Bending wood....

[Josh Goldsmith]

Hello everyone!!! I would like to bend wood. I am a amateur woodworker but won't let that stop me from trying.:D I only know of 2 ways to bend wood. Steambending and cutting thin pieces on a bandsaw then glueing them together. I have tried steambending but didn't get very much bend. I thought about trying the cutting thin pieces and trying it that way but i don't have a bandsaw YET!!!!! Is there any other ways to bend wood? Is there any steps one needs to follow to achieve the proper bend? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Josh

[Frank Pellow]

Josh, earlier this year, I tried steam bending for the first time and it worked quite well. It was also a lot of fun

See my thread entitled "Making a Toboggan (illustrating the steam bending process)" at http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=16106

[Cecil Arnold]

Josh, I've cut 4" X 1/8" strips for laminations on a table saw but would not recommend it as it requires two cuts on the stock and if you don't have a zero clerence plate you can get some nasty surprises (it's just not safe IMHO). Once cut and planed you will need to have a bending jig and enough clamps to hold the laminations in place. When you start to laminate you will have to work fast since you only have 8-10 minutes open time on yellow glue. Pulling the laminations together can be difficult. The lams. I made were 90* over about 25" and with limited clamps really took some "pull down, reposition" on my part. Be sure to make the glue up oversize, as you will not be able to get everything lined up and will need to do a final trim of the lamination once set. I leave my lams clamped overnight, even though some say tightbond has a 1/2 hour clamp time. The only other bending method I can think of, that you have not meantioned is to cut a number of kerfs in the back of the wood leaving about 1/8" uncut then gluing after the bend is made. Hope that helps.

[Richard Wolf]

There are all kinds of new materials that bend, check some good ply suppliers. It would help if we knew what size you were trying to bend.

Richard

[Rick Lizek]

http://www.compwood.dk/
There is a new way but it's not a DIY technique. The wood is autoclaved and compressed lengthwise. It can be then bent cold with no fixtures or special jigs. Quite remarkable.

Another way to work thin strips is to bend over a heated pipe. A guitar makers technique.

Another option is to have the wood cut on a gang frame saw. The advantage is the wood comes off the saw with a finish between sanded and planed and kerf loss is minimal so when gluing it up it doesn't have the look of every other strip missing. wwwforemostwood.com offers this service on their frame saw. You can send them your wood or they will supply the wood for you. It works as good as they say.

[Tom Jones III]

I made a small demi-lune table using bent wood for the apon. I happened to have a piece of 1/8" walnut plywood handy. I cut the plywood into several 4" strips bent it around the form. It worked great, looks good and was a minimal amount of effort.

[tod evans]

josh, no one has mentioned the time tested method of brick-stacking segments of a radius to build your substraight. i use this method for every arch top window or door head i build. i have found that by brick-stacking segments i get no springback. i have used bending ply but have found it to be unsuitable for window/door construction. i have no idea what it is you are building but this is one more method to study...02 tod

[Bruce Haugen]

Here's everything you need to know about steam bending: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=31161&cat=1,45866,45867&ap=1

Bruce

[Bert Johansen]

Josh,
I suggest you rethink your options and buy an inexpensive, used 14" bandsaw. You will find this to be one of the most useful tools in your workshop, and properly tuned with a decent blade, you can resaw anything you want, provided you don't exceed about 6" in board width. Certainly enough for most aprons, anyway. Soooo much easier than steam bending. (I'm not trying to be judgmental, just the facts, dude.)
Bert

[Steve Clardy]

I've actually cold bent trim, molding, and bendable staircase parts.
You can cold bend some materials up to 1 1/4" thick with just tap water.
I use a 12' 4" pvc pipe with one end capped. Fill with water, prop one end up on a sawhorse or something, put your stock into it and let it soak up water a day or two. Remove it and put it into a tempory form to keep it in shape while it dries out for another day or two. Be sure and over bend it some, as when it dries out, it will try to straighten out some.

[Bob Johnson2]

Like Steve I've done it in the tub using tap water, obviously the pieces I use are short, about 4'. I've only done it with ash strips, about 1/8" thick by about 1.5" wide. I stack them, bend them over a form and let it dry in the sun for a couple days. Glue then back on the form till it dries.

[Richard Wolf]

Here's my steaming rig. It works great with large amounts of steam.

[Doug Shepard]

There's also kerf-bending although I've always gone the bent lamination route.

[Josh Goldsmith]

The reason i was asking about bending wood is because i want to build a filing cabinet. I would like to be bend wood 27"h x 14"w. I am thinking of using honduran mahag. or or african mahag. Which was will be the best way to bend that. Thanks:D

[tod evans]

bending ply or brick-stack and veneer the face. .02 tod

[Bruce Haugen]

Josh,
What part of the filing cabinet are you bending, how tight a bend, etc?

The easiest way will be to laminate the curve you want. Make a form out of something like scrap particle board or MDF. Most of the time when you laminate and bend a part, there will be a little springback, so make your form a little tighter than you actually want.

Keep your laminates thin enough that you will have at least six of them to make your final form. The thinner the laminate, the easier it is to bend them. However, there is a trade-off, too, because the thinner they are, the harder it is to clamp them together and get good glue joints. So the last part is to make a clamping caul to help distribute the pressure evenly across the thingies you're bending. When you get to the part of thinking about gluing things together, take at least one practice run. This part is really important. It's possible to screw up a gluing session faster than you can imagine. BTDT, got the T-shirt. You might want help with this step. Be sure to explain all the steps to your help prior to the glue up, because you won't want to stop to explain things in the middle of the procedure.

Use a good glue with some decent open time, but I wouldn't recommend Gorilla glue for this. It can work against you. Use lots of clamps, a caul, lots of laminates, and you should be good to go. Also don't get impatient when the thing is curing. Let it sit a good day. before removing the clamps.

bruce

[Josh Goldsmith]

The part that i am going to bend or laminate is the sides. I would like a couple of inches of bend. My problem is if i do laminate how would i cut thin pieces about 3/16 or so by 14" wide. Is the only way to do that is by band saw. Talk to you soon.:)

[tod evans]

josh, the edge of this table is bent at a 1 1/8" radius, is this what you mean by " a couple inches of bend" 27230

[Don Naples]

Josh: The Mahogany you will most likley get will be kiln dried. It is more difficult to bend than green wood. You might try a combination of soaking the wood to be bent for several days prior to steaming it. I used this method to bend Honduras Mahogany with excellent results. I used a steam generator similar to the one Richard Wolf
has pictured. It puts out lots of steam. With the dimensions you plan to use, you will need a box rather than a tube for steaming. You should use compression straps to reduce surface splitting, and keep them on through the drying process. If you plan to add kerfs on the inside to reduce compression force, use at least double the number you calculate for spacing, as the wood will facet at each kerf. You can sand out slight kerf marks so they won't show of the exterior surface.