First try at bent lamination - question

[Matt Day]

Hi all,

I'm trying bent lamination for the first time and have a question about sawing the strips. I'm using by bandaw to cut the strips, and it leaves slight ridges from the blade. On my first try, I started with a planed 4 sides piece of stock, cut a strip and put it aside, then clean up the cut face by putting the stock back through the planer, then cut another strip off of it.

That made for a lot of adjusting the planer - not a big deal but I'm wondering if it's necessary. Can I eliminate this step and simply cut all my strips on the BS, then put both sides of the strips through the planer to clean them up?

Thanks!

[Mitchell Andrus]

Can I eliminate this step and simply cut all my strips on the BS, then put both sides of the strips through the planer to clean them up?

Thanks!

I prefer this to cutting, planning, cutting, planning. As you noted this requires resetting and can result in uneven thickness... 'sides, it's a PITA. Cut once, plane or sand once, done.

Make a board with sandpaper glued to it and use this as a sled to carry your thin strips though the planner. I've planned and sanded (drum sander) some pretty thin pieces this way. Depending on the severity of the curve, wetting and pre-bending the strips before gluing may totally eliminate rebound.
.

[Charlie Plesums]

On tight curves you need thin strips... probably too thin for most planers. On gradual curves the strips may be thicker, so the planer may work. Test a thin strip on your planer, and see how thin you can go.

[Doug Shepard]

What Charlie said. Even with a carrier board thin stuff and planers dont always get along well, with the thin stuff losing the battle and getting munched. If these aren't real wide, an OSS or even DP mounted sanding drum and a single point fence can smooth out the saw marks. A drum or wide belt sander really comes in handy for stuff like this.

[Richard Dragin]

You'd get better answers that may actually apply to your situation if you told us what size lams you are cutting and what kind of bending you will do. I prefer my table saw for lams less than 3" wide and saw/burn marks can be removed with a sander or hand plane.

[Matt Day]

I'm not too worried about the thickness of the material going through my planer. I've haven't had a problem sending strips through down to 1/8", and probably thinner I just haven't tried yet.

My final dimesions will be 2"x2" for table legs bent that will be about 2' tall with a radius of about 3', and 3/4" x 2" for stretchers that will be about 4' long with a 3' radius bend. I've done some calculations to estimate springback, and have taken that into account.

I thickness planed my test leg to 3/16" thick strips and that works for one piece on my form, but adding them all up to 2" thick and it's very very hard to get them to bend so I think I'm going to go to 1/8" and see how that works.

I'd like to use my vacuum press if I can on these, but I may end up using a male/female form.

My original question was for the strips, and I think it would be okay to have

Mitchell, you said "Cut once, plane or sand once, done." but you really meant "Cut once, plane or sand TWICE, done." right?

Richard - after your comment it got me thinking. Do you think I may be better off using a thin kerf blade on my table saw? I don't think I'd loose much more material. Thoughts?

[Mike Henderson]

I cut my laminations on the table saw and glue up straight from the saw. There is a lot of waste - I should probably try a thin kerf blade.

Mike

[Richard Dragin]

That's how I do it to cut 1/8" x 1-3/4" lams for my rockers. A ZCI and dedicated push stick (that only has the one kerf cut) is needed and don't try and send that last piece through because it usually blows up. I get many pieces that are ready for glue up and some that need light sanding with the ROS. If you keep them in sequence people don't notice that it's not one piece.

[Matt Day]

I'll give the TS a shot tonight, and I think I have a sufficient TK blade around. Thanks for the advice.

[Paul Atkins]

Use your jointer instead of the planer for the cleanup on the large piece, cut all of them and then run them all through the planer.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Matt,
I bought a pair of GRR Rippers at a show a couple years ago. I was impressed with how safe they made the process of ripping narrow strips on the table saw. I rarely use them for any other ripping because I am satisfied with the safety provided by a push stick and finger boards. I've thought about selling them then I have a project like the one you are doing and they really shine.
fmr

[Matt Day]

Paul,

Cleaning up the stock with the jointer is a great idea! I can set it just right so I take the minimum off. I can keep the BS and jointer running and move between the two. Thanks for the suggestion.

Faust,

If I go the TS route, I'll either make my own pushsticks or consider the grippers. Thanks!