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This is a follow up to my Steambending Fail! Post a few weeks ago. I got a lot of great advise and I think I tried most of it. First of all I was out of air-dried wood so I had to switch to kiln dried. First we added to the form to make the inside curve less sharp. We resawed and planed four strips to 1/8 inch. We steamed them for about 20 mins each. We bent them around the form one on top of the other and let them dry for 24 hrs.
![Musical instrument Wood Gas Folk instrument Musical instrument accessory]()
When we removed the clamps they sprung back much further than I expected. This concerned me so we tried the hot pipe bending the some had suggested. I had two problems with this. One it was not something I was comfortable letting an 11 year old do and second it was imposable for get them to all bend the same to glue them back up.
![Wood Hardwood Table Plywood Tin can]()
We ended up filling the bathtub up with hot water and soaking the strip to flatten them back out.
![Brown Bathtub Plumbing fixture Bathroom Fluid]()
We then re-steamed them and re-bent then around the form.
![Wood Electrical wiring Engineering Machine Toolroom]()
![Smile Table Whiteboard Wood Engineering]()
This time it worked like a charm. We then made the mistake of not giving them time to completely dry out be for we glued them and re-clamped them. They looked great when we removed the clamps but then gaps started appearing where the glue was failing from the moisture. We put CA glue over the gaping areas and re-clamped those areas. That worked but the other area would open up so we had to do that about three times. Lesson learned (the hard way.) After all that I was very happy with how it turned out. Jaida is entering it in the Project Showcase at the Indianapolis Woodworking show this weekend.
![Musical instrument Keyboard Piano Musical instrument accessory Wood]()
When we removed the clamps they sprung back much further than I expected. This concerned me so we tried the hot pipe bending the some had suggested. I had two problems with this. One it was not something I was comfortable letting an 11 year old do and second it was imposable for get them to all bend the same to glue them back up.
We ended up filling the bathtub up with hot water and soaking the strip to flatten them back out.
We then re-steamed them and re-bent then around the form.
This time it worked like a charm. We then made the mistake of not giving them time to completely dry out be for we glued them and re-clamped them. They looked great when we removed the clamps but then gaps started appearing where the glue was failing from the moisture. We put CA glue over the gaping areas and re-clamped those areas. That worked but the other area would open up so we had to do that about three times. Lesson learned (the hard way.) After all that I was very happy with how it turned out. Jaida is entering it in the Project Showcase at the Indianapolis Woodworking show this weekend.
