can be used as a bulking agent to improve the dimensional stability of wood and offers protection against subterranean termites and several wood degradant fungi. E-Caprolactam delivers a similar level of dimensional stability as that provided by PEG-1000, a chemical extensively studied in the past decades and a standard dimensional stabilizer agent for wood. Regarding wood protection, E-Caprolactam exhibits efficacy against wood decay fungi and termites at very low levels compared to PEG-1000. If water leaching can be inhibited for this product, e-Caprolactam can be considered as a strong candidate for the wood decking industry. In addition to the evaluation of E-Caprolactam for wood dimensional stabilization and preservation this dissertation covers the development of an apparatus developed to automate wood sorption and desorption studies, and their influence in the wood dimensional behavior. Product design techniques and prototyping studies were conducted, and calibration procedures were made. This apparatus is still in development, but it shows potential for increasing the accuracy of shrinking and swelling measurements and efficiency for dimensional stabilization studies.

The problem was to determine the effectiveness of using polyethylene glycol 1000 in the treatment of green wood for the purpose of forming projects made of wood veneer and of simple design for use in junior high or high school woodworking classes. The purpose of this study was to seek answers to the following questions. 1. Is polyethylene glycol 1000 an effective stabilizing agent for green wood veneer that can be used in school woodworking classes? 2. Can green wood veneer treated with polyethylene glycol 1000 be bent to form simple woodwork projects? 3. Can green wood veneer treated with polyethylene glycol 1000 be successfully used in junior high and high school woodworking classes? 4. What length of treatment time is best for green wood veneer that is to be used to form simple bent wood projects? 5. Is one-fourth inch thickness suitable for green wood veneer that is to be treated with polyethylene glycol 1000 and used to form simple bent wood projects?