Chrispy's entry for Dodge's challange

[Chrispy]

Well with much thought and head scratching this is what I intend to make, no board as yet but have one ear marked for the project.

 

[Grahamshed]

The mind boggles. How are you going to get that out of a 5ft board ?

<edit> yes, of course you can, not thinking

 

[carlb40]

Ahhh this will be interesting as this is what i was pondering over making.

 

[Chrispy]

Glad I got in first then!

 

[Chrispy]

My thinking behind this design was to make good use of the board size, to make something useful even possibly sell at a later date and to be challenging.
The main challenge with this is the steam bending process, it's a long time since I've had a go so a bit of re-learning to do, the legs shouldn't cause to much of a problem but the two small rings that hold the legs together are going to be a headache.
origanaly I wanted to make this from a piece of Cherry that I cut from the round way back, (after the storms in 1987 I think it was), but after a few trials I decided that it was going to be too brittle to bend the small rings, I aisle tried Sycamore but that was full of very short grain due to the figuring in it so as I had to get in some european Ash for a job that seemed to be ideal for this too.
Next step is to make up some templates of each piece to lay out the "Board" to make double sure it all fits.
T.B.C.

 

[Grahamshed]

Following this one with interest. Never bent wood before.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

me neither...always fancied giving that one a go too.

 

[Chrispy]

Well here's my board but no progress yet.
English Ash

 

[DMF]

Good luck Looking forward to the steam bending too!

Dean

 

[Chrispy]

Well I knew there would be a learning curve but progress of sorts.
The two small hoops that hold the legs together seem to be the biggest challenge

so thought I would have an experiment and see what happens.
My thinking is that I don't want to just cut/turn out of the solid as there would be to much short grain for my liking, so either laminated cold from very thin veneers but there is not the length in the board for that so my plan is to make the lamina about 4mm thick and 1.3m long, steam it to shape and then when dry glue it up in a spiral ending up with a blank that I can cut and shape a ring from with a section of 15 or 16mm.
first trials with various pieces of scrap were a bit disappointing! first it's just about impossible to bend a piece of hot wood round in a coil that's only 85mm internal diameter it just aint going to happen so me thinks if I could wind it up it would be much quicker and more controllable.

so made this winder

but there was still a lot a spilting on the outside face so found that by wrapping a piece of plastic strapping in with the wood it stopped that and with a bit of side pressure from a side lever works quite well.

First try!

Second badly split!

With the strap works well, you can see how it all goes together.

Straight out of the steam tube and into the winder before it has a chance to cool.

A close up of the steamer, wall paper stripper with length of plastic pipe.

My next job is to try and glue this up and see how that goes.
As you may have worked out this is a practice piece and when I'm happy that it will work then I'll have a go at the real thing.
TBC

 

[JustBen]

Is it possible to steam and bend a little then steam and bend some more once first bend has cooled or would I make no difference?

 

[Chrispy]

Is it possible to steam and bend a little then steam and bend some more once first bend has cooled or would I make no difference?

Apart from not fitting in the steam tube I can't really see how it would help, with the right conditions it should work in one go.

 

[JustBen]

Is it possible to steam and bend a little then steam and bend some more once first bend has cooled or would I make no difference?

Apart from not fitting in the steam tube I can't really see how it would help, with the right conditions it should work in one go.

I just wondered if it would help the fibres to stretch/compress gradually. I've never steamed before and was just pondering, that's all.

 

[carlb40]

Would it help having 2 lots of 2mm strips? Easier to bend, do one, bend it. Steam the 2nd then bend that around the first one? Or is it too much work.

 

[Chrispy]

Is it possible to steam and bend a little then steam and bend some more once first bend has cooled or would I make no difference?

Apart from not fitting in the steam tube I can't really see how it would help, with the right conditions it should work in one go.

I just wondered if it would help the fibres to stretch/compress gradually. I've never steamed before and was just pondering, that's all.

I've no real experence to go on but I understand that to long steaming can be just as bad as to little and also assume that if I were to resteam a piece of wood it would probably just straighten out and maybe harden the lignin in the wood in the process so I will aviod that if possible.
Maybe worth an experiment though!

 

[Chrispy]

Would it help having 2 lots of 2mm strips? Easier to bend, do one, bend it. Steam the 2nd then bend that around the first one? Or is it too much work.

That's not a bad idea, 2 strips wound together though so there would be no end to end join to worry about, stagger the ends to ease the bump at the start, might give that a go if there is enough wood to spare to make the extra saw cut!

I'm working on how to gule it up at the momment, thats not so easy either!!! :roll:

 

[carlb40]

Yeah the way you describe it there, it sounds like those round shaker laminated boxes.

I guess at that diameter you will get quite a bit of spring back, so will need cascamite/ epoxy? For the longer open times and strength.

 

[Chrispy]

I'll use Cascamite for the trial as thats all I have to hand, if that doesn't work then I may have to rethink things.

 

[adidat]

Why not take a piece of timber a bit bigger than the largest ring. Then rip/deep it as many times as possible, and with the resulting timber laminate it back together only rotating the next piece °90 to make up a kind pf plywood. IMHO steam bending rings that small is going to be very hard.

Adidat

 

[Chrispy]

Why not take a piece of timber a bit bigger than the largest ring. Then rip/deep it as many times as possible, and with the resulting timber laminate it back together only rotating the next piece °90 to make up a kind pf plywood. IMHO steam bending rings that small is going to be very hard.

Adidat

Did consider this but then thought "1" it's plywood, "2" The glue lines will be inline with the joints to the legs "3" it's too easy!!! anyway I like the idea of an endless ring holding everything in order.