steam bending – drying advice – pin cracks
mccaffrey
| Posted in General Discussion on
Hi. I have been steam bending kiln-dried oak, 3/4″ for chair rails. Bending has been very successful. However, while drying 0ften small pin cracks form. How can I avoid these? Advice?
Wood dries on drying rack in my kitchen(~65F), air is probably dry-ish(it is winter here).
photo1: bending jig
photo2: wood with surface cracks in drying rack
Thanks for the help.
Replies
From your pic the cracks are in the flatter-sawn area of the wood, stopping as the grain changes to riftsawn. If that's the case on oher boards also you might try fully rift or even Q-sawn stock.
Thanks.
Surface cracks like that are a sign of too rapid surface drying. (And a wood like oak that is prone to splitting easily.) You can get the same surface checking by drying green oak in the sun. Let the pieces dry more slowly in a more humid/cooler environment. Steam bending puts a lot of stress on the wood; don't add more by rapid surface drying.
What jharvey said. If you can't let it dry slower, make your pieces oversize and shave them after. The surface checking should not be deep.