had any success with bending green bloodwood ?

[JDarvall]

just playing with the idea. Wondering how well it bends.

[joe greiner]

Hmmmm. Bending plus woodturning. This should be interesting.

Joe

[Manuka Jock]

bend it first , or turn it first ?
the work in progress is gonna be interesting

[JDarvall]

I didn't put in the right catagory eh. sorry.

I'm going to bend it first, then turn it.

nobody had any experience with bending bloodwood ?

[JDarvall]

guess not. fat lot of help you blokes are eh. eh eh.

[Manuka Jock]

Mate , I don't even know what bloodwood looks like
But I'm happy to learn , from you and your 'work in progress' pics

[JDarvall]

sounds like you just want to see a pic of a ???? up. Piece of wood being thrown accross the room or something like.

I've been turning these thin spindles out of bloodwood....and I'm thinking of steam bending them AFTER with a mild curve, and just trying to minimize the amount of kindling I'm going to no doubt create while experiementing.

As I've read bloodwoods can splinter a bit. But it turns nice green, and I've got access to a lot of it cheap you see.

[joe greiner]

OK. All kidding aside, I couldn't find bloodwood with both hands on a bright sunlit day. But, in general, most wood responds well to boiling (remember the E-puzzle from a while back?). For making something like a bracelet or "bangle," bending could produce a more robust structure, because of grain alignment. Bending after turning could be hard to achieve a good splice. Bending before turning might be easier. I'd take a long piece of square or rectangular stock, and boil the hell out of it (same as making holy water according to my Grandpa). Wrap the softened stick into a spiral around a cylindrical form, with substantial overlap and generous end tangents - could even use several coils. Cut a matching diagonal whatchamacallit in two adjacent coils, and wrench the piece into a donut. Clamp in that position until it dries, then glue. You'll probably have to make a special chuck (or two) to do the final turning.

Joe

[JDarvall]

boiling eh. now that you mention it I do remember that E puzzle.

I'm making windsor chair spindles though.....there ruffly 33" long....taper from 1/2" up to about 5/8" then taper back down again to 3/8". I've been turning them on the lathe. But there straight. I thought it be nicer if I could then bend them with a gentle curve back and forth to match the back of the person thats sitting in the chair. uno, how chairs have that shape.

I was going to attempt steam bending them to take that shape, but now that you mention boiling, maybe I should give that a go too.

[weisyboy]

bloodwood will not bend verry well at all. unless cut verry thin thin enough to see threw it is too brittle. if ya wanna bend red wood try red cedar.

[hughie]

Bloodwood bending, most timber will bend to some extent. In boating building its down by steaming. The length of time for steaming depends on several things ie type of timber ,thickness, degree of bending etc.

The thicker the greater time required for steaming. One of the simplest methods I have used is to pick up some industrial galvanised down pipe or similar. The length would be just a little longer than your piece of timber, say 100-150mm.

Soldier a right angle piece to one end. Big enough to hold 10-15 litres or so of water. Lay the pipe on a frame at around 30' with the right angle end pointing to the ground. Drill a small hole in the top of the angle say 12mm. This is to top up the water if needs be, you will need to make a bung for the hole.

Slide the timber in so its just inside the top and your still able to reach it. Place a fire/heater under the angle to heat the timber. I used a kerosene blow lamp. When it starts to boil wrap the open end in a couple of sacks.

As it steams along you want to every half hour or so rotate the timber in the pipe, but its not essential.

When add water dribble very hot water in slowly to try and maintain the boil. If you want you can wrap more sacks along the length for insulation.

It worked for me on re-ribbing and bending deck frames on an 1930's yacht many years ago.

[Manuka Jock]

Chair making huh . I have been filling in time at a mate's furniture workshop this past week or two.
He specializes in oak tables , and occasionally makes a set of chairs to match .
I have been thinking of having a crack at turning one out myself so
I'll keep an eye on this thread

[JDarvall]

Ta. I had a go at steam bending, but failed. All sorts of theorys why....not enough heat etc. blue gum I think I used. so thats probably a factor too.

These are the kind of chairs I'm building at the moment. See how the spindles are dead straight. Feel the chair could be more comfortable with the spindles curving like I've tried to draw there ( red line)......do you reakon bloodwood could be made to bend like that ?

Hoping to avoid steaming altogether. bit discouraged by the stuffups. Seemed a bit too fiddly and unreliable too, but thats probably just my lack of experience in bending. Hoping that if the bloodwoods wet enough I could perswade it enough with just a heat gun.

[weisyboy]

there is no way youll do that to bloodwood. i dout it even if its steamed.

[JDarvall]

Thanks Carl. Saved me some time.