More Lessons in Wood Bending

Our Initial Criteria:

Minimize waste

No fasteners

Found materials

OUR FIRST EXPERIEMENTS:

http://worldisflatfa11.blogspot.com/2011/09/bending-wood.html

NEW OBSERVATIONS:

Types of wood best for bending:

• Best types: oak, beach, ash, hickory
• Second best: poplar, maple
• Be aware of: knots (they'll snap!)

• Be aware of: grain runout (avoid this by using planar or joiner)http://www.lutherie.net/frankford.runout.html

Bending method

Steaming:

• Steam for 1 hour per each inch of thickness
• Keep to 212 degree temperature for full time
• Wood dries quickly after being removed from the steam, so only remove what you can work with quickly
• Be aware that wood must dry before gluing

Dry bending:

• Requires thinner veneer
• Can be used with lamination
• Glue must dry between lamination layers

Thickness of wood:

• Can be thicker for steaming
• Use thinner veneers for dry bending and gluing
• Thickness depends on length of wood and desired radius of curvature

Length of wood: leave extra length at the end to use as a lever

Jig:

• Can be made or found!
• Clamps required to evenly distribute pressure over curve
• Compression boards can also be used to evenly distribute pressure

Joining methods:

• Flaps
• Holes
• Notches

OUR NEWEST EXPERIMENTS:

Today we experimented with techniques of creating our teardrop shape from last week. We are interested in how the wood will behave after drilling/scoring/slitting then curving our strips. We will also try laminating the strips to add length as well as making them stronger.

We also experimented with veneers.

Things to explore next:

• Type of glue
• Type of jig
• Experimentation with wood types
• Try steaming and dry bending!