Best way to make forms and bend a 3/4" solid wood to make a sculptured seat base?
Friday, August 2nd, 2013 at
8:00 pm
I want to make a sculptured stool seat. There are plenty of bar stools, but they are much taller (24-30"), but we need a 17" or so height! Could you please advise on how to make the forms? I am thinking of a steam box to bend the wood, any comments? What hard wood-or semi-hardwood choices would work better?
standard chairs are 18"
youtube has a ton of videos on steam bending
you’re going to have to use your own imagination to come up with the bending form and how you are going to clamp it until it dries – I can tell you that there will be some ‘spring back’ when bending lumber so you may need to over bend it a bit to get the shape you really want.
if the bends will be extremely tight it is a good idea to back up the material with a flexible piece of sheet metal to keep the grain from wanting to splinter – as far as the wood itself, you want extremely straight grained lumber – graining that runs off the edge (so to speak) will most likely break if the bends will be a tight radius
another option would be to glue multiple layers of bending plywood together in the desired shape and cover with the desired species of veneer – this is one brand; http://www.ecocore.com.au/products/multiflex-bending-plywood/
just to give you an idea of what it is