am interested in bending wood for toe rail and rub rails. Need book or web page to get info on building one. can any one help. Thank you
adam@zazzera.com
steam box
Moderator: Jim Walsh
-
Larry DeMers
Re: steam box
I published this response a few days back (located below underSteam Bending a Toe Rail). I copied it to this response for convenience:
.......
We lost an 8 ft. piece of toe railing last year..rafted up with 2 others, huge waves from circling tour boat, boats got out of sync, we lost..
So, I used a piece of heavy cardboard to cut a pattern of the curve of the toe rail. The actual cross-section shape is very easy to make, using a table saw with an
angled fine-toothed blade. Copy the angle from the old piece. Someone a while back published the exact angle, and that would be nice to use if possible, but
approximating it served well for us. Once the cross-sectional shape is made, you will want to bend the piece. We made a steam bender out of an old gas water
heater. The inner core is a steel tank. We cut a 5x5 in. hole in the top (crudely, with acetelene) for hanging the wood rail. The burner heats the bottom of the tank
directly, so I put in about 1 gallon of water, and had a hose ready to add more as the level dropped from steam..but it wasn't needed. We heated the tank, and the
water steamed nicely. We divided the 8+ ft. piece in half using a scarf at 15 deg. to the horizontal, and a right-angle end cut..complicated sounding, but Cape Dory
did this on all their scarfs, and it is beautiful work.
The piece was steamed, then placed on the plywood former. Woops, forgot to mention that. The plywood former is just scrap 1/8 - 1/4 in. ply, about 2ft. wide and
8ft. long..blocked up to approximate the sheer at that point on the rail. (ie: Sounds complicated, but really, all you will do here, is duplicate the sheer angle as viewed
from say 10 ft. away. Use ply scrap to adjust the curvature).
Next lay the cardboard pattern on the plywood and trace it on the ply. Cut up some scrap 2x2 stock, about 4in. long each. Cut enough to have 1 per 4 in of wood to
be bent..putting them at 2 in. intervals leading into the corners. Align these wood blocks with one side of the line you traced on the ply. Place another wood block
oposite the others, but spaced the width of the toe rail + a tad (a really exact number..say 1/8th in. ).
Ok..suspend your rail from one end, into the top of the tank, and lightly cover the rest of the hole to trap steam inside, but *do not* build up any pressure in side the
tank!!! This stuff is hot and will burn you. Heat it for some time..take it out, and carefully place the end between the wood blocks, and bend the wood in the form of
the outline. It will probably bend onl y slightly at first, so take it as far as feels right..but not too much. Hold it until cool. Repeat the steaming process. Place it back
intothe form. rebending carefully, and gradually. Eventually your piece will bend and follow the compound curves, but it wil take a full day to get it perfect. Leave the
wood inthe form for a day or two, or until ready to scarf into the old railing. If you thought ahead, you probably gave yourself an extra ft. or so, to make the scarf
with.
I use a japanese pull-saw, with a fine kerf. I try to make a 30 deg. to the horizontal cut to both pieces. This process takes time and patience, and an occasional beer.
This is where your little beauty will be made better or worse..so give it your best effort. For the other ends kerf, cut the standing piece first, to establish the angle
needed. Start on the new piece long of the final length..by 1/2 in. place the wood in parallel with the standing piece, and copy the angle with your saw. Because you
started long, you will have to make a second final cut, which will contain the correction to the first kerf's angle. Still with me? whew..
Ok next is sealing and attaching the teak. I sanded first; 180, then 120..no further. Teak will seal up if it is sanded too fine before the first coat. Fine sand after the
first sealer coat only. I used 3M101 to caulk the toe rail, and S.S. fasteners that were there originally. I drilled and countersunk the holes as originally done, to allow
for bungs to be used.Start at the flatest part, working towards the largest curvature slowly. You may have to tighten three of four screws in sequence, to bend the
wood evenly (where there is a small radius),otherwise the process is nearly done. At the final kerf that you cut previously, you may need to ***block sand***the
new ends kerf to fit the standing parts kerf. Be very careful to keep the block at the same angle as the piece needs for a perfect match (this is where you earn that big
check). Use a good exterior wood glue at the scarfs, and clean up your excess as you go. I used resorcinal, but it shows a dark purple coloration through the cetol,
which does sort of make it visible.. but darn waterproof and secure. There are better adhesives to use that are transparent however..and I would recommend that
approach.
That's it for this epistle..
Cheers!
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 ~~~Snowbound on Lake Superior~~~
demers@sgi.com
.......
We lost an 8 ft. piece of toe railing last year..rafted up with 2 others, huge waves from circling tour boat, boats got out of sync, we lost..
So, I used a piece of heavy cardboard to cut a pattern of the curve of the toe rail. The actual cross-section shape is very easy to make, using a table saw with an
angled fine-toothed blade. Copy the angle from the old piece. Someone a while back published the exact angle, and that would be nice to use if possible, but
approximating it served well for us. Once the cross-sectional shape is made, you will want to bend the piece. We made a steam bender out of an old gas water
heater. The inner core is a steel tank. We cut a 5x5 in. hole in the top (crudely, with acetelene) for hanging the wood rail. The burner heats the bottom of the tank
directly, so I put in about 1 gallon of water, and had a hose ready to add more as the level dropped from steam..but it wasn't needed. We heated the tank, and the
water steamed nicely. We divided the 8+ ft. piece in half using a scarf at 15 deg. to the horizontal, and a right-angle end cut..complicated sounding, but Cape Dory
did this on all their scarfs, and it is beautiful work.
The piece was steamed, then placed on the plywood former. Woops, forgot to mention that. The plywood former is just scrap 1/8 - 1/4 in. ply, about 2ft. wide and
8ft. long..blocked up to approximate the sheer at that point on the rail. (ie: Sounds complicated, but really, all you will do here, is duplicate the sheer angle as viewed
from say 10 ft. away. Use ply scrap to adjust the curvature).
Next lay the cardboard pattern on the plywood and trace it on the ply. Cut up some scrap 2x2 stock, about 4in. long each. Cut enough to have 1 per 4 in of wood to
be bent..putting them at 2 in. intervals leading into the corners. Align these wood blocks with one side of the line you traced on the ply. Place another wood block
oposite the others, but spaced the width of the toe rail + a tad (a really exact number..say 1/8th in. ).
Ok..suspend your rail from one end, into the top of the tank, and lightly cover the rest of the hole to trap steam inside, but *do not* build up any pressure in side the
tank!!! This stuff is hot and will burn you. Heat it for some time..take it out, and carefully place the end between the wood blocks, and bend the wood in the form of
the outline. It will probably bend onl y slightly at first, so take it as far as feels right..but not too much. Hold it until cool. Repeat the steaming process. Place it back
intothe form. rebending carefully, and gradually. Eventually your piece will bend and follow the compound curves, but it wil take a full day to get it perfect. Leave the
wood inthe form for a day or two, or until ready to scarf into the old railing. If you thought ahead, you probably gave yourself an extra ft. or so, to make the scarf
with.
I use a japanese pull-saw, with a fine kerf. I try to make a 30 deg. to the horizontal cut to both pieces. This process takes time and patience, and an occasional beer.
This is where your little beauty will be made better or worse..so give it your best effort. For the other ends kerf, cut the standing piece first, to establish the angle
needed. Start on the new piece long of the final length..by 1/2 in. place the wood in parallel with the standing piece, and copy the angle with your saw. Because you
started long, you will have to make a second final cut, which will contain the correction to the first kerf's angle. Still with me? whew..
Ok next is sealing and attaching the teak. I sanded first; 180, then 120..no further. Teak will seal up if it is sanded too fine before the first coat. Fine sand after the
first sealer coat only. I used 3M101 to caulk the toe rail, and S.S. fasteners that were there originally. I drilled and countersunk the holes as originally done, to allow
for bungs to be used.Start at the flatest part, working towards the largest curvature slowly. You may have to tighten three of four screws in sequence, to bend the
wood evenly (where there is a small radius),otherwise the process is nearly done. At the final kerf that you cut previously, you may need to ***block sand***the
new ends kerf to fit the standing parts kerf. Be very careful to keep the block at the same angle as the piece needs for a perfect match (this is where you earn that big
check). Use a good exterior wood glue at the scarfs, and clean up your excess as you go. I used resorcinal, but it shows a dark purple coloration through the cetol,
which does sort of make it visible.. but darn waterproof and secure. There are better adhesives to use that are transparent however..and I would recommend that
approach.
That's it for this epistle..
Cheers!
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 ~~~Snowbound on Lake Superior~~~
adam wrote: am interested in bending wood for toe rail and rub rails. Need book or web page to get info on building one. can any one help. Thank you
demers@sgi.com
-
Mark Yashinsky
Re: steam box
There was one episode of "The New Yankee Workshop" that Norm learned about bending and laminating wood from someone. The someone used plastic DWV pipe, capped on one end and a pipe to threaded connector and a plug on the other. A propane burner heated a new and UNUSED 5 gallon metal gas can w/ water that fed the capped end of the steamer box (the dwv pipe)thru a rubber flex (radiator) hose and there was a hole in the top of the dwv pipe at the plug end to allow the steam to exit. After getting a head of stean up, the plug was removed and the wood was put in and the plug closed the end (does not have to be tight. The steam was regulated by the propane burner. The DWV is cheap and can be any length!