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- All the parts are ready!
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- Tightest radius yet. Around 2.5″.
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- Prevents the wood from stretching in length, which will cause fractures during the bend.
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- A little MIG welding and then ready to bend.
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- CNC produced forms to hold the pieces in place as they cure. Plenty of air flow around the wood.
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- Opted for a tapered lamination for the complex back leg. Must meet deadlines.
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- A fairly simple bend.
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- Success! 1 1/4″ white oak bent at a 3.5″ radius.
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- Due to impending deadlines, I moved with the bends I was “sure” I could do. Looks like I was right. 🙂
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- It definitely worked, but here you can see the Beech is still problematically squishy.
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- Steel still slips. This may be the game changer.
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- This is when I started considering the Beech as a possible cause for some of the issues.
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- Multiple failures due to some issues with the steel strap slipping and leverage problems.
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- Needed some extra force and control to make the quick bend. This might help.
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- Welded some beefy Jorgenson clamps.
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- Needed some stronger clamps. Twisted the angle iron.
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- Get ready!
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- Sewer pipe retro-fit into a steam chamber to prepare the wood for bending.
Here’s a handful of weeks of mad scientist style exploration of the steam bending process. Lots of trial and error. To say it simply, I steam the wood for a couple hours and then use around three minutes of workable time to insert the wood into a strap, fix it on the form, bend it with long pipes as levers and then fix it to the formwork with clamps. Videos to come. Enjoy!
