Another raintree veneer table WIP

**pjt** · 2nd April 2013, 03:24 AM

This a repeat of one I have done before but with a different veneer pattern, more of that to come later, in combination with working on the pattern I have been steam bending the brace pieces, so here's some WIP pics of that process.

I setup my steam bending jig (sheet of 32mm thick ply) on the hospital bed, I want about 1500mm radius so.... oh ah..... marked out a radius of 1300mm and bolted down the brackets.
Pieces are 50x25x1100mm long and bent on edge, first trial I used clamps to pull the piece up to the brackets, worked OK but too slow, so I setup the lever blocks and chains. An hour in the steam and bending we go!
single piece b4 bending.jpg side view single piece b4 bending.jpg single piece.jpg end view single piece.jpg
This worked OK but to stop the chain falling off the end of the piece I had to clamp a couple of blocks top and btm on each end, this takes time and with steam bending time is of the essence.

The 1300 radius was fairly close based on the piece initially relaxing to somewhere about the 1500, it relaxed a little further after another day so I might need a 1200 radius, I decided to adjust the end brackets in closer to the center and on one side reduce the radius by.... oh ah.... that much and I will do 2 at a time, I made up some angle brackets to capture both ends of the pieces, I should be able to set this up so no messing about when the pieces come out of the steam.

adjusted end brackets.jpg increased radius.jpg corner angle .jpg 2 pieces bent .jpg

This worked well as long as I didn't have the chain too high on the corners, otherwise it flipped over the top, not good.
When I bent the single piece the chain followed the piece the whole length, with the two pieces I placed blocks towards the ends so the chain would pull up against both pieces, as there are none in the center this allowed the center to pull away from the brackets by 10mm or so effectively reducing the radius, a bit unforseen but end result was good. When I let the tension off the adjustments made to the bracket positions worked out well.
tension let off.jpg on radius side.jpg ajusted side.jpg

If you look closely at the two last pics and compare the pencil mark (1300 curve) with the relaxed piece the increased radius resulted in more bend while the other on radius end moved away further, I want this end to be straight so a good result thus far, will check over the next few days to see if it relaxes any further.

Pete

**Christos** · 2nd April 2013, 09:10 AM

Watching this one.

**pjt** · 5th April 2013, 11:47 PM

I have finished bending the braces, 7 in all, 1 spare, a little bit of difference but all will be usable
bent braces.jpg

Next I started on the front aprons, these will have a veneer on them, so seeing how everything is setup for steaming I decided to steam bend some Vic Ash for the substrate, after an hour it was into the former and started bending, but no good

it cracked, maybe not a good one for steam bending, plan B was some cold bent and glued laminations of VA, this worked well, last pic following the curve nicely

Vic ash failure.jpg Vic ash leaves.jpg leaves in the former.jpg apron following curve.jpg

Pete

**artme** · 6th April 2013, 08:20 AM

Watching this Pete.

**specialist** · 6th April 2013, 11:30 PM

Yep, I'm watching too.

**pjt** · 9th April 2013, 02:05 AM

I was looking around in the wood stash and picked up a piece of rootball that looked like it might be front apron mat'l, so machined it up for slicing and made a few patterns
Apron rootball slices.jpg P1.jpg P2.jpg P3.jpg P4.jpg

P1 is the most interesting I think but P4 will be the one I'll use as it will work best with the veneer on the top, but that may change when I get there

Pete

**orraloon** · 9th April 2013, 11:14 AM

This looks worth watching.
Regards
John

**Ueee** · 9th April 2013, 09:19 PM

Hi Pete,
I'll be keeping an eye on this, even though i'm a bit of a stranger over here....
I would say you can't beat a bookmatch but what i see in pic 3 may not be suitable for a table.....

I do like P1, that wave is subtle yet your eyes are drawn along it nicely.

**pjt** · 15th April 2013, 01:46 AM

After planing and thicknessing the leg braces it was into the jig to shape the inside and outside radius. The same jig does both sides so I just swap it over.
marking leg brace.jpg leg brace machined.jpg

I made a jig to support the curved aprons when cutting to length and to hold the correct angle, here I am cutting the front apron
cutting the front apron.jpg

I had a bit of a f*^k up with the front apron, I had a brain fade and thicknessed it to 84 instead of 88mm, you know that moment where you say to yourself....that sounds like it is a deeper cut than it should be, and yes it was, so I glued a piece of RT onto the underside as well as the cover strip I was planning to add to the btm of the aprons, I routed a recess in the RT board and glued the strip on the inside edge only, this will maintain the visual line when completed. The board thickness will be reduced and then thicknessed to 88mm and hopefully revealling the edge strip
repairing front apron.jpg closeup repair.jpg cover strips.jpg

Pete

**pjt** · 16th April 2013, 03:31 AM

I cleaned up the repaired front apron, it turned out OK! I then laid out all the parts to see how it all fits together, next is work out the sequnce of gluing.
repairing front apron.jpg removing waste.jpg underside of front apron.jpg sub frame parts laid out.jpg

The top veneer is made up of slices from a crotch/fork piece, to make it fit I had to add pieces into the pattern, tried a few different browns and some RT but ended up using some choclate brown Burdekin Plum and some yellow RT sapwood, I think it looks quite eyecatching.
veneer pattern (2).jpg cutting a yellow wedge.jpg wedge.jpg veneer pattern.jpg veneer pattern1.jpg

Pete

**waveink** · 16th April 2013, 02:42 PM

Hey Pete,

this is a sensational WIP. Those raintree pieces are sensational - what blade do you use on the bandsaw to cut the veneers? Great set up for the steam bending too - much better than a gazillion clamps!

Watching and learning ...

the other pete

**pjt** · 17th April 2013, 02:12 AM

Hi the other Pete,
For cutting these veneers I am using the Lennox woodmaster C, 1.3 tpi 1" wide, this is the carbide tipped blade, I do also use the B blade as well.
I have done a video of cutting the veneers but I need to edit it to make it smaller and that's a whole lot more computering stuff to work out how to do

Is there a list of file sizes/types somwhere for the forum???? I have seen it but??????

Yes the clamps can be a bit time consuming, the advantage tho with them is there is a bit less load on the brackets, I am not trying to pull the brackets off the ply like with the lever block/chain system, but the chain is quick and easy once setup, the other thing to be carefull of is inducing some bow/cup in the bent piece, in one or two of the previous pics I have clamped the ends down to try and keep things flatter, I did have one that only just cleaned up.

Pete

**DJ’s Timber** · 17th April 2013, 03:39 AM

Pete, open the manage attachment in the reply page and click on the blue ? Mark top right corner for file types and sizes.

**waveink** · 18th April 2013, 12:05 AM

Originally Posted by pjt

Hi the other Pete,
For cutting these veneers I am using the Lennox woodmaster C, 1.3 tpi 1" wide, this is the carbide tipped blade, I do also use the B blade as well.
I have done a video of cutting the veneers but I need to edit it to make it smaller and that's a whole lot more computering stuff to work out how to do

Is there a list of file sizes/types somwhere for the forum???? I have seen it but??????

Yes the clamps can be a bit time consuming, the advantage tho with them is there is a bit less load on the brackets, I am not trying to pull the brackets off the ply like with the lever block/chain system, but the chain is quick and easy once setup, the other thing to be carefull of is inducing some bow/cup in the bent piece, in one or two of the previous pics I have clamped the ends down to try and keep things flatter, I did have one that only just cleaned up.

Pete

Thanks Pete,

would be very keen to see the veneer cutting in operation - good luck with the file conversion!

**cava** · 19th April 2013, 12:21 AM

Not sure if it was mentioned, but how thick did you slice the veneer?

Nice work by the way!

Thread: Another raintree veneer table WIP

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Another raintree veneer table WIP

Further bending adventures

veneer slices

Leg braces and front apron

Similar Threads

Two hall tables in Raintree

raintree stump/rootball

Bandsaw milling raintree

a few chunks of raintree

Raintree and Huon Pine Urn

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions