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Thread: Chair Legs : Laminate, Cut, or Steam Bend?

  1. #1
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    Chair Legs : Laminate, Cut, or Steam Bend?

    I am designing/making some chairs and working on steam bending the back rail across the shoulders and the stilts that will support the back, but now I come across the thought of the back legs (see attached for profile of back legs). The reference books I have give thought to the grain on the back legs in terms of strength, however my leg is a pretty subtle curve and I had planned on just making a master and cutting/routing the legs from solid wood.

    Does anyone see a problem with this, or with this design should I look at steam bending the back legs to give more strength and keep the grain lines with the wood?

    My inclination is that cutting will be fine and that steam bending is only really a requirement for very steep angles where you would have sharper angles of stress across short grain areas.

    Thanks in advance.
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  2. #2
    I've built a couple chairs, and what I've found (and read) is that as long as yr grain direction follows the general curve of the rear leg, it should be ok. What you want to avoid is short grain situations where the grain runs perpendicular to the long sides. While yr curve is gentle, you have to carefully select a board that'll match that arc, else you will have that short grain situation at the very top or bottom.

    The rear leg of a chair is probably the most stressed part of any furniture piece, so it's really critical that you get the grain and the joinery right.

    Bent laminations are probably the easiest and strongest insurance against this. Steam bending too will work.

    Last, you can also run the laminations from side to side. This allows you to use fewer, albeit, wider laminations (let's say 3 pieces of 3/4 stock), and there's no form to build and bend around, so there's no chance of springback. Since short grain situations are negated by the other laminations, it can be stronger than a single, thicker piece. The other sneaky nice thing is that you can pre-cut the center piece so any mortises running front/back are built in. The only downside is that you have to match the grain on the front and back sides.

  3. #3
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    I had hoped to avoid bent lamination on these pieces as I am going to taper them in both directions, so I would either have to make very accurate tapers in the bending process, or cut them to taper, at which point the grain change in the layers would become a negative trait of the legs.
    Grady - "Thelma, we found Dean's finger"
    Thelma - "Where is the rest of him?!"

  4. #4
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    Alex,

    I'd cut the legs out of the solid, with the grain of the wood along the general direction of the leg, which should even out the degree of curvature along its length so that the grain doesn't get too short anywhere. But, if anything, cheat in the direction of somewhat less curve rather than more in order to preserve the strength of the legs.

    Steam bending wouldn't give as predictable results, and laminating would, as you note, not work in this case because of the tapering of the legs and glue lines showing up.
    Last edited by Frank Drew; 05-26-2011 at 4:08 PM.

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