I’m in the process of building a 9 ft long by 42 inch wide office desk with a radius at one end. The radius for the frame will be 18 inches making the bottom chord 36 inches out side dimension. I would like to bend the frame to match the radius of the top. My problem is that I can not find any air dried maple lumber only kiln dried. My question is if I cut the maple into 1/8 inch plies and then steam the plies and bend them to my form. Next, once the plies have cooled and conformed to the form, I was planning to use a resin type glue and glue the plies so that the springback was minimized. Is this a good plan, or is there an easier way.
Edited 2/16/2007 7:38 pm ET by fsg
Replies
If I may offer an alternative to at least consider, how about kerfing the apron and laminating one thin piece to the inside to hide the kerfs? I did a quick calculation and it looks like the outside arc would be 9' 5.125" long. A kerf every couple of inches or so would make it possible to create the bend without creating flat spots.
I don't know that this would be any less time but at least you'd only be dealing with two pieces of wood and a single glue joint.
Consider using "wigglewood". It's plywood with all the plies running in the same direction so it bends to a really tight radius. Look it up on google.
Steve
There are two secrets to keeping one's wife happy.
1. Let her think she's having her own way.
2. Let her have her own way. President Lyndon Baines Johnson
FSG.
By producing 1/8 in. thick plies, you shouldn't have any trouble laminating your plies against a form without going through the trouble of steaming them. There will be springback, but you can factor that into your form. I'm just not sure that steaming ahead of time to reduce the springback is worth the effort.
Plastic resin glue is the adhesive of choice for this task, so you're right on track there. And kiln-dried maple will be a perfectly suitable material.
Matt Berger
Fine Woodworking
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