Steam Bending Question (Answered)

[Dave Richards]

Mac, none of those bends is tighter than 90 degrees.

That bendable wood might indeed be an option. I remember that ad and I think an article in WoodenBoat.

Thanks for the suggestions all. We'll see what happens.

[lowell holmes]

The only steam bending I ever did was in a Windsor chair class. We used green red oak, made round with a draw knife and spoke shaves. The bending in that class was done after whittling and shaping was done. I wood was freshly split before shaping.

I would make a test piece to see how I wanted to proceed.

[william watts]

looking closely at the the bend on the right and the bend at the bottom on the left side there may be a butt joint there. The bent corners could all be separate pieces connected with a straight length of wood by an end grain dowel joint. The finish also appears to be darker in the corners perhaps to hide the end grain joint. Build the the bent pieces first, then build the rest to fit. I have never bent any wood, so no experience to speak from.

Bill

[Stephen Musial]

looking closely at the the bend on the right and the bend at the bottom on the left side there may be a butt joint there. The bent corners could all be separate pieces connected with a straight length of wood by an end grain dowel joint. The finish also appears to be darker in the corners perhaps to hide the end grain joint. Build the the bent pieces first, then build the rest to fit. I have never bent any wood, so no experience to speak from.

Bill

+1 but I'd guess that the pieces were bent with a 90 degree angle, put in a jig and trimmed and then all joined and clamped. From a production standpoint, it would be much easier to make 4 pieces with 90 degree corners and join them than 1 piece with 4 90s.

[nicholas mitchell]

Here's a thought that will probably be shot down with extreme prejudice but..........................how about instead of just copying this design, make it your own.. Make the diamonds from metal.

[Dave Richards]

William, I can guarantee to you that the diamonds in that picture have no butt joints whatsoever.

Stephen, I see your point however I think I'd be inclined to at least try it as a single piece.

Nicholas, I'm not going to shoot your eye out, er, shoot your idea down. Metal could be kind of cool.

Here's a detail view of a chair from the same series.


It doesn't look like the diamond is made from more than one piece of wood to me.

[Loren Woirhaye]

The corners are thinned out. The wood is probably riven and bent green. That would make it easy.

One issue with steam bending dry hardwoods is the straight parts will tend to bulge out a little. It's not incorrectable, but do understand if you bend dry sawn wood rather than riven greenwood you'll have to go to considerably more fuss and probably have a big reject pile at the end. I steam bend wood seriously and the preparation is indeed tedious, but if it's done correctly results are predictably good.

[Dave Richards]

Thanks Loren. That's good info.

[Chris Fournier]

If I had dowel stock then I'd try the following:

Bend up two "U"s and then scarf them together to make the square. Tablesaw jig for the scarfing and another fixture for the glue up. I'd carefully match and align the dowel stock before bending and then put the "pairs" back together for a tidy grain match.

If you bend square stock it will compress and pucker at the 90s, this isn't a show stopper but you'd have to clean this up before shaping.

I could see myself attempting to bend the entire square in one go thinking that I could manipulate things to work out, it would require tons of trial and error.

[Dave Richards]

Thanks to all who replied. I've got plenty of info to go on now.