Learning To Steam Bend Wood
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- Опубликовано: 16 сен 2019
- Turns out steam bending wood is a lot trickier than I had originally thought, but I got there n the end.
Great article for bending Australian timber: www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/ass...
I took a lot of inspiration from Mike's video: • How to Make a Bent Lam...
My official website: www.robinlewismakes.com/
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Thanks for watching
#steambending #woodwork #robinlewis 
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Just soak the wood in cold water until saturated then clamp it up one side ,then, with a propane blowlamp heat up the bend and gently pull it to shape. The water boils in the wood and it goes to putty .easy quick and cheap .
Heat gun would work well too, I reckon I'll try that myself!
@@corvanphoenixnope, I tried it. Heatguns don't heat as deep. Im trying ops method today/tomorrow. will update
Why cold water? Wouldn’t hot work better?
I know nothing about this however I respect the fact that the guy did not give up and kept on finding reason to go ahead. Awesome work 👍
I totally respect showing us all the fails in the process. So helpful!! Thanks
When I was a kid we bent kayak ribs by drilling a whole in each end, tying a rope through the holes and then soaking the boards in water. Every day we'd tighten the rope until the bend met our pattern then we'd take it out of the water and let it dry with the rope on.
^^^Best education here
I was thinking the same, this needs water.
How thick were the boards that you were trying to Bend please respond because I really want to try this is soaking and bending with ropes stocks Pine is half inch thick
@@mikebe41 Mike,
we were bending 1/4 marine grade plywood. I think something 1/2 inch would be really tough without relief cuts as shown in this video:
ruclips.net/video/ngC5S5vWQ4g/видео.html
how many days of bending till you reached your desired form?
wow , this video should be called , "how to be impatient with wood " first of all he never let the wood SOAK /which is key . but i love his tenacity .
Just think, boats were made by steam bending wood for centuries and with massive sections of wood. Makes you wonder how they pulled it off when they didn’t have clamps etc, they often had to nail pieces in together really fast!
You have to respect the old ways of doing it, must've been a very time consuming process
Thanks for running us through your learning process
A bit of advice. Some of my Amish friends build bent wood furniture. They steam the wood 24 hours and then they put it in to the forms.
Its about beeing wet and hot! 😀
Hey my friend, I lined mine with 'foil bubble wrap', the sort you stick on the wall behind radiators to save heating the wall. It worked a treat.
I did wood bending in wood shop class (high school). Built a cutting board with maybe 4 different types of wood and 12+ pieces in total (they were pressed into waves). The problem you are having is that you’re trying to bend too quickly. If I recall, would soak the wood and then insert into press with a little pressure. Next day, would re-soak and do it again. After a few days had a really nice waves throughout. This process might not be the fastest or most efficient but it worked.
Thank you so much for posting! I just bought a steam cleaner for my mattress and coincidentally always had dreams of building my own dinghy. This video's a huge help when I'm ready to build.
I know a south african accent when I hear one!! This is the first woodworking channel I've seen made by a native of SA
This Exemplifies the everyday frustrations of working with wood.
Especially when you have no idea what you're doing, agreed.
Love your learning based approach, a big contrast to many videos
Thanks for the info and insight Robin! 😃👍🏻👊🏻
Hi great video shows the difficulty in steambending wood. Use air cured timber as timber from local timber yard is mostly kiln dried and rarely bends without cracking.
The struggle was real mate. But you did good and some great info, thanks for sharing.
Hello my friend,
This is an indicator of high-level skills. Of course, it takes time to reach this level. Their creativity can be a reference and example for art lovers. Congratulations. See you.
I saw a video where instead of building a steam box, the guy steamed it in a sealed heavy duty plastic sheet. Without having to take it out of the plastic, he bent the wood onto the form.
You need to support the back (exposed) of the timber with a metal strap. Bending wood compresses the inside curve but stretches the outside curve very little. Small radius bend (< 4") require metal band support to enable the stretch without cracking. You also require more clamps, 1 every couple of inches, especially if a band is not used to prevent cracking.
To get 70% success is soap the wood in amonia
I'm not allowed in the kitchen because I'm inept at boiling water... But;
While watching this... Plastic? Who'd a thunk?
I had a 2x12" cheap "pressure treated" outdoor stair step that had cupped and twisted. (It came with the house ☹)
For three years, I've been meaning to fix it.
After watching this, I grabbed an empty polypropylene sandbag and put it over the end of the wood. It covered the worst part of the cupped end.
I used a Wagner wallpaper steamer. The wood was standing on one end with bag on top. I stuck the steamer hose up into the bag and clamped most of the bottom shut and steamed it for a good couple of hours.
I put a piece of 2x4" on the cupped end while still steaming and used C-clamps to flatten it against the 2x4.
Ha! Worked like a charm!
Thank you for this excellent video!
Regarding the 1 hour per inch. I think this comes from "Engels Coach Shop". He uses coal fire and the steam is much hotter about 180 from recollection. So, I think thats one reason why our domestic steamers need a lot more time.
I had to smile when you mentioned drilling holes to let the pressure out. We tried a wooden box as a pressure cabinet where I worked in an aerospace test lab, and we had trouble keeping the pressure IN! We had to line the box with polythene eventually. Wood lets air through like a seive.
Practice makes progress 👍
I've been bending my woden bows for a while now :), idk what happent to that oak but my oak bows never broke. I used a big pot with water on a stove, covered it in aluminium foil, and left the bow for arround 10 minutes after the water started boiling.
P. S The bows were arround 2-0.5 cm thick
Thanks for posting. I have just started on this process myself
Dude! Thank you for taking us on the frustrating journey. I've watched a few wood bending videos and nowhere near the "fail" rate. I just got a mill and had dreams of easy fancy bends. I better reign in those dreams and get ready for a lot of learning.
Thanks. Totally worth it though!
Nice, good video. Did this for my final year at uni. I did mine but out side so the machines don't rust up. And I rapped mine in insulation foam, so it heated up quick and stayed warm longer. Oh and you can bend thinker stuff just Dept on the wood you use and the time you leave it in for. 👍
Thank uou for sharing excellent good wood work
Thanks for the useful video.
My guess for the reason why the wood broke in first few attempts is mainly because of the drop in temperature when you started bending it, resulting in hardening of the lignin in the wood. Instead of a steam box, using a plastic bag offers many distinct advantages. Since the wood can be bent when it is inside the plastic bag, there is no drop in temperature and thus the wood is least likely to break. It is also cost effective especially for long pieces of wood.
Do check out the video titled "Steam bending wood without using a steambox" by 'Tips from a Shipwright'.
Wow! This is good advice. I'm fitting trim boards to a compound curve ship interior cabin. This trick will help.. I'll check the link too, tnx 🤟
I’ve bent a 10” wide poplar board for the bent side of a harpsichord. I used a bent metal plate former on a frame heated up sufficient to lightly scorch the wood. It works but these days I laminate thinner sections. It’s stronger and more accurate
Wonderful !!! Waiting to see more!👌👍
Thank you for showing the process of learning. Great job!!!
Thanks
I enjoyed it as always robin! Yes it is a journey, but you’ve given a lot of insight to us who haven’t bent wood like this yet. Always a pleasure to watch your videos Robin! 😀👍
Thanks Joe. Got there in the end, glad I could impart some knowledge (in the form of mistakes, haha)
Instablaster
I have been looking for this type og video for ages. Excellent Work!
Thanks
I'd expect the wood thickness vs steam time to have a log relationship. Pun intended. Double the thickness, quadruple the time.
Thank you very much this video helped a lot I also love the struggle because it also motivated me to do more
Thanks
Dude this was awesome - thank you so much!
Thanks!
Great video!
Great gratitude from me for making this video Robin. It taught me everything i need to know about how to bend wood correctly for my DT coursework! Very informative and easy to understand. Keep up the great work, going to check out what this bent wood is needed for in your project next!
Thanks, glad it helped
I use Tassie oak all the time and have found soaking the wood for extended periods in water with some fabric softener allows me to bend much thicker sections. (Obviously strapping is a must, reducing amount of tension stress on the outer fibers). My understanding is that the soaking revitalizes some of the lignin’s that have been impacted by the kiln drying and assists in transferring heat.
Thank You for the soaking and fabric softener idea. How much fabric softener?
@@Rottingboards Not sure how much is needed, but as I use the same water over and over and add some softener each time, I’d say the more the merrier.
really love the fact u dont give up!...
I was watching a video and they would steam the wood for 2-3hrs. I would try steaming the wood for longer to make it more pliable. Think of it as dried pasta. The more you boil it, the more pliable it becomes.
one thing I've learned is to make sure that you're bending with the grain, and that there are no runouts of the grain within a foot of grain. I think the big issue you ran into here was that you need to
1. wet the wood before you steam it. (1hr per 1" is for green wood - kiln dried wood - double that)
2. you need to build some pressure in your steamer - the holes you put in wouldn't have helped at all. You actually DO want pressure
3. a metal steam box or a lined box would've helped too. A wooden box essentially means you're steaming your box rather than the timber you put in it.
4. probably need more heat and water volume too.
Good on you for giving it a go!
I was cheering you on the whole time! Lot of tension in this video
Good lad, you made it!
Lots of equipment and a modern workshop but back in the old days folk just used water and ropes and time. But still a very tense entertaining video.
Very nice work
Thanks for the video and for not giving up. Try, try again
There is an “inside” and “outside” when bending long grain. At ~6:15, when it started breaking, as soon as you see fibers separate, you should flip it. Temperature is important, but the wood has to be very wet. There should be water dripping from your steam cabinet when you open the door. Kiln dried or treated lumber requires substantially more time.
What about soaking it in water for a day or so before the steaming? That's what I would do.
Wood will compress but it wont stretch, hence the outside cracks and why strapping helps
Nice video looking forward to the next one.
Thanks Dan
Just some thoughts regarding what I learned shooting a documentary on old-world/by-hand wooden ship building. Though ship hulls have much smaller radius from bow to port/starboard they use steam boxes as the technique to achieve this. I don't recall the species of wood, but I remember the process - also the boards were quite thick, nearly 3/4". A large pot of water was brought to a boil with I believe vinegar added (but I also remember ammonia being mentioned) and a bellows was used to blow the steam through the steam box; so the volume of steam used was much greater than the steam cleaner produces despite the temperature. The boards were also left in the box for quite a while, more than an hour if my memory serves me. They came out actually very wobbly like a pool noodle when first removed. They then progressively clamped the board along the spires of the hull slowly tightening them down as they nailed from the straighter portion of the bend to the sharper portion of the bend. This gave the wood a few moments to adjust to the outward side stretching and inward side compressing as they moved down the hull. I think this could be achieved by slowly twisting down clamps around the radius from one side or the other and working across it.
I also think for a sharper curve you may need to do multiple steams in a box that accommodates the bent shape, allowing the wood to somewhat "cure" in between bending stages. I saw this done for very intricate sections of the hull that needed greater bends and something regarding keeping the board in compression with clamps. Steam, bend to the shape without nailing, then let it cool/dry for at least an hour, then pull it off warped, clamp it and re-steam in that shape.
Since wood is like a bundle of straws, it needs some acclimation time for those stresses to affect the cellular structure of the wood fibers. There is obviously an upper limit which can be worked around by stiffer compression or laminating and cutting relief grooves.
THANKYOU FOR THE GREAT INFO
Very nice. Great for DIY like me.
Thanks very informative. I liked the learning curve.
Thanks
Lmao. I loved your video man. You gave an idea a shot and realized where you went wrong. That's why its (learning) to bend wood. I'm sure by now you're on your way doing it the proper way. Best wishes on your work bro.
Nice work Robin
I love that you showed the FULL learning experience. Enjoyed the vid for sure! Subscribed! 😎
Thanks
1) try green wood, 2) use a metal band wrapped around outer diameter, 3) should be able to bend most species with 1 hour steam per inch thickness
melting point of lignin starts from 110 °С
Look at the heaters used by violin makers. They are set to 160°C
In order for steam to be used, it can be overheated.
So the billets would boil in a saucepan.
great's job Robin dan good luck brother.
Great video
Robin, I have seen a couple of RUclips videos on steam bending and the method they are using is kind of like your blue strap idea.... however a metal strap is used on the outside. Quite a lot of forces are generated. Also have seen two forms with the steamed wood in between, then the forms are clamped, really thick wood they use hydraulics to draw the forms together... forms are made of solid laminated plywood. I have done some bending about the same size in your video. I soaked my wood with glycerine and water over night. The glycerine tends to soften the wood up a bit... I have never done anything with that tight of radius.
Nice experiment, mate. 👍🏽
I'm impressed by your tenacity. I enjoyed the video. You've probably learned a lot more since doing this. I've never steam bent wood so my comments are based on how I bent wood. I used Cherry and white oak for most of my projects. For my testing, I used many other woods. All worked. I would build a form that totally encompassed the wood to be bent and laminated as many as 15 1/8"(3mm) thicknesses together. I had a long sink which I'd put hot water in from the faucet. Leave it in for 30 minutes, take it out and "dry" clamp it into the form. The form was made so that it took into consideration the thickness of the number of pieces used. There was full contact on front and back of the pieces. I'd leave it in overnight, let it dry out, then apply glue and reclamp it. Spring back seemed non existent when the clamps came off again. However, I found if I didn't secure the shape, it would begin to spring back over time. So my experimental pieces would usually end up with spring back but the ones that ended up in a final product didn't.
I had more time to work with the pieces by soaking the thinner strips. I suspect steam bending non-laminated projects will have a lot more spring back.
That's an interesting technique, not one I've heard of before. Once you apply glue between the laminations it gets rid of most of the spring back because of the rigidness of the glue. Thanks for the comment Harold, very interesting to hear how you approach it.
Thanks a lot
Well done
We used oak soaked in water for three day and then steamed. We had no problem bending it to 45 degrees+. The thickness was 4 m/m width 50 m/m.
PUT YOUR WOOD IN A PIECE OF PVC CAP IT ON BOTH ENDS
. PVC WONT ABSORB THE STEAM THE WOOD FORM IS ABSORBIN A LOT OF YOUR STEAM
I tried that originally but the PVC went too soft because of the heat. It might need to be a special type of PVC to operate at 100 degree celcius
@@RobinLewisMakes PVC on copper cables tend to start to soften/melt around 70C. PEX is around 90. So maybe a PEX pipe will do, if you can find it in Australia. Otherwise try to add garnish or other surface coating on the timber box, so the wood is already 'soaked' in oils etcetera that rejects water to a degree. And reduce the amount of holes to a single one, at the top. Let it built more pressure And rather enlarge that hole, if you feel the pressure is too much for your comfort.
Well, you can experiment with making a better box as much as you want!
Since PVC softens try ABS pipe. It has a much higher melting point.
Sheet metal then.
Soak or wet the wood before you steam it?
This is what I know most people who do woodworking actually soak the wood in hot water for sometime. The hot water causes the wood to lose its stiffness, which allows the craftsman to put the wood into a vise for controlled warping. Then they let it dry in the vise.
If you soak the boards in boiling hot water for x time, and the boards in vise it would’ve come out just as good.
There’s one problem Tasmanian Oak is a one of a kind exotic wood and it’s not sold at big box stores I know this because I looked at Home Depot and Lowe’s the Major United States hardware megastores they don’t sell it. Not to mention small boards 4in by 6in this Tasmanian Oak is selling for $98. Not to mention this does it say how much by board foot it cost, it could be at least $300 USD per board foot.
And I enjoyed the video thank you very much hope you keep making videos
Thanks Charlie!
Lights on drill press are awesome
good idea
It is interesting how the breaks were straight across the width and not jagged. I wanna give this a go, looks fun.
Do it! Keen to see what you come up with
bravo 👏👏
So kind
How l use to do it very easy , make like a robin hood bow, hole at both ends ( how long your timber is ) string it, like a bow , sit it up in a big bucket of water,.. cut a stick, put in between wood and string and wind up the String every 10-15 mins , change the position of how its sitting in your bucket of water so it get it's tern in the water till you achieve your required circumference..but cut your timber 1 1/2 times longer so you can trim to size., l use to do it when l use to work refurbishing old Victorian Banks in London they have a lot of round metal support columns...
Best of luck old beans
English Mik.
Mate a friend and I did all your doing and in the end we used a strip of thin gal sheeting the same thickness as the wood we were bending, if you look closely at your wood you will see the cracks came from the unsupported areas, it took us a long time to get it right but we are slow learners 😢
I’ve seen a few people use and it looks the go. I might try organise some for the next project
Great video!! I was wondering if I'd be able to set something up quick for a project an I've decided not to got the bending route. Going to complete the project another way, but it deffentaly looks like a fun pleasing thing to do sometime
Thanks you
For those not in Australia, Tasmanian oak is eucalyptus hardwood, not oak, just common gum tree
I made a balance board last year out of ply and thought I could bend 12mm ply just using clamps (I was daydreaming obviously) used 4mm and did it in stages and it came out perfectly without steam but did use some water, the bend on yours is much tighter though and that's the hard part to overcome, interesting video
Soaking the wood in water beforehand is the key. Getting moisture in to the centre of the wood by soaking it will help the steam transfer the heat to the inside, separating the internal fibres. Dry wood won't transfer the heat inwards. (Hence wood burns).
I soaked half-inch oak strips for a week and, using the 'one-hour-per-inch-thick' rule, they bent like toffee after 30 mins of steam.
Having only used steam to bend walking stick handles I can only comment on the method I use for that. It’s been a bit of trial and error and probably up for argument from experienced folk, but here it is any way:
The chamber I use is a length of 5” plastic pipe and the steam source is a diy wallpaper stripper.
I soak the sticks in water for a day before bending. This may also be a step worth considering with machined wood.
I put sticks in the pipe, keeping them off the bottom on small support blocks.
Put steam hose in the end and stuff very tightly with rags. Stuff other end very tightly with rags also.
Steam for at least 45mins. I actually let it go till the steamer runs out of water.
Note that the pipe will need support because it’s plastic and the heat will cause it to bend and sag.
I have home made jigs where I bend seasoned stick handles to a little past a u shape of 3/4” diameter, sometimes a little more depending on the type of wood. And yes, always leave them in situ for as long as you can. 24hrs minimum but till dry preferably.
I’ve thought about insulating the pipe but I’ve never really needed to. During the bending process, with practice, you develop a feel for it and the wood will tell you when it’s went as far as it’s willing to go.
Dunno if that adds anything but it works for me.
Wood has to be put under compression in the longitudinal direction after being steamed. Check out Engels Coach. He bends Ash and oak over 4" thick and 5" wide over 8' long.....always under compression.
Hi there... for a 3mm thick wood, you don't need a steam cabin... just use water and iron and the job is done!
Thanks for the tip
YOUR INVENTION IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR TO BEND MY BOW AND ARROW THANK YOU SIR!!
Well done Robin, greetings from Italy, I'm now in your same learning curve but using wet wood and not steam because I dont have a garage to build a steam chamber but I love the infinte options there are in doing crazy things with bending wood..
I was litereally struggling with you while watching your tests..hehe..but thats how you learn!
grandissimo!
ciao!
Thanks Luca!
Use fire to boil water and create steam well it may get to sayed certain temperatures. I seen this done once before on someone's else's youtube.
I watched another video by a guy who makes wheels and wood framed canopies for buggies out of ash. He did show that he had to be careful in selecting the right peices so that they were suitable for bending. He was bending 1" ash. He visually checked for the grain run-out on each peice. The more closely the grain followed the long edge the better - if the grain was at and angle to the long edge then it was not suitable and would crack. This makes sense but it's one of those things you could miss if you were not told about it or read about it.
While building boats I learned from the pros to wrap the wood in old terry cloth (or Similar cloth) and slowly pour rapidly boiling water (hoter than 100 degrees cleceus) over it repeatedly for fiften minutes. It worked well for bending wood much thicker than this. The wood was wet and saturated with steam and bent well. Very hot and requires good gloves to handle. It cools a bit slower due to saturation. But dries completely in a couple hours after.
You might want to try getting the bending done within 30 sec. of extracting it from the steamer, good luck!
If you add water to the timber prior to putting in the steam box letting it soak in water for about an hour and do you steam for about an hour then 1 quarter inch should been fairly easy I've done the same thing with white oak
Exactly, an hour is enough. Cells might absorb water depending on the wood moisture content, MC. This means that if a piece of timber has a low MC, the amount of water will be greater and the speed of absorption even greater
You should look into how acoustic guitar makers steam bend the sides of an acoustic guitar. There are many methods out there to apply A LOT of heat while you're bending. There's an Iron out there (try luthiers Mercantile, hopefully they're still around or ebay) basically a steel pole with a heating element in it that can be used to heat the ligament in the wood while you're bending. If you're using wood that thick I'd soak it for a while before bending. Guitar sides are generally 1 to 1.5mm thick if I'm remembering correctly. Its been a couple years since I've built one.
air dried wood is best; ammonia in the water may help; straps to resist stretching usually a must, especially for thicker timbers; steam time only starts at working temp/pressure, with twice as much time needed for kiln dried wood. That's about all I have. A metal box would help that little steamer unit perform better, so you're not using so much of its capacity steaming the box itself.
thanks for your effort,
but my advice is to fix and tie the middle first, then pull using edges.
Tips From A Shipwright steams his wood in a clear plastic tube, from a roll. Like that thin stuff you'd put on windows of an old house if it was flat. Simply run steam into cut holes through tubes from propane tanks on burners. Bend the wood while it's on the frame I think.
hey, Robin, I can't stop laughing of this video I daily watch the greatest woodworking channels like KingPost TimberWork, for eyes, including you but this one is the funnies woodworking video that I've seen on youtube so there is another way to do which I see in Africa especially in Somalia in my country but is plywood, not wood they put in water for while or maybe days and then bend it when it sucks the water as much
Все гениальное просто!!
Fabricate a negative template from your current template minus the thickness of your wood. As you are bending the steamed piece, clamp the negative template in front of the the wood and continue clamping both templates together with the steamed wood in the middle.
An unskilled reverse cowgirl can bend wood inadvertently
You're a legend mate
Yep... true that 🤣
Aiii lmfao