Mistake...!

[brianhabby]

This is where I post mistakes, isn't it...?

When I built the tea trolly for my mum (see avatar) I made a device for steaming the wood from an old bit of soil pipe and my wall paper stripper. See here if you haven't seen it.

Anyway, I wanted to steam bend the oak edging for a new desktop I'm making and the oak is a lot longer than the legs on the tea trolly, so I needed a longer pipe - obvious.

I put the new piece of soil pipe on the same table that I used last time, it's a small knitting machine table, set it up - nice head of steam - water bubbling away - put in strips of oak - screw on end cap - go get a bite to eat - 20 minutes later....
















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Surprisingly the oak strips were okay, I just propped up the ends and carried on.

I'll post a pic of the desktop tomorrow when it's fitted.

regards

Brian

 

[Philly]

Hah! Great - at least it didn't affect the job! :lol:
Philly

 

[mr]

What's wrong with that? It's bent isn't it ?

Cheers Mike

 

[brianhabby]

As promised here is a pic of the finished project in situ. The top is covered in some vinyl fabric I've had knocking around for a while and the trim was applied after glueing the fabric in place. Makes mouse mats redundant

regards

Brian

 

[Philly]

Very smart, Brian.
Philly

 

[user 5024]

I have also suffered from the collapsed pipe syndrome but the idea works very well for small cross sections.

I had trouble however when I wanted to build a wooden archway between two rooms.

I wanted four laminations of oak 12 cm wide by 1cm thick and though my steamer did its best I couldn't arrange for enough brute force to bend the oak into a semicircle.

I then discovered Bendywood, from Candidus Prugger of Italy via a British agent in Manchester I think. It comes as a baulk of timber which has been steamed and then compressed in its length so that when bent cold the fibres just expand again and do not crack.

Four laminations bent by hand around a former, and epoxy glued up one at a time and the job was done.

Not cheap but it did the trick.

http://www.candidus-prugger.com/default.asp?L=3

 

[woodbloke]

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regards

Brian

Brewer's droop perhaps Brian? :lol: - Rob

 

[Mailman14]

This is where I post mistakes, isn't it...?

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PMSROFL

REALLY, laugh out loud moment! Cheers for that Brian, and well done BTW. Made my day - I'll be chuckling for hours over that... (sorry).

 

[Mailman14]

On a more serious note, I saw a prog where they used a pipe, boiling water, 2 end caps, clothes softener (washing machine stuff), and left it out on a "Sunny" day, top up with more boiling water as required... Is this better for small stuff only?

 

[Derek Willis.]

Prior to any steaming, make your former for the bending, a false bench top with holes drilled in to take short pieces of broom handle works very well, leave in till dry.
Derek.