Beginner Steam Bending and Lamination

I'm learning a new skill and trying to make bentwood hoops of wood for a future barstool project. All I learned building a steam chamber, bending, and laminating. Quite a bit of a learning curve on this one.

[@TheOtherGuybo]

I learned a lot from your video. Thanks for sharing the experience.

[@ruppertale3319]

I learned a lot from this, and I admire your determination and ingenuity. For the gluing ring, could you cut a circle of the outside diameter out of a square piece of plywood and cut it in half, and then clamp the halves around the outside of the ring?

[@catspawcustoms]

Yes, if it was precise enough, that would probably work, except the friction between the rings as I tried to pull them together was the real problem. Having a split mold to clamp with wouldn’t have changed that. Using a glue that is slipperier than PVA might change that though.

[@ruppertale3319]

@@catspawcustoms Thanks for your reply. I am just starting my first steaming project, and I've been reading and watching videos. Yours gave me lots of ideas. I am also considering things like pressure and adding ammonia to the process (which I am hesitant about-it's toxic).

[@AustralianPaleTales]

Thank you for sharing not only your successes but also your failures. I really appreciated following along the problem solving journey.

[@JBram88]

I'm trying to make my own hoopdrum frames and this videos gives me a lot of ideas. Thank you. You have legendary mental fortitude.

[@MCsCreations]

Awesome work, man! And beautiful cat!!! 😊 Looking forward to the build! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊 And happy holidays!

[@filipf7687]

I have bent hundreds of rings now for drum frames. Your set up is awesome and what would do the job is cutting the end pieces of the wood list in such a way so it overlaps after being bent, creating a seamless joint. After you glued it you got a perfect, smooth circle and you can bend another ring just around it.

[@michaelcoury7957]

I'm thinking of heading down this road to make banjo shells so thank you for sharing your entire process!!

[@frankwebb7715]

I grew up in Denver, & noted your comment about altitude possibly having an effect on the bend. There is a very real difference with any sort of water heating which is memorialized in Betty Crocker cake mixes, viz: Water boils at just under 212 degrees at sea level, but boils at 200.1 degrees at 6,250 altitude. Cake mixes compensate for the difference by adding a measure of extra flour to avoid having cakes turn to pudding. I suspect a similar issue with wood bending at Denver altitude. A commercial pilot friend once told me that pilots taking off from DIA on a hot day have to compensate by using much more runway and at higher velocity to get the necessary lift. All of which says you likely need to steam significantly longer to get the wood fibers sufficiently pliable to bend without breaking.

[@rthavi4166]

Working out the details for a project where I need to bend and laminate. Thanks for going through the trial and error and sharing!

[@vishals2873]

awesome work sir, it was very informative for me

[@chrislipphardt9076]

That cargo strap sure looks familiar 😂…love your videos and projects…keep it up!

[@phillkenyon4378]

You got so close with the full hoop. I really thought you were going to get one eventually. I am building a steam box to try some small wood bending work, nothing as daring as a full hoop. But now I am considering more.

[@MrTHEBRITINWA]

A for effort and great perseverance

[@andreasmeerkamp8627]

I would use epoxy to glue the lamination. It has a lot of open time, glues very well, and even bridges gaps.

[@t-rex4211]

If you can, make a circle jog. It’s just a sled on the bandsaw that you screw the centre of a square the radius from the blade to then rotate it. Perfect circle every time 👍

[@shicaaaaa]

Ha! This looks exactly the same as what I went through😂 eventually I ended up with laminating super thin pieces. I managed to make a nice circle but still have issues with closing it seamlessly.

[@Anonymous-ff5wr]

Nice work. Maybe a plumbers metal straping will get tight

[@6873aramas]

How about cutting out flat circles from 1/4 plywood and glue them together instead of bending? It will be just as strong. After all-it is just a brace…

[@RichieRich845]

You are better of working out the circumference and cutting ends at 45 degrees so when to squeeze the timber together one end will push down and the other end will push up unless you work out the exact length. Do one laminate at a time and one glueing at a time, the first glueing is for the ends only, do not remove it, the next timber the circumference will change and you have to work this out. The jig should be perfectly round with no cut outs except if you want to use clamps, I used a very long stainless steel hose clamp which gave perfect and equal contact all the way around, you may have to use two/three hose clamps at the edges because your timber is wide. If you can't find hose clamps that are long enough for the circumference, then unscrew two hose clamps and attach together to extend the length. Next step is to cut the high end where the two 45 degrees come together, you can do this with the table saw as you did but add some guides to the vertical timber you used as a fence so the it is not rocking back and forward, eg two pieces of wood in a V shape so you can rotate the circle in the one spot. Use some plastic around your jig so that the laminated piece doesn't stick to your jig, I used packing tape. Good luck and and post another video. 👍

[@richardvankesteren7013]

Better to place the steam inlet on the bottom of one side and the steam outlet at the top of the other side. The wood gets steamed more evenly.

[@danphilpott6302]

I always wonder why people bother bending such thick strips. I am an engineer and during school we competed in a bridge design competition from popsicle sticks. We used two popsicle stick width glue laminated arches over a 1 m (3ft) gap. It held 1200 lbs! Glue laminated strips of wood are crazy strong. Just cut veneer thick wood, and build up as many layers as you feel comfortable with. I guarantee you can make a structure as strong as you need and is easy to work with. Just look at plywood. Supper strong. The strength is not a function of the strip thickness. It is only dependant on the overall thickness of the piece.

[@dracomadness792]

People bother with it because they want a single piece that curves how they want. It might not be for structure. Lots of woodworking where bending wood is necessary is for looks.

[@zuchtfisch]

for the full circle lamination you should consider building from the outside in. You make a mould with the inner diameter you want your ring to have on the outside and then cut your bent dowel to the length it needs for this diameter. you can then join the ends in the mould, you'll need to either hammer them flush or build a split mould like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWTNY6mAlK56otUsi=GQnpSRWwnzGgKrIo an expandable inner mould would also help apply pressure in the glueing. A segmented one could be expanded with wedges or you could use an inflatable bag for this as well. for the inner plies you could also consider cutting the joints diagonally. This way when you hammer them down in the mould they automatically expand. But that would mean the edges of your ring will not be flush over the different plies and will need cutting down. So you will have to add allowances in depth.

[@mikecobalt7005]

:) Very Good

[@birdakika308]

dostum bunun çok daha basit yöntemi var! o ağaç parçalarını tamamen kıvırmak 1 dakikalık iş : )

[@kevincinnamontoast3669]

How hot does your steam get?

[@catspawcustoms]

@@kevincinnamontoast3669 around 210. I think you’d need to be able to pressurize the vessel to get hotter.

[@chrisoconnor9229]

Steam cannot get hotter than 100C/212F. A well sealed steambox must have a hole for excess steam to escape to avoid the pressure building to the point of exploding, which means you're not likely to maintain 100C/212F but you'll get close enough to bend effectively.

[@alanc2742]

If you want to try rings again you should check out home snare drum builds. The guy in the video below has a custom made steel mold, but i made one myself out of layers of MDF. The rings will want try to open outwards, so by placing the rings into a mold rather than wrapping them around one you can take advantage of this force. I dont know if the yoga ball will provide enough pressure for wood that thick, but definitely worth trying it out i'd say! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYenq5ajabZ9f9E

[@geoffb108]

Why not cut the strip to the exact length before bending.

[@Sundlofmusicalengineering]

here because i am trying to make banjo rims

[@ghjytffjkk]

dude just make them out of plywood for integrity and veneer them…