Bent Lamination Thickness

Line with packing tape.

Bent lamination thickness.

No steaming is required for small bends. So while i was bending to a radius 112 times the thickness ikea bends to a radius of just 34 times thickness. If i understand what you re proposing i think you ll find 1 4 will not bend well enough. Be sure to factor the thickness of the wood.

Likewise a film measuring 10mil would be 010 thick. This semester s class is bent wood lamination. One mil is equal to 001 or 1 1000ths of an inch a mil is not the same as a millimeter. I am a banjo builder and make 11 diameter circular three ply steam bent laminations that are 5 8 thick total.

Shallow curves can be made up of fewer thicker laminations while tighter curves need more thin laminations. It was my first bent lamination project and they turned out great. The thickness of the parts is largely determined by your bend. I m designing a small side table with bent laminated walnut legs.

Then cut a laminate of some thickness and see if you can bend it around the form. Calculating wood thickness for bent lamination. Steps in laminating wood apply glue to the laminates not to the outside pieces as they will stick to the formers. The first step is to draw a full scale template of your curve and then build a form.

Actually there s no magic required. Set the whole thing on a table that is flat and covered in packing tape so that at least the bottom edges are lined up. Each lamination has a scarf joint. Hence a lamination film measuring 1 5mil would be 0015 thick.

Overall i bent 4 mm thick strips into a 45 cm radius circle. I am working on a demilune table with a bent lamination apron. I have found that even the hardest woods are capable of being made into fluid curves with this technique. If it doesn t bend cut a thinner one.

On the famous ikea chairs the legs are laminated out of strips of 1 3 mm in thickness and are bent to a radius as low as 45 mm in places. My teacher s suggestion he is an expert at this is to cut a strip of wood and see if it will bend around the form without. Make your bending form first. The process of bent lamination consists of slicing wood into thin strips coating it with glue and clamping it to a form until the glue dries.

Once the parts are formed changing the overall thickness will be very difficult so take the time to figure out the number and thickness of strips needed to make up your part. Max thickness of laminates veneers is 3mm. Learn how to make wood magically bend to your will. Just a saw some wood some glue and a few time tested techniques.