I live in Northern California (no jokes, I’ve heard them all✌✌) and I am having a hard time finding suitable stock to do some steam bending. I don’t want to buy very thick stock 3/4″ max. I would like air dried wood. I don’t trust ordering it over the net as I want to oil finish it. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
Ummm....what are you making? A Shaker box, a chair, or a sailboat?
It's going to be a front panel 15" wide by 48" long. It is a prototype of what a customer has ask that I try.
What radius curve and how thick are the parts to be bent? Help us help you.
The Radi. Is 6" on the largest curve and 4" on the tightest. I want to use 5/8" max. 1/2" min thickness. 5/8" seems to be the thickest, unless I can find air dried. And 1/2" is the thinnest and still maintain structural strength. I think.
Sorry, big thumb. It's 6 feet and 4 feet.
If I'm reading you correctly, I wouldn't bother with bending that large of an arc, I'd go with bent laminations.
Try Arborica. This can be a big thing to get into, I went through it last summer. One thing to be aware of is you won’t be able to control the dimensions precisely once that big piece of wood bends, and you might need a low temp kiln to dry the piece after you bend it.
Is using 'bending plywood' a possibility? Theoretically you could veneer it first with the species you want. I did this once with phenolic backed veneer and contact cement. I had no access to a veneer press at the time.
What is the reason you want to steam bend this vs bent laminations?
So my mind is visualizing a 15”x48” panel with a curved frame. And the frame is what you are trying to bend. If that is correct, you are looking at about a 4” drop from center to edge on the long side and about 1” on the short side...Some ideas:
1. Just go find a thick enough board with the approximate curve in the face grain, and cut it out. A 4” drop, maybe a 6”-8” board will have that already, no need to bend anything. Just a hard choosy look at some boards.
2. As others have said, laminate thin strips together, depending on grain orientation, and finish the glue lines will practically disappear. 3. Since Pretty gradual curves, kiln-dried may be able to make the bend, only way to find out is try... 4. Cold-bendable wood from puretimber.com. LostArtPress has used it for making chair arms/crests and is highly impressed at how easy it works and excellent results.
My only other question is: have you had a bad experience from buying wood off the Internet ? Just curious as to how an Internet buy and an oil finish are related?
Good luck
Actually the only reason I mentioned oil finish is that I want a clear finish, not painted.
I will check out the idea of cold pressing.
Northern California is a big place. Where abouts? What type of wood are you thinking of? Aborica is good, near Marshall. But I've actually had the conversation with Evan and he doesn't find a percentage in cutting on the quarter, so essentially, he doesn't do it. He might on a special order you could try. I've bought from him but he knows what money is! He had a nice big slab and I'm think picnic table for my backyard. Hey Evan what do you want for that? " Oh, $18,000 " Macbeth in Berkeley and maybe a couple of other places but I only know the one store. They have it all.. There's a place in Richmond that advertises on Craigslist. I haven't been there yet but it seems to be some kind of warehouse operation. I plan on going , I would like to find a place with a good selection of hardwoods that I can buy just off the shelf and not have to pay Northern California prices!
Takes big steam for big pieces. Those wallpaper steamers they sell for wood steaming probably won't cut it. I made one out of an old boiler and use a wood fire to heat it. California is on fire and in a couple of months it will be fire season ,you could end up in handcuffs building an open fire right now! Gas maybe.
I finally went and ordered the 1/4 sawn white oak from Wisconsin. Still kiln dried but showed 25% moisture. It bent OK. Could have been better.
I've checked with McBeaths and Rockler and Wood Crafters. All a no got. Not even 1/4 sawn unless I went through the stacks and lucked out. I have found a sawer in Carson City who say's the next time he gets white oak in if I come up and show him what I want and how to make the cuts he'll give it a try. Then I'll just have to air dry it for one to three years. He has some cottonwood that looks like we can salvage a bit of 1/4 sawn out of it. It's three years drying. May give this a try in the next month or so.
That's a very patient customer!
The customer took the box as I built it. It still matched what she wanted. Lucky I know.
You asked where am I located. I forgot it's Rio Vista. Do you know where this is?
Sawyer asking you how to quarter saw? I though of a place... there's a place in LA that is dealing in recycled French oak. They have a warehouse in Petaluma and I went there once. Lots of big pieces, beams, wide thick boards. Seemed like anything and everything was $12 bft. So was pretty distressed even ancient some pretty clean. I have a bunch from old wine barrels, my stuff has lots of cracks and fissures and a wine induced discoloration or you might say coloration. Also dowel holes so you have to work to find the piece you want.
I've been there, I think. They had some very old threashing boards with rock embedded in them. I think they came from Spain.
I would love to be able to buy a 100Bf of their old french oak. But I don't have the machines to resaw it to needed thicknesses.
But the place is amazing and $12/Bf isn't that bad anymore.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled