How to bend wood like this - Outdoor furniture project

[Alan Lightstone]

White oak (preferably air dried), Mahogany, etc. You do the bend for the layers twice; with steam first and left to dry in the form and then glued and clamped in the form to final. You need to do this as a bent lamination, not full thickness.

That's a great idea, Jim. Never seen that described before in any articles/posts on bending. Definitely going to try that approach.

[Jim Becker]

That's a great idea, Jim. Never seen that described before in any articles/posts on bending. Definitely going to try that approach.

That's the method that is shown in many of the videos on the YouTube channel I referred you too. Almost all of Darren's projects involved bent lamination.

[Warren Lake]

Where do you get lifting straps? I use chains on the machines and they are great as you can lock on any place and adjust lengths and more. Only negative is the weight of a number of 3/8" chains.

Excellent you tube, very interesting how they jigged up for different operations.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I used boat winches with seatbelt style webbing. Even with two 2 inch straps and a ton of pull on each, clamps and cauls were still required to flatten the layers.

https://sawmillcreek.org/attachment....6&d=1711847387

[Jerry Bruette]

Where do you get lifting straps? I use chains on the machines and they are great as you can lock on any place and adjust lengths and more. Only negative is the weight of a number of 3/8" chains.

Excellent you tube, very interesting how they jigged up for different operations.

You can get lifting slings here. https://www.mcmaster.com/products/slings/slings~/

[Alan Lightstone]

LOL I fat-fingered the spelling

https://www.youtube.com/@darrenoatesfinefurniture3648

I can't find where he has listed the parts / equipment he uses for that pulley/form system. It really is the best I've ever seen. I'd love to duplicate that for furniture in the future.

[Jim Becker]

I can't find where he has listed the parts / equipment he uses for that pulley/form system. It really is the best I've ever seen. I'd love to duplicate that for furniture in the future.

That's because he doesn't. But it you do some screen scrapes, it should be something you can figure out.

[Alan Lightstone]

That's because he doesn't. But it you do some screen scrapes, it should be something you can figure out.

Pity. I've been trying to figure out a few of the parts, but not something I usually work with.

So I guess that's a cable winch. I'm online searching for winch part names.
Quick Change Steam Bending Jig 2.jpg

And, the black piece in the middle that looks like two pulley wheels that the wire goes through and then is attached to both sides of the wood to tighten it. And the red piece that the load hook grabs on to that also seems to be a pulley. I think that's a "Snatch Block".

That system looks great. I'd love to know the name of those parts so I could order them. It really looks to be the best setup I've seen:
Quick Change Steam Bending Jig Hardware Crop.jpg

[Steve Demuth]

He's got a ratcheting winch to provide the force to the cable. The orange and red pulley devices he's using to redirect the force are called snatch blocks. Easy to find in a good hardware store, or even a bad one like Amazon.

[Jim Becker]

The winch shown is a simple, inexpensive boat trailer winch...available at Harbor Freight. (I use one on my utility trailer) The design of that fixture provides for even pressure from both sides with the wyw connection to the winch.

[Jamie Buxton]

There's another way to build the curved shape, and it does not involve bending the wood. You bricklay the rough shape, and then bandsaw it to the final shape. With no bending involved, the construction is easier, and the glue lines have no stress on them.

[Jim Becker]

There's another way to build the curved shape, and it does not involve bending the wood. You bricklay the rough shape, and then bandsaw it to the final shape. With no bending involved, the construction is easier, and the glue lines have no stress on them.

True, although in the designs that OP shows in the photo that would not provide as clean a look to the furniture components because the glue lines will become a pattern as you build up layers. Those components are, my guess, 6-8" tall. Now an interesting option here would be to build the "core" of the components like you state and then bend a "thick veneer" around them, inside and out.

[John TenEyck]

True, although in the designs that OP shows in the photo that would not provide as clean a look to the furniture components because the glue lines will become a pattern as you build up layers. Those components are, my guess, 6-8" tall. Now an interesting option here would be to build the "core" of the components like you state and then bend a "thick veneer" around them, inside and out.

That technique is sometimes used for building drawers with curved fronts.

John

[Alan Lightstone]

There's another way to build the curved shape, and it does not involve bending the wood. You bricklay the rough shape, and then bandsaw it to the final shape. With no bending involved, the construction is easier, and the glue lines have no stress on them.

That's really interesting, Jamie. Never heard of that. Any Youtube videos on that, or threads here.

[Jimmy Harris]

I see the seam in the wood on the side of the couch, but not the top. And with the seam occurring deep in the bend, and appearing to be a butt joint, my guess is that we're looking at veneers. So it's probably the bricklayed wood method, or something similar, and then veneered over the sides.

You could also try to make a bunch of kerf cut on the inside of the bend. I've seen people make some pretty complex shapes like that. But you wouldn't get the strength of the bricklayed method, but it might still be strong enough. You would, however, not have to use veneers. And you could call it solid wood, if that matters. You might still have to steam it to get it to bend that much, and might need to use green wood, depending on the species, which can cause a whole bunch of other issues.