Wondering if anyone has the setup and would be willing to steam bend a bit of blackwood 10 x 165 x 540 which I can supply. Its for the insert of a highback dining chair similar to picture.
Attachment 469099
Willing to pay for your time and trouble.
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Wondering if anyone has the setup and would be willing to steam bend a bit of blackwood 10 x 165 x 540 which I can supply. Its for the insert of a highback dining chair similar to picture.
Attachment 469099
Willing to pay for your time and trouble.
dont know what part of town your in but chase up SANE Makerspace 3/6 Armiger court, Holden Hill ph 0433 372 578
privately owned community workshop, been going for a number of years any time I am in town I pay them a visit and grool at the setup they have.
yearsago young couple bought a camper van to tour Aus, needing new curtains...they bought a swing machine then found out they didnt know how to use it, so a visit to this place but oh dear time and dreams got away...6 months later they finally left on their journey, with new curtains, plus a complete new interior they did (mostly) themselves
dont know if Matt/Marc??? can help you...lets know the outcome please
Tks.and will let you know in due course.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tonyz
The steaming would be the easy part, but you would need to fabricate the form to bend it over. I am aware of three ways to set up the form, a male and female pair that can clamp together sandwiching the steamed part, forcing it to take the required shape, a male form set up to take clamps and cauls about every 75mm to pull the steamed blank into the required shape, or a male form set up to be used with a vacuum bag, or with a thin metal strap under tension to force the blank into shape.
Since the chair back most likely has some reflex shape, the metal strap approach most likely will not work as it can only produce a curve in one direction. The vacuum bag approach would require a significant bag and pump, plus experience, to make it work. A male form and clamps and cauls should be able to do the job, but may result in curves in segments rather than smooth curves, which may be an issue if the blank is already at required thickness, as there is no meat left to smooth the ridges and generate a smooth curve.
The male female forms method would be the most difficult to create, as you need to create two forms that are offset by the blank thickness, and with a surface finish equivalent to what you hope to achieve in the finished article. One possibility would be to get your form surfaces as good as you can, then surface both with a strip of thin laminate (non textured) to provide the final smooth surface that the reflect in the completed part.
If at all possible, you need enough material left in the blank to allow a final sanding etc after steaming and forming as the wood may discolour or waterstain on the surface in the steamer, and need to have this corrected prior to inclusion in the chair.
That part of the chair you have wasn’t steam bent and if your building a similar thing I wouldn’t be steam bending it .
With that splat lying flat on a bench top measure from the bench to the highest part and you have roughly the thickness that would have been sawn from a board then sanded . And that thickness you get will nicely fit within one of the standard board thicknesses of either 1 1.5 or 2 inch with room for spoke shaving , scraping and sanding .
Just saying that’s the way Blackwood 20th century chairs with those sort of backs were mostly made .
Rob
he made that look easy....I bet it aint!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by bueller
that sounds like a lot shaving, scraping and sanding...lolQuote:
Originally Posted by auscab
i thought it would have been bent rather than sawn and shaved to shape etc. But I will measure and try.
Thks Rob
I'm with Rob, that back splat was sawn from solid wood.Quote:
Originally Posted by auscab
I will third that, it's not steam bent