Need help with steam bending...

**Hellion** · 03-05-2004, 11:17 PM

Im building a bowstave out of laminations and need to steam them to get the curve I want. My question is when I steam the wood can I glue it up right after its been steamed? Will the moisture affect the wood? Ill be using poly glue. Thanks for your help guys,

**TDHofstetter** · 03-05-2004, 11:39 PM

Poly glue immediately after steam bending should work WONDERS. It'll set up faster than normal, though (unless you're working in the cold), so be ready to move like goosed lightening.

-- Tim --

Don't walk in front of me, I will not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I will not lead.
Walk beside me, and be my friend.

**WoodMangler** · 03-06-2004, 02:16 AM

I wouldn't glue them up wet.... just asking for trouble for no reason really....

Set the pieces in the form until they are dry... and if you can put them in an oven set at 150 - 170 degrees for 30 minutes the pieces will retain their shape even better...

What kind of dimensions are we talking about?.... and why poly u glue?... is it for outside use?

**Hellion** · 03-06-2004, 03:19 AM

I just figured poly would be stronger??????? It will be used outside but it wont ever get wet.

**WoodMangler** · 03-06-2004, 11:05 AM

I just don't like Poly U due to all the mess, the ugly glue line, and the cost... I use Titebond II unless the piece is really going to be subjected to the weather....

Stronger bond than yellow glue?... hmm... I don't know the specs but there's no difference on any of the applications I have used...

**Hellion** · 03-06-2004, 01:39 PM

What about flexability? Its going to be a bow stave so its gotta be flexible right?

**WoodMangler** · 03-06-2004, 02:30 PM

Ah well.... ya lost me now...

I really don't know of any differences in the flexibility of the different glues.... Bow stave eh... as in Bow and arrow...

I think I would use epoxy just for the added strenght, but I don't know diddley about laminating something that will be flexing...

Hopefully someone will come along who does...

**Bob Smalser** · 03-06-2004, 02:43 PM

choice and poly my next to last.

Bend your hot wood over a form and let it cool and dry....if you haven't steambent before, the secret is lots and lots of billowing steam and keeping the workpiece off of the bottom of your pipe or box with small risers so it doesn't sit in a puddle.

It's a bow that'll be left outside in the rain overnight more than once in its life....you need waterproof and you need flexible. Resorcinol and a good boatbuilder's epoxy like West System meet those needs on all counts. Both much more flexible than the others, with epoxy having the edge. Resorcinol is temperature and clamping sensitive and has a dark glue line. Epoxy needs a M/C of 12pct or lower for the best bond and is nearly twice as strong as poly. I'd use epoxy in a heartbeat. The only reason we use resorcinol at all any more in boats is that its much cheaper than epoxy.

“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think...that a time is to come when those (heirlooms) will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See! This our father did for us.’ “ --John Ruskin.