I just took a steam bending course and here are a couple of pictures of my
first project. The legs and seat supports are steam-bent and the seat
itself is kerf-bent. The wood is Ash.

Larry

posted & mailed
Sorry about the oversize pictures the first time.

Larry Spitz wrote:

I just took a steam bending course and here are a couple of pictures of my
first project. The legs and seat supports are steam-bent and the seat
itself is kerf-bent. The wood is Ash.

Larry

"Larry Spitz" wrote in message
...
posted & mailed
Sorry about the oversize pictures the first time.

Larry Spitz wrote:

I just took a steam bending course and here are a couple of pictures of
my
first project. The legs and seat supports are steam-bent and the seat
itself is kerf-bent. The wood is Ash.

Larry

Impressive work. Who's design is it?

Larry Spitz wrote:
posted & mailed
Sorry about the oversize pictures the first time.

Larry Spitz wrote:

I just took a steam bending course and here are a couple of pictures of my
first project. The legs and seat supports are steam-bent and the seat
itself is kerf-bent. The wood is Ash.

Larry

That's durn-tootin' spiffy! Where did you take the steam bending class?

--
See Nad. See Nad go. Go Nad!
To reply, eat the taco.

posted & mailed

Larry Spitz wrote:

I just took a steam bending course and here are a couple of pictures of my
first project. The legs and seat supports are steam-bent and the seat
itself is kerf-bent. The wood is Ash.

Larry

Very nice. That is some really cool work. How difficult did you find it
to master bending?


--
If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough

GarageWoodworks wrote:


"Larry Spitz" wrote in message
...


Wow! Very cool. The kerf bent seat is incredible. Until now, I didn't
know that could be done.

The only gripe I have is the nail! Arrgggh! Could you have used a small
screw and counter sunk and bunged?

No nails! What I think you are seeing is a walnut dowel. There are six of
them, in contrasting wood on purpose.

Mark & Juanita wrote:

posted & mailed

Larry Spitz wrote:

I just took a steam bending course and here are a couple of pictures of
my first project. The legs and seat supports are steam-bent and the seat
itself is kerf-bent. The wood is Ash.

Larry

Very nice. That is some really cool work. How difficult did you find
it
to master bending?

I don't make any claim to have mastered bending. The course was two weeks
long and it took me all of that time and a bit more to complete the stool.
I find bending to be not particularly difficult when being taught by a
master. There are a lot of tricks to the trade, however.

Steve Turner wrote:



That's durn-tootin' spiffy! Where did you take the steam bending class?

The course was taught by Dave Haig - a true master furniture maker whose
particular speciality is steam bending. You should see his rocking chairs!

The course was at the Centre for Fine Woodworking, Nelson, New Zealand.
www.cfw.co.nz

Larry

Larry Spitz wrote:
posted & mailed
Sorry about the oversize pictures the first time.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

"Larry Spitz" wrote in message
...
posted & mailed
Sorry about the oversize pictures the first time.

Larry Spitz wrote:

I just took a steam bending course and here are a couple of pictures of
my
first project. The legs and seat supports are steam-bent and the seat
itself is kerf-bent. The wood is Ash.

Larry

Cool ! ! ! It sure look comfy for my butt. Was that the class project of
did you do it after? Makes me want to fire up the tea kettle.

Boy Larry, I sure like it.
I've watched them bend wood on TV, they always make it look so easy IF you
have the thousands and thousands of dollars of equipment that they have.
The design is beautiful in its simplicity. How long did it take you to form
the arches?
I suppose I could look it up, but what is Kerf bending?
Is there even an issue with the wood just snapping at the bend?

Very interesting. Now all you need is a good Jersey cow and a milk bucket

Kate

"Larry Spitz" wrote in message
...
posted & mailed
Sorry about the oversize pictures the first time.

Larry Spitz wrote:

I just took a steam bending course and here are a couple of pictures of my
first project. The legs and seat supports are steam-bent and the seat
itself is kerf-bent. The wood is Ash.

Larry

Kate wrote:

Boy Larry, I sure like it.
I've watched them bend wood on TV, they always make it look so easy IF you
have the thousands and thousands of dollars of equipment that they have.
The design is beautiful in its simplicity. How long did it take you to
form the arches?
I suppose I could look it up, but what is Kerf bending?
Is there even an issue with the wood just snapping at the bend?

Very interesting. Now all you need is a good Jersey cow and a milk bucket



Kate,

I can look out my window and see the cows. I haven't yet tried using the
stool for milking. I have to turn a bucket on my lathe, first! :-)

The equipment for steam bending is not very expensive. The steam box we
built and used required a full sheet of plywood. The boiler was an old
canning kettle. Total material cost less than $100.

The bending straps are available from Veritas
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...73&cat=1,45866
or you can make your own. In either case, the cost is not high.

So for say $200 you can have all of the steam-bending equipment to last you
many years. You'll need a good pair of gloves!

We, the class of eight students, made all of the forms for bending and
drying the legs and seat supports as well as the router jigs for setting
the legs into the seat. We also made the forms for the seat. This all took
us less than a day.

The steam-bending process took another day or day-and-a-half, but a lot of
this time was waiting for the wood to cool on the forms before the next one
could be done. Each pair of legs probably took an hour to steam, two
minutes to bend, 30 minutes to cool on the bending form, 24 hours to dry
and 5 minutes to saw the blank into two legs.

Then the legs were copy-routed to a template.

Of course the steamer was large enough to do all eight leg pairs at the same
time with room to spare, so there was little overhead in terms of time to
steam the second and subsequent leg pairs.

Kerf-bending is the process of sawing most of the way through a piece of
wood to make it flexible. We did this with the core of the seat and then
laminated to conceal the kerfs.

Cheers,

Larry

"Kate" wrote

Very interesting. Now all you need is a good Jersey cow and a milk bucket


.... and pickup truck full of yams to feed her on! (best milk in the world,
right there!)

(and use a three legged stool to milk on, with your forehead against that
bovine belly for support ... that way you'll keep your balance and won't get
whipped across the eyes with a mucky tail)

DAMHIKT


--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/17/07
KarlC@ (the obvious)

Sounds to me like you've done that before

"Swingman" wrote in message
news "Kate" wrote

Very interesting. Now all you need is a good Jersey cow and a milk bucket


.... and pickup truck full of yams to feed her on! (best milk in the world,
right there!)

(and use a three legged stool to milk on, with your forehead against that
bovine belly for support ... that way you'll keep your balance and won't get
whipped across the eyes with a mucky tail)

DAMHIKT


--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/17/07
KarlC@ (the obvious)