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5th September 2007, 02:22 PM #1
Curved Beam Construction Challenge
Things are proceeding well on the construction of our "Artisans Retreat".
Builder coming to grips with the somewhat unconventional building.
My challenge is to make the curved beams for the Gallery section.
First thought was to steam bend 10mm laminations into a 100mm x 250mm solid beam.
All became a bit too hard with trying to find suitable air dried timber for that process - within the available time frame.
Soooooooooo.. figured there must be another way (Commercial manufactures like Hyne etc all thought it was a bit too hard to attempt!).
I created a model using overlapping arcs of timber - found an engineer who is happy to certify it & away I go.
Have a few pics here http://www.artisansretreat.com/stage2prog.html of the jig I have made if anyone is interested.
Am processing a couple of cubes of Tas Oak for the beams.
Will add more pics as I progress (& find some time!)Artisans On The Hilll - Gallery, Manning Valley Hideaway Accommodation & Workshops.
Ideal Family or Group Getaway!
You all come & visit now - y'hear!
http://www.artisansonthehill.com.au
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5th September 2007 02:22 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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5th September 2007, 04:53 PM #2Awaiting Email Confirmation
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What a jig set up, which glue are you using?
les
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5th September 2007, 06:20 PM #3Artisans On The Hilll - Gallery, Manning Valley Hideaway Accommodation & Workshops.
Ideal Family or Group Getaway!
You all come & visit now - y'hear!
http://www.artisansonthehill.com.au
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5th September 2007, 07:36 PM #4Senior Member
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- May 2007
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- Darwin NT
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Hi Ozartisan,
You have got me curious here.
I presume it is just the one beam.
Can you give us more details, how many laminations and what size are they, are you scarfing the joints?
Are you going to build it one lamination a time or do the lot in one go?
Anybody else giving you a hand?
(I used to work for a timber engineering company many years ago, so I've worked on few large curved beams, hence my curiosity).
Cheers
Bill
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5th September 2007, 07:48 PM #5
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5th September 2007, 10:59 PM #6
Bill
There are 5 beams in the project. All are exactly same hence the attention to detail in creating the jig.
There will be 5 layers of 19mm Tas Oak cut from 300mm wide material.
I bought a couple of cubes from Gunns 25 x 300mm then accurately thicknessing to prevent glue gaps where boards meet end to end.
The curve segments are 800mm long & so there is a 400mm overlap. End grain joins are not important according to the engineer as the strength is in the laminar construction & overlap.
Don't have anyone helping at present, but will probably enlist an extra body or 2 for the glue up. The Bote-Cote has a pot life of about 45mins - don't know if we will get all 5 layers in one glue up - might be 3 + 2!
Will try & post a pic of how segments are laid up when I get to it.
I would be interested in your input on other ideas given your past experience
Thanks
Peter
OzartisanArtisans On The Hilll - Gallery, Manning Valley Hideaway Accommodation & Workshops.
Ideal Family or Group Getaway!
You all come & visit now - y'hear!
http://www.artisansonthehill.com.au
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6th September 2007, 06:41 AM #7Senior Member
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- Darwin NT
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Hi Peter,
So you are going to cut your 800 long sections to the curve and the lamina will sit flat on the base of your jig.
We worked the other way around, that is we would have made up all our pieces in long lengths (say 10M) with scarf joints first. Then bent them around the vertical parts of the jig. Of course we had larger curves, you couldn't get 19 boards around your radius.
We used resorcinol resin so we had a longer pot life than you, and we had machine roller applicators that spread the glue evenly.
Are you going to nail or screw your laminates together as you are laying up or just rely on clamping pressure? I might be tempted to try just screwing. That way it could be a one man operation.
No doubt you have scanned the various boat building sites, as they are the guys that know a lot about laminated timber construction.
Cheers
Bill
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6th September 2007, 09:20 AM #8
G'day Bill
You are right as to construction method. The 1.2m radius is too much to dry bend & steaming presented too many obstacles in terms of species availability within the time frame.
I did think about screwing the lamina, but want to avoid them if possible as the beams will be a feature of the project.
The clamps I have made are "quick action" and will in fact be quicker than screwing I believe. They have also been placed on the jig to co-incide with butts of the segments. The fixed upright of the clamp giving a reference point to lay the segments to.
All the segments are shaped on the router with a master template, so should just be a fine clean up of glue etc after assembly.
Cheers
PeterArtisans On The Hilll - Gallery, Manning Valley Hideaway Accommodation & Workshops.
Ideal Family or Group Getaway!
You all come & visit now - y'hear!
http://www.artisansonthehill.com.au
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6th September 2007, 05:51 PM #9
Hi Ozartisan
the building looks great and in a nice part of the world as well
and that jig is a work of art,
I finished my (curved roof) shed a couple of years ago,
so thought I'd add my 2bobs,
I used 4 laminations of 4x1.1/2 turpentine, scarfed to make 9mtr lengths
these were bent around 44gal (water filled) drums and epoxied (epi-rez)
and bugle screwed together,
a bit rough and ready but light and strong and (most importantly) cheap
cheers underfoot
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7th September 2007, 06:12 AM #10Senior Member
- Join Date
- May 2007
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- Darwin NT
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Looks like you got it covered Peter. Best of luck with it and let us know how it work's out.
Underfoot (and Peter) there's something about curved timber beams that's particularly attractive. Good work.
All we see up here are rolled RHS etc. Just not the same.
Cheers
Bill
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16th September 2007, 09:20 AM #11
First beam off the jig
OK Guys - here is the first beam finally in one piece - out of the jig.
The long straight section will form the roof line, while the curve forms the wall (The beam is upside-down in the pics)
In the process of final clean up, sanding & applying the Sikkens finish.... Then on to the next 4!!Artisans On The Hilll - Gallery, Manning Valley Hideaway Accommodation & Workshops.
Ideal Family or Group Getaway!
You all come & visit now - y'hear!
http://www.artisansonthehill.com.au
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16th September 2007, 10:26 AM #12GOLD MEMBER
- Join Date
- Oct 2005
- Location
- Adelaide
- Posts
- 1,024
Wow!
Looks excellent.
woodbe.
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16th September 2007, 07:12 PM #13
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25th September 2007, 06:39 PM #14
First Beam Finally In Place!
Had a whole bunch of chippies working here today, so enough hands to get the first monster out of the shed and into place.
Will post some better pics when I get a chance to take them - meanwhile, these should give you some idea.
Only 3 more to go!Artisans On The Hilll - Gallery, Manning Valley Hideaway Accommodation & Workshops.
Ideal Family or Group Getaway!
You all come & visit now - y'hear!
http://www.artisansonthehill.com.au
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25th September 2007, 06:59 PM #15
Well that's about all I can say as well. WOW!!!!
PaulAll these projects. Not enough lifetimes to finish them.
Paul
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