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Would you like to add information to this article? Interested in writing or submitting an article? Have a question about this article? Bending wood -- options Question
Forum Responses
Wood selection is an important part of bending. Select a piece with consistent, straight grain. Spacing and depth of kerf are also key issues. If that is all too much trouble, try kerfing the plywood. Properly kerfed, we bend 3/4" ply down to a 3" radius, and solid 3/4 down to around 6". Ask your lumber supplier about bending luan or bender board or noodle board. Pretty cool stuff. I have used it on 3 or 4 jobs so far and it has worked well. Once you veneer it, it will hold its shape with minimal spring back. You didn't say how big your radius was. I successfully laminated 1/8" red oak strips into a 1" thick radiused front edge on a reception office desk. Smallest radius was 12". Once you've got the strips ripped, the glue up is quick and pretty easy, just lots of clamps and little shims. I used gorilla glue and the glue lines in the finished product are indistinguishable. I did wish I'd had one of those new edge lipping planers. Had to cut it down to the laminate with a block plane! Look at Eames furniture. They made molds and bent wood into all kinds of cool shapes. It takes time to build a nice mold, but once you have it, it is easy to crank out a bunch of pieces. I recently made a bent ply stool that has a 6 inch radius and it was like butter to build after I made a nice mold. Doesn't take much time to make a steamer. Most boaties make them out of old water heaters with the tops cut off. We made one for bending up to five inch widths using twelve feet of cast iron sewer pipe threaded at both ends and capped, one cap drilled with a 1/4 inch hole. Put in a gallon of water, set it in a fireplace at about a twenty degree angle, and steamed the bends. Iron stained the oak, though trim was painted. For furniture, look up threaded aluminum electrical pipe. Use Italian bending ply or hoop pine. The comments below were added after this Forum discussion was archived as a Knowledge Base article (add your comment). Comment from contributor U:
For those wishing to set up a simple steam system, you do not want superheated steam. Wet steam is most effective. This will work: a generator of steam (jug or whatever) steaming into the centre bottom of a level pipe (say diameter 150mm (6") or whatever is required) with a piece of sack draped over each end. Put a couple of stainless horizontal wires through the pipe to ensure timber doesn't sit in the water created on the bottom. Success will come with practice. Have you reviewed the related Knowledge Base areas below? 
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