I thought I was ready to try bending a piece of wood again, but when I put the end of a board into my new bracket and pushed on it, the bracket flexed and sprung away from the form.
The Angle Bracket Springs Away From The Form
That will cause the same problem that I had before, there will be a sharp bend where the wood goes over the protruding bracket. So I put a spring clamp on the two angle brackets to hold them together. I knew I was putting that angle bracket on the inside for a reason; it just wasn't clear to me at the time what that reason was.
To Fix It, I Clamped the Two Brackets Together
On to the steaming. I brought up a head of steam in the tube and put the board in to cook. I did things a little different this time. I read on a web page that it is good to turn the board over half way through the steaming to get a more even heat on the board. The steam hose is directed at one side of the board inside the tube, so that side of the board will get hotter than the other side. It makes sense to me, so I will turn the board over half way through. Here are the details:
- Start the steamer at 8:32
- First Steam at 8:47 - 15 minutes
- Strong steam and insert board at 9:02 - another 15 minutes
- Turn the board over at 9:17 - 15 minutes on first side
- Pull out and bend 9:32 - 15 minutes on second side
So the board was steamed for 30 minutes total, 15 minutes on each side.
To turn the board over, I just pulled it out, flipped it over and then put it back in quickly so that it would not cool off. I also found some lead flashing material and draped it over the end plug to keep the plug inside the tube without me standing there and holding it.
The Lead Bar Keeps the Plug In Place
I wrapped the lead piece in a cloth to keep it cool.
Lead Bar Is Wrapped In a Cloth
Once again, I have no photos of me taking the board out and bending it. I am far too busy with the bending to be a photographer as well. I basically just pull out the board, walk quickly over to the form and try to bend the wood before it cools off, juggling all of those clamps and cauls that I put in place as the board goes around the form. The basement is pretty cold at this time of year, about 55° Fahrenheit. So the wood cools quickly after it is out of the steam. Here are the results of the bend.
The Wood Is Bent Using Many Clamps
I used a lot of clamps and cauls bending this. I even threw in some C clamps in places where the wood bowed out and was out of round. I can screw down the C clamps just enough to squeeze the board back into a round shape.
View from a different angle.
Viewed from a Different Angle
Yet another angle.
Yet Another Angle
I did notice as I was poking around that the bracket had sprung out from the form anyway, even though I had it clamped together with a spring clamp. The spring clamp was not strong enough to hold it. You can see that the very tail of the board has come out of the slot, and the tip of the clamp is now in the way where the board wraps over itself.
The Bracket Bent Anyway
I guess I need to come up with a better way of securing the tail of the board. This idea didn't work either.
A more disturbing observation was this. Look at the PVC tube.
The PVC Tube Has Melted and Bent
The PVC has softened under the heat of the steam, and the tube has sagged on both ends. The board got somewhat stuck in the tube because the board was still straight, and the tube was bent. That does not bode well for future use of this tube. Here is another shot of the bent tube.
You Can See How Bent The Tube Is
Whoever said that using PVC for a steaming tube was a good idea obviously has never actually done it. The PVC melts in the heat. This is not going to work. I need to come up with another way to steam my wood as well as coming up with a way to fix the form.
Maybe I can get a hoop out of the board that I just bent and think about the other problems later.
