Dust
Well-Known Member
I was at a local hanger recently looking at a bueatiful wood airplane wing in it's 30 foot jig.
on the wall were fuselodge pieces that the builder had purchased, because they looked too dificult to make. Now i am not a wooden airplane builder, but , i do make wood furniture for a hobby 6 days a week and in that hobby i some times bend wood.
Laminate bending wood is very simple and here is the process
for this you need a good sharp blade on your band saw, or purchase thin wood. I wouldn't use a table saw as it takes too big a curf, turns too much wood into dust. the thickness of the wood depends on your tightest radious bend, you cut the wood until is easily makes the tightest bend that you are asking the wood to make
as airplane wood is expensive, just grab a 2X4 and experiment with it, it is more similar to spruce than maple or other domestic hardwood, except maybe poplar. just set your fence to a 1/4 inch and cut off a strip and bend it around your form, if it makes the bend easy without cracking, whalla, you got it, if it cracks, move in the fence by 1/16 inch and try again and again until you can easily make the tightest bend
make a bending form, just take flat 3/4 inch plywood and screw and glue to it the inside shape blocks of the shape that you need
to make these pieces, just put tracing paper on your print, trace the part and use spray adhesive to attach to the wood for the blocks. cut the shape on the bandsaw and roughly sand it smooth, don't make a piece of furniture out of it, just clean it up
Before you screw and glue it to the plywood drill large holes, 1 or so inches, so your clamps head fit in it, you will clamp it together with many, many clamps, i once glued the back including legs of a chair together, it was 9 layers of 1/8 inch thick X 4"wide X 9 1/2 feet long hard maple. I have ALLOT of clamps, but had to clean out my buddies shop of clamps to do it right.
Now if you are making a circular piece, you won't have to worry about "spring back" if you are not then the form has to be slightly smaller to account for the spring back. the number of layers used directly affects spring back, it works some thing like this, if three layers spring back an inch, 6 layers will spring back 1/4 inch, remember the layers still add up to the same thickness.
Use long lasting pot life glue, you will need it, for this kind of work i use epoxy with the longest pot life available.
cover the bending fixture with plastic wrap or 4 mill plastic or wax it, so nothing will stick to it, make a practice piece out of 2x4 material, remember to clamp every 3 or so inches and use wood blocks to stop the clamps from crushing the wood
If the wood has been planed, the planer stops the wood from absorbing the glue, lightly sand it to get rid of any planer marks, if you band sawed with a good even feed rate, no need to sand the band saw marks away, won't hurt anything.
OK, i rambled, i could have made a jig and started to bend in the time it took to write this, it is easy, try it
enjoy the build
dust
on the wall were fuselodge pieces that the builder had purchased, because they looked too dificult to make. Now i am not a wooden airplane builder, but , i do make wood furniture for a hobby 6 days a week and in that hobby i some times bend wood.
Laminate bending wood is very simple and here is the process
for this you need a good sharp blade on your band saw, or purchase thin wood. I wouldn't use a table saw as it takes too big a curf, turns too much wood into dust. the thickness of the wood depends on your tightest radious bend, you cut the wood until is easily makes the tightest bend that you are asking the wood to make
as airplane wood is expensive, just grab a 2X4 and experiment with it, it is more similar to spruce than maple or other domestic hardwood, except maybe poplar. just set your fence to a 1/4 inch and cut off a strip and bend it around your form, if it makes the bend easy without cracking, whalla, you got it, if it cracks, move in the fence by 1/16 inch and try again and again until you can easily make the tightest bend
make a bending form, just take flat 3/4 inch plywood and screw and glue to it the inside shape blocks of the shape that you need
to make these pieces, just put tracing paper on your print, trace the part and use spray adhesive to attach to the wood for the blocks. cut the shape on the bandsaw and roughly sand it smooth, don't make a piece of furniture out of it, just clean it up
Before you screw and glue it to the plywood drill large holes, 1 or so inches, so your clamps head fit in it, you will clamp it together with many, many clamps, i once glued the back including legs of a chair together, it was 9 layers of 1/8 inch thick X 4"wide X 9 1/2 feet long hard maple. I have ALLOT of clamps, but had to clean out my buddies shop of clamps to do it right.
Now if you are making a circular piece, you won't have to worry about "spring back" if you are not then the form has to be slightly smaller to account for the spring back. the number of layers used directly affects spring back, it works some thing like this, if three layers spring back an inch, 6 layers will spring back 1/4 inch, remember the layers still add up to the same thickness.
Use long lasting pot life glue, you will need it, for this kind of work i use epoxy with the longest pot life available.
cover the bending fixture with plastic wrap or 4 mill plastic or wax it, so nothing will stick to it, make a practice piece out of 2x4 material, remember to clamp every 3 or so inches and use wood blocks to stop the clamps from crushing the wood
If the wood has been planed, the planer stops the wood from absorbing the glue, lightly sand it to get rid of any planer marks, if you band sawed with a good even feed rate, no need to sand the band saw marks away, won't hurt anything.
OK, i rambled, i could have made a jig and started to bend in the time it took to write this, it is easy, try it
enjoy the build
dust
