Re: Bending wood

Despite the steaming, it was still tough to bend the wood. Here's the stem and the floor strips.

I progressively pulled on that blue rope that bends the stem and, after a few days of leaving the assembly alone, the wood "relaxed" into a bent shape.

Glued the stem and the floors.

In photo is my "padawan" holding the glued stem. The curved planks by his feet are the steam-bent planks for the false-stem which would be glued using the stem as a guide. Note that. despite steam bending and clamping the planks in a curved state for a week, the planks still straighten a bit once unclamped. The remaining bend is now the job of epoxy.

Here's the false-stem just glued. Under the polyethelene wraps is the stem which I used as a guide.

One lesson I learned from this process is that the wood shifts laterally from the clamp. Epoxy, when wet is a lubricant so the stips shifted and slid so I had to make sure I mallet them into place. Despite some tamping down, they shifted a bit so that edges are not completely aligned. In hindsight, I should've stuck some dowels.

No problem. Just planed the ones sticking and grout with epoxy the troughs. Good thing I ripped the planks a bit wider so I could plane down into the troughs.

Here's the finished stem attached to the boat's frame:

Re: Bending wood

Very nice narration and pictures, these are for keeps!

Re: Bending wood

Sir,

I still remember how my lolo ended up with bending wood or having a bent wood effect

first is making a pattern of the bend and cutting the wood following the pattern using a bandsaw.

second is cutting the wood to thin strips and glue each strip back to each other while clamped onto a bent frame.

I did not see him do the hot watter/steamer technique...

I guess you end up with the technique you know works best for you.

good luck...

How do you guys bend wood?

I've been pouring boiling water over the wood and then gently coaxing them.

Broke one try to bend it cold

Re: Bending wood

Sir,
I still remember how my lolo ended up with bending wood or having a bent wood effect
first is making a pattern of the bend and cutting the wood following the pattern using a bandsaw.
second is cutting the wood to thin strips and glue each strip back to each other while clamped onto a bent frame.
I did not see him do the hot watter/steamer technique...
I guess you end up with the technique you know works best for you.
good luck...

Yes, thin strip lamination works well for very thin strips and/or slight bends with flexible wood. In my case, my thicknesser can only plane down to 5mm strips, too thick for bending Lauan into the almost-90-degree bend I wanted to make so I had to steam it.

Re: Bending wood

@balarila,

i assumed you are using the lighter white lauan..got some 2 x 4 x 14 red lauans and they are really heavy, solid wood, i dont know what to do with them yet.

Re: Bending wood

@balarila,
i assumed you are using the lighter white lauan..got some 2 x 4 x 14 red lauans and they are really heavy, solid wood, i dont know what to do with them yet.

I used red lauan. Well, pinkish, to be exact. And, yes, they're solid. That's why, even after about an hour of steaming, still required some strenuous work to bend about a dozen strips together.

After gluing in epoxy resin, some spokeshaving, and sanding; the surprising result is that I can hardly see the strips. Unless you look really closely, you'd think the bow was carved out of a single piece of wood.

Re: Bending wood

if you are using the red lauan i wonder now how your TS have survived the 24 feet long ripping job..i guess, you rigged it with some nice blade.
😮

Re: Bending wood

On my 2nd blade before it died. Just used the TCT thin kerf blade one finds at Wilcon (can't recall brand). Couldn't wait for the Freud blades from Amazon; I have a ripping and a gen purpose blades in transit.

I'm now praying my thicknesser won't die too.

Re: Bending wood

hello,

I'am new at wood working. But what i want to do is design a pair of headphones out of wood.

So what i want to know is?
-what is the best type of wood for bending?
-i want it light cause it would be very difficult if something heavy sits on you head.
-easy to bend
-and if possible a nice light color. I think it would look cool with a clear varnish.
-and where can i buy such wood?
-if possible easy to carve too.
-what process should i use?
-how to protect the wood against the elements?

Thank you very much can you guys help me out..please it is a project for my brother before his birthday. thank you very much any help would be much appreciated

Re: Bending wood

That will be some extreme bending! The radius of curvature is just a few inches. I have not bent wood that much so can't say if it's possible. Also, I worked with lauan only on bending so can't comment on which wood is most pliant.
If it can be done, you will have to cut wood in very thin slats then laminate them. On the bright side, your steam box won't have to be too large.

That seems like a challenging and interesting project. Do lrt us know how it turns out. I'd probably try it out myself one day.
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Re: Bending wood

bent some 1" half-round before, i steamed them in an old pvc pipe, kettle in one end ball of rag in the other.
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Re: Bending wood

bent some 1" half-round before, i steamed them in an old pvc pipe, kettle in one end ball of rag in the other.
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What was the radius of curvature?

Re: Bending wood

the only wood appropriate for extreme bending is " rattan".

Re: Bending wood

A very interesting project you have there BBN,
I goggled "bending wood"and there are some good ideas the beauty of the internet eh.
And yes if your going to give a workshop on the subject I love to attend.

What was the radius of curvature?

radius was that of a big palangan which we used as a guide. roughly 1.5 feet. it was used to edge a plywood tabletop so we glued and nailed it on while still damp. i had a table saw then and we used it to make relief cuts as well.
the carpenter initially tried to do it with relief cuts alone but it didn't work so we resorted to steam.

i saw some pics of plywood being molded into all sorts of shapes, but the mold needed was a big job/expense - something for mass production rather than one-off projects.

the steam pvc tech i picked up from fine woodworking. i also watched a show where they bent wood to make wheels. steam din ang gamit.
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