Wood steamer

[CroppyBoy1798]

Here's a little project that I've been working on lately, with the help of a neighbour whom supplied me with a number of the raw materials (pipe, fittings etc) I was able to put this together!

Its a canon that fires offcuts and waste timber! Ah no, its a steamer for softening up wood prior to bending/forming it.

Its 8ft long, figured it'd be better to have it too long than too short! The pipe is 160mm diameter. The steam comes from an Earlex 5 litre wallpaper steamer which runs for about 70mins when full.

It all folds away and disconnects for easy storage. There is a vent on the top to allow the steam to escape (wouldnt want any pressure related explosions! ) and a drain hole at the bottom to let the condensed water run out. I still have to put a few threaded rods through it so as to give the timber something to sit up on and allow the steam to get at all sides.

It seems pretty effective from the quick tests I did, especially on some pieces of oak, about 20mm square and 2ft long, after about 10 mins in the steamer it was easy enough to bend to a right angle by hand!

The rubber was removed from the coupled at this end so the end cap could be easily taken off to allow access. Although the rubber is gone the cap still has a fairly snug fit.

A 3/8" fitting fixed to the rear cap allowed the hose from the steamer to be connected easily.

The steam source! I had considered making a fire box and burning offcuts etc to boil water but I figured it'd be a bit messy, smokey and smelly! A gas cylinder, ring and kettle were also an option, but I think the electric way (although not cheap I suppose) was the cleanest and easiest route.

She's cooking! [/img]

 

[MikeG.]

I spent a weekend doing the same thing myself a couple of weeks ago......with really mixed results.

Firstly, you dont need the fancy caps at either end........a rag stuffed in each end does the job beautifully, with no danger of pressure building up.

Secondly, be really careful with what you shoose to bend. Don't bother on kiln dried wood! There is something about the original cooking process that stops the steaming process working properly.

Finally, don't expect the timber to remain dimensionally stable. It expands, then contracts a lot. So, if you are planning to laminate (as I was), you are going to have nightmares. You will also have some springback when you take it off the formers........experiment a lot to work out how much ytou have to overbend it. Leave it on the former for as long as you can (a week seems to do it!).

Anyway, great fun!! What are you planning to make?

Mike

 

[Chippyjoe]

Would really like to have a go at this, even retrieved an old Earlex from the skip to use.

Some time ago was on the Finewoodworking site,and they had a video of some guy in the states showing you his way of steam bending.
Similiar set up to the one above,but he had this theory that you take the timber out of the steamer and bend it on your former then made it straight again put it back in the steamer and when you bend it again you do it the opposite way.

His theory was that it confused the fibre's in the wood? and you got better results this way.

Mark.

 

[Ironballs]

To help with your efficiency, they have a similar set up at the college but their pipe is wrapped in old carpet to insulate it a little

 

[brianhabby]

I think you'll find that it works fine. I used a similar system for bending some mahogany for a tea trolly here

However, make sure it's always supported properly otherwise you'll end up with this

regards

Brian

 

[MikeG.]

Exactly what I was going to say!!! Strap it to a board, or a ladder, or you won't be using it for very long!!

Mike