Steam bending

[Martyn]

Hi all,
I can't find a search topic on here. I am looking for any information on steam bending. I plan on using a wall paper stripper to supply the steam but i have never done it so any help would be appreciated. Chair components being the main use.

 

[Adam]

Search is at the top. I get 80 hits for "steam", 81 for "bending" and 7 for Steam+Bending.

Adam

 

[Martyn]

Derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Off to get my glasses
Thanks Adam

 

[Good Surname or what ?]

Martyn,

You might find this interesting.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=3&p=31161&cat=1,45866,45867&ap=1

Here are some pictures of a bow bending setup that I used on a recent course.

An old tea-urn set under an insulated ply box.

Bow bending former with strap to prevent stretching of outside of bend. Hand winch helps bend both sides evenly and quickly.

Bow bent in place

I'm just starting to build a former for bending chair bows, myself. I'll post pictures as I progress.

Phil

 

[Martyn]

Thanks Phil, looks like a good read.
Keep me posted on your progress.

 

[GCR]

Martyn

Some years ago I cobbled together a steam bender using a wallpaper stripper (cheapest from Argos), a length of "underground" plastic pipe and a wooden bung to attach the pipe and steam hose. The plastic pipe was angled about 5 deg to allow steam in at the lower end, where a small gap was left to allow condensate out. The wood feeding end was blocked with a bit of cloth in use. I steamed a variety of woods, mahogany and ash being the main ones. In use I discovered that the cloth burnt if gloves were not worn, that the pipe was a thermo plastic and gradually sagged (it needed a plank under for support), quite a lot of stained condensate ran out the drain hole and steamed wood bends very well!! You will gather that my set up was crude but effective.

Bob

 

[Martyn]

Sounds very much like the same thing i had in mind. Already bought a wallpaper stripper through ebay.
What did you manage to bend with it and what success rate did you have.
Did any of the finished items crack or try to spring back.
Sorry new to this need all the feed back i can get.
Thanks Bob.

 

[GCR]

Martyn

It is important to use wood without any significant "cross grain". Attempts to bend wood with the grain at an angle to the long edge usually resulted in complete failure or the grain lifted away from the surface where it was "short". Actually the planer found most of the dodgy bits of wood and rejected them for me!! I cut extra strips to cover failures. Most of the work involved laminations of about 4mm thick by 30 - 50 wide. About 6 or 8 strips were bend around formers, in one case 300 dia which was a struggle, and left to cool down when they more or less retained their shape.

Bob

 

[Good Surname or what ?]

Martyn,

I couldn't find a simple way of buying a spring-steel strap in the UK.

So I have just ordered a Veritas steam-bending strap. A friend is handcarrying it from the USA. I hope to try my first bend in a couple of weeks.

Phil

 

[Alf]

I couldn't find a simple way of buying a spring-steel strap in the UK.

John Brown used a 1/8" inch thick strip of ash, according to GWW #101.

Cheers, Alf