Thread: Bending Timber

Originally Posted by Damienol

This time with some hardwood and cauls and target state bend




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Good Morning Damien

I have an assembly bench with a holy top similar to yours and use a similar technique for laminating bends. It works fine for light work but as the tension increases the dogs lean slightly and cause the laminates to slip and the work to twist. My assembly bench top is 25mm MDF, and I think its thickness is the problem.

For heavier work I use a friends "steam bending bench". This is a torsion box bench with the dogholes through both top and bottom surfaces; longer dogs are needed and they remain vertical under great pressure. He turned some clamping dogs with 19 mm bases to fit the dog holes and 32 mm tops that protrude about 80 mm above table. Its tough! We use the bench for both steam bending and cold lamination assembly.

As cauls we simply put an extra slice of laminate on each side (no glue). This virtually eliminates flat spots from clamps and dogs. With correct tightening order on clamps it ensures good tight gluelines. Without cauls, usually most people cannot see the flat spots but you can feel the when hand sanding. That annoys me!

WE use three thicknesses of gladwrap to keep glue off the bench and dogs. If we get twist/slippage in the work we put a quickgrip clamp through a doghole and tighten it to push the laminate's edges back against the benchtop. We might have to temporarily loosen other clamps by half to one turn to do this.

You are onto a great technique. It is really worth persuing.


Fair Winds

Graeme