Bent Wood Lamination

Lamination is different than veneering.

Bent wood lamination.

When used as a structural element such as a table leg they are actually stronger than if the piece were cut from a single block of wood. Once dry the resulting part will pretty much hold its shape forever. Just a saw some wood some glue and a few time tested techniques. It s messy but rewarding to see a gracefully bent piece of wood emerge from a glue encrusted form.

When making small curves it is best to laminate several many layers using thin strips of wood called veneers no steaming is required for small bends. In veneering the layers are oriented in an alternating fashion while in laminating the layers are oriented in the same direction. The process starts with ripping some thin strips of wood and applying glue to each strip. If your radii is tight you can use 1 16 wisa italian bending plywood.

What you need to use for bent wood lamination is 1 8 bending poplar plywood that comes in either long or short grain. Bent lamination is a process of bending thin strips of wood using lots of glue and lots of clamps. Bent lamination just introduces the element of curving the laminate. Actually there s no magic required.

With glue between each lamination a press is used to bend the bundle of laminations around a form. The more seams you have the less chance for springback. So the first order of business is to build the form followed by cutting the wood into lamination strips. Lamination is the process of bending many thin parts together and holding them in the desired shape until the glue between them dries.

Learn how to make wood magically bend to your will. Steps in laminating wood. There are two basic ways to clamp the parts while the glue dries. Max thickness of laminates veneers is 3mm.

Woodworkers use bent wood laminations for everything from chair rockers to drawer handles. Commercially made laminate layers are not widely available. After using an oscillating sander to clean up the inner curves and a disc sander to clean the outer curves trace your shape to another mdf board using your sanded shape and then rough cut the same shape only this time leave at least 1 16 of an inch between your cut and your pencil line. Using clamps or a vacuum press and we will look at both methods.