80 Woodworking Steambending wood: Bending:
Description
This article is from the Woodworking FAQ Collection 1, by multiple authors.
80 Woodworking Steambending wood: Bending:
Assume you have the wood cooking (it makes a nice smell) and the jig
is ready. Take pains to place everything so that the operation of
removing a piece from the box and bending it is a FAST SMOOTH
operation. Time is CRITICAL.
You have only seconds.
When the wood is ready take it QUICKLY out of the box and bend it.
GET CURVATURE ON THE WOOD!!!!!!!!!!! As fast as humanly possible. If
inserting the wood on the jig is complicated, bend it with your
hands (if possible).
On ribs for my boat - where there is a curve in 2 directions - I
take it out of the box, slip one end into a brace and bend that end
then bend the other end with my hands. Try to bend it MORE than the
amount you need in the jig. But not too much more. Then
slap the wood on the jig.
But I repeat you MUST get curvature on the wood immediately - like
within the first 5 seconds. Every second the wood cools it becomes
less flexible.
Length of wood and curvature at the ends:
There is practically NO WAY you can cut a piece to exact length and
expect to get curvature near the ends. You simply don't have the
strength and you will be thwarted by springback.
By the same token, if all you need is a 3 foot length, and
the wood is greater than, say, 1/4 inch thick, you had better cut the
piece 6 feet long and bend THAT. You can trim the wood to fit later. I
am assuming the lack of some sort of hydraulic press in your shop - i
know i don't have one. Cut the stick overlong remembering that the
shorter the stick the harder it is to bend.
And if you cut it overlong, you'll have more curvature near the final
finished end - the last 6 inches of a 1 inch thick piece of oak will
be dead straight. Depending upon the curvature you need, you may have
to resort to carving the curvature out of the end of the wood and
should size it with that in mind.
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