Bending Wood With Hot Water
Russ Filbeck doesn't use a steambox when bending wood for his ladderback chairs. Instead he uses a copper tray made by noted Shaker box maker John Wilson.
Dec 18, 2020
Russ Filbeck doesn’t use a steambox when bending wood for his ladderback chairs. Instead he uses a copper tray made by noted Shaker box maker John Wilson. Russ simply fills the copper tray with water and puts it on a hot plate. Steam and boiling water are both 212° at sea level so it doesn’t matter whether the wood is in boiling water or steam. For larger jobs, where he’s steaming multiple legs at a time, Russ does use an 8-in.-diameter plastic pipe as a steambox.
Another interesting element of Russ’s system is his use of trailer leaf spring U-bolts to help secure his chair legs to the forms. He simply cuts the threads off of one side so the U-bolt can hang in the form, then uses wedges against the U-bolt to hold everything in place. The nice thing about using U-bolts is that he doesn’t have to tie up the rest of his shop clamps holding a leg for 10 days while it dries.
Pretty clever Russ!
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Turned-Leg Ladderback ChairDECEMBER 5, 2019 |
Comments
Steam does not have a maximum temperature of 212 degrees. Water does. Steam temperatures can rise higher especially when in an enclosed chamber that is still being heated.
I use the John Wilson pans to boil parts as well. I have four sizes, up to almost 8 feet long. Wilson will have pans made to whatever size you want.
I prefer boiling to steaming. There's a point where extra heat prevents the parts from retaining the necessary moisture, and both heat and moisture are necessary for bending. Wood only needs to reach 180 degrees to bend, and the extra moisture of a water tray really helps. I find I can bend sawn stock just as well as split using a tray, where sawn stock will usually break after steaming.
In this instance, how long is a chair leg immersed in hot water before bending? Steaming is commonly one hour per 1 inch of stock, same numbers for hot water?
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