Steam Bending Plywood Or Sheet Bending

It s helpful to know how either for making skateboard ramps or something bent.

Steam bending plywood or sheet bending.

I bought my kettle from lee valley see source below. It s only for temperate hardwoods known to steam bend like ash oaks elm hickory maple beech and a few others. Like share and subscribe dont forget to check out our website and get to know the late. Steam bending creates a strong dependable bend.

Steam won t do anything good for you with plywood. Plywood pre cut for kerf bending will be cut the full length of the sheet with the exception of only a small amount of plywood at each end. It came with an aluminum pipe to direct steam into the box. As the bend follows the grain of the wood it eliminates the weakness issues of a band sawn curve.

If the curve doesn t hold re clamp the plywood to the mdf form. Cut a form using multiple layers of mdf until you reach the desired thickness for the bend. Pressurized steam is detrimental to successful wood bending and extremely dangerous. Bending plywood with steam you might think that steam bending plywood is the way to go for all kinds of projects but this method is best for small pieces such as model parts.

Watch how easy it is to bend a plywood to make a beautiful furniture. Just like all bending methods choose a knot free strip of plywood. Try gently bending the ends of the plywood to see if it straightens out or holds its curve. Building a steam box for bending wood only requires exterior grade plywood waterproof glue and an electric tea kettle.

You can use steam to soften plywood for bending but it isn t the best way to do it because it requires a steamer large enough to accommodate a plywood sheet which can be difficult to construct and expensive to buy. Well i tried to bend 6mm plywood around my buck as described in a previous thread and after steaming it for almost an hour got absolutely no where. Turn the plywood upside down so it s resting on the ends and push down on the center of the curve with your hand. Use your hands to test the bent plywood.

Any electric kettle with a cylindrical spout for inserting a pipe or attaching a hose will do. Do not pressurize the steam chamber. An easier option is to saturate all the layers of the plywood using warm wet towels prior to bending.