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Bending Wood

 
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Poobah
Dolphin Glider


Joined: 09 Jan 2004
Posts: 696
Location: California, San Diego

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 10:33 pm    Post subject: Bending Wood Reply with quote

Ahoy Doc,
you can probably answer this. How hard is it to bend a 1 inch thick timber to make one of these old school lamaroos?
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/00000166.html
Do I need to steam it, or can I just stick the end of the timber into a big pot of boiling water?
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doc
Dolphin Glider


Joined: 09 Jan 2004
Posts: 171
Location: the Frozen Northeast aka New England

PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 8:08 am    Post subject: Re: Bending Wood Reply with quote

Poobah wrote:
Ahoy Doc,
you can probably answer this. How hard is it to bend a 1 inch thick timber to make one of these old school lamaroos?
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/00000166.html
Do I need to steam it, or can I just stick the end of the timber into a big pot of boiling water?


Well, it's not the easiest thing in the world. First, you do have to steam it - the setup I have is a box made of 1" pine boards, about 10' long, 12" x 12", with a steam pipe coming into it at one end at the bottom, so that what condenses in the box can drain down and back into the boiler. I have two sets of metal rods through it , to rest several sticks on. Wood boards are the way to go, metal loses heat too well and plywood literally comes apart - foam can't take it.

The boiler consists of a 5 gallon metal fuel can on top of a propane fired plumber's furnace, though what I'd use now is one of those propane burners they have fairly cheap for deep-frying a turkey in your back yard - you may find one at Harbor Freight or something, quite cheap - they oughtta work fine. Connect the boiler to the steam box using an old radiator hose - that's ideal - and fill the can most of the way up with water and fire the burner. When you have good steam, let it cook for an hour per inch of thickness and that's as good as it gets, more won't help you



Now, when you've got it steamed, you want to clamp it into shape. Assume it's going to spring back some, up to 50%, depends on the wood, so in making your jig ( see the drawing) you want to make allowances for that. Use big blocks or such so you'll get a bend without twist in it ( guess how I found that out) and you should be okay. You'll need some healthy C-clamps too.....

Handle the hot wood with insulated rubber gloves - well insulated rubber gloves. Trust me on this one, ok?

That's a quick and dirty intro to steaming. Be happy to answer any more questions you have, that's been kind of a specialty of mine.....

doc.........
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Nels
Dolphin Glider


Joined: 13 Jan 2004
Posts: 340
Location: Ventura County, California

PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doc,
I know camping outfitters like Cabela's and others sell both the propane burners and hardware, and also the whole turkey fryer setup. Any adaptable use if someones gets the "Whole Fryer"? Beyond the turkey...

Nels
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Poobah
Dolphin Glider


Joined: 09 Jan 2004
Posts: 696
Location: California, San Diego

PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:11 am    Post subject: Bending Wood Reply with quote

Thanks Doc. How about the types of wood? Does that make much difference in the bending process? I've heard that white oak is a nice wood for boats, but how bendable is it?
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Poobah
Dolphin Glider


Joined: 09 Jan 2004
Posts: 696
Location: California, San Diego

PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:12 am    Post subject: Bending Wood Reply with quote

I forgot to ask about redwood. You ever bend much redwood?
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doc
Dolphin Glider


Joined: 09 Jan 2004
Posts: 171
Location: the Frozen Northeast aka New England

PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:44 am    Post subject: Re: Bending Wood Reply with quote

Poobah wrote:
I forgot to ask about redwood. You ever bend much redwood?


We don't bend a helluva lot of redwood, not a planking material we get out here. As a general rule, you can bend anything, Elm being ah-bloody-mazing in that respect. You can almost tie knots in it.

Oak, though, that's my favorite. White oak is nice stuff, and I ( pardon the pun) tend to go against the grain by using a lot of red oak, also nice stuff though the wood has pores in it somewhat bigger than those in white oak, which according to some makes it more prone to rot. Me, I just paint it or oil it and it's a done deal.

Now, steam-bending redwood - in 1" it oughtta go okay, though plan on at least 25% springback when you take it out of the forms. Use a stick considerably longer than you're gonna need, for leverage when bending it. There are ways to make that less of a problem, but it involves some pretty involved jig and fixture design that I'm not gonna get into here.

I should also mention that I use my bending rig for stuff typically 2" x 4 or 6 inches, oak, several at a time ( like a dozen) , when reframing a 40' or larger boat. You could probably get away with a box built of insulation foam ( the silver-foil coated stuff) and Gorilla glue and Real Good Duct Tape - whip it out with a table saw, possibly spline the corners ( definitely not 45 degree mitered joints) and use a small camp stove and a big teapot for your steam generator or something similar, maybe even an electric kettle if it was big enough.

Some tricks that help-

If you use riven wood it's a lot easier - that is, billets split from a large chunk so the grain is all linear, then planed flat. It's a lot of work, but your grain has less tendancy to crack out.

A strip of steel along the outside of the curve also helps with this.

Practice, do a couple of dry runs, rehearse - 'strike while the iron is hot ' really applies here. You want everything set, everybody knowing their job beforehand, lest the thing become a Chinese Fire Drill and basicly you gotta do it all over again - and you can't re-steam wood.

Hope that's of use

doc........
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Poobah
Dolphin Glider


Joined: 09 Jan 2004
Posts: 696
Location: California, San Diego

PostPosted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 12:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've been tinkering with bending 1x12 wood to make some mini paipos. I boiled the nose end in big pot of water for one hour, rested the nose on a 2x4 and then clamped another 2x4 on top of the 1x12 whitewood. I didn't crank it too hard. It gave me 1/2 inch of nose kick. Apparently more force is on the low side of the 2x4, and it made a noticable crease on the deck. Next I tried boiling some 1x12 poplar, and this time I used an oval shaped piece of wooden handrail rather than a 2x4 for my compressor. This made a much cleaner impression on the deck. I got much more kick, but cracked the bottom surface across the grain. I should be able to sand off the cracked portion. Note: I had to cut the corners of the 1x12 so it would fit down in the pot.

P.S. Here's the finished poplar board...

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