On Thu, 9 Aug 2007 23:59:41 -0500, samson wrote:

In article ,
says...
Phisherman wrote:
You can remove the wood from the form after it cools. Expect
8% springback.


I am -simply- curious about this. Where did you get this figure and how
do you calculate for it in making a jig? I have a design in mind that
will call for a curve terminating in a 90 deg. turn as below:


=========|||


and I am in the head-scratching phase of the jig design, having never
bent wood (at all) before.


Bill

A followup:

1) Question about oak. It's good for bending, yes, but hickory
is (usually) quite elastic and dries hard as a rock. So it's good
for ballsticks.

2) I reconfigured my steam box using a teapot that is more or less
airtight and used a hose clamp so I would lose much steam. (Yes, I
have a drip/steam release hole.)

3) I only allowed myself 20 seconds after heating for 20 minutes. The
results were excellent. I broke 2 (on a knotty part -- of the four
sections of the blank I could cut and bend, these sections were
the least knotty) and made 2 very good bends on clean strips with
little or no knotty parts.

I really appreciate the input and advice.

S.

You may have already realized steam bending is more of an art than a
science. Recently I bent three different kinds of 1/8" thick wood.
The walnut bent easier than oak (surprise!), and the oak bent easier
than another (unknown) pinkish-colored wood. I broke about 1 out of
10 pieces when bending, but I say it was more due to operator fault
than the steaming process. Selecting long grain wood without knots
will give better results.