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Thread: Steam Bending

  1. #16
    I bend 1 x 1" cherry for music stand legs. When I started I had a lot of breakage. I've reduced breaks to about 10% by:

    Using air-dried cherry.

    Insulating my wooden steam box and steaming for an hour at 210.

    Using a sheet metal strap and shaping after bending. This made the most difference.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    SE Michigan
    Posts
    3,222
    Thank you Bradley. I do believe the air dried and metal strap would solve a lot of my challenge. I’m hoping the cauls will work as well as the strap...don’t know yet. Do you have a source for air dried cherry?

  3. #18
    I get the cherry locally from a small mill operator - there's probably someone a lot closer to you.

    Cauls aren't going to do the same thing as a strap. You really need to keep the wood fibers on the outside of the bend in compression during the bending. I bought a roll of 1" wide sheet metal made to hold insulation in place and drilled holes to attach wood end blocks, one of which was tapped for a thumb screw to tighten against the end of the stock. A game changer.

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    SE Michigan
    Posts
    3,222
    Ok, just to follow up. Bottom line; success. In the place of a bending strap, I made a number of cauls from mdf with the bullnose profile. I had the curved mdf from a previous step in building the table, just needed to make the bullnose profile with a carving gouge.

    638E8257-03F1-43D6-943E-5226FF29D044.jpg

    I doubled the fabric softener solution to one cup per gallon. Then soaked the piece in the water/fabric softener solution for 1 week. It was then steamed for 1 hour. I could tell as soon as I took it out of the steam chamber that the piece was much more pliable than the two previous ones that broke. Using the cauls starting from the center and working out to the ends it bent without an issue.

    B924AA36-E38A-4917-9EA3-2E9FB6532B39.jpg

    No creaks or cracks. I’ll leave it overnight, tie a string to both ends to keep its shape and unclamp. I suspect it will end up being a very usable piece. I have one more piece of molding to try just for fun.

    I have no idea if fewer days soaking vs 7 would have worked. I just know 7 days did, and 1 day did not. I also don’t know if the extra soaking was enough or it the cauls were a great assist. I think the cauls helped, but didn’t try it without them, so who knows.

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Clarks Summit PA
    Posts
    1,733
    Glad to hear you solved your dilemma Phil. Keep us posted on your progress. I might try to source air dried cherry for future work. Seems like it would be wise to have some on hand.

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    2,758
    Quote Originally Posted by Bradley Gray View Post
    Cauls aren't going to do the same thing as a strap. You really need to keep the wood fibers on the outside of the bend in compression during the bending. I bought a roll of 1" wide sheet metal made to hold insulation in place and drilled holes to attach wood end blocks, one of which was tapped for a thumb screw to tighten against the end of the stock. A game changer.
    Bradley
    The screw to tighten is genius. I'll do that in future.

  7. #22
    Thanks Tom. I have a box of 5/16-18 thumb screws that work great in wood. I chuck the tap in a cordless drill. Not near as fussy as tapping in metal.

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