bent laminations

[Jeff Todd]

Is it possible to make a bent lamination than. cut that into strips and do another bent lamination? or is the glue to brittle to allow the wood to bend the second time? or would the first arc not hold its shape?

I want to make a board about 6' long with a 60 degree 2 1/2" radius bend in the middle of it. Than about 18" from that bend have a 90 degree bend "down" with 2 1/2 radius in it. then wood will need to end up being about 1-1 1/4" square. and the type of wood doesnt matter as much.. but i was hopping ash..

also on a side note.. I was reading a magazine (forgot which one) that was talking about bending wood. now instead of steaming the wood they just put it in a trench of water being heated by a hot plate is there a down side to this over steaming it? or was this method used because it was thinner stock.


JT

[Guy Germaine]

I think you may have trouble with the 2 1/2" radius (Unless you get into steam bending). If I were to try this, I would build a form, and glue it all at once. I would cut the laminations very thin, say 3/32" or so to get it to bend around that 2 1/2" radius. Use something like Gorilla glue, or Unibond to glue it up. PVA (yellow) glue will spring back on you too much.

[Ben Davis]

Agreed. I think 2.5R is too small for laminations.

[Jamie Buxton]

I'm afraid I don't understand what the OP is trying to do, however, 2.5" radius is certainly not too sharp for bent lamination. You just need thin laminates. I've made wooden rings -- y'know rings to go on a finger -- with bent lamination. I wrapped a piece of sliced veneer and glue around a mandrel to make a tube, and then cut slices off the tube to be rings. It worked. The radius must have been something around 3/8".