Building an arctic snow sled. Steam bending

[SwampDonkey]

Ok, here is the first ski to go into the steam chest to be cooked for bending. Look how shiny it is in there. 



Now, working on the ski former.



Clamped up and drying and setting, with a little modification to the former. 

[jim king]

Nice jig , clamped well, it has to work.

[Don K]

I watched Norm Abram build a steam chest on a show and he bent some wood to incredible angles to build a hatrack. Swampdonkey, you are one ingenious fella.

Don

[Warbird]

That looks awesome.  Looking forward to seeing the final product. 

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, if the test piece is any indication, it only took 24 hours to set as if it had always grown that way. There was very little reflex to it. I bent the ski an extra 2" to account for a little flex, which is actually good because there will be weight on the skis if loaded with gear. I'm hoping for a sled with load capacity of at least 350 lbs including myself. A sled makes a nice bed you know if out in the bush winter camping. Not that I'll be doing any of that, but never know.

[Burlkraft]

Nice job Donk     

I also like that Jig.

The ones I build never look that nice...or work that well        

[beenthere]

Donk
Good project. Nice steaming idea.
I see a band saw in the background, and you could rip that blank once or twice from the tip down through the bend location and put less stress on the wood in bending. Glue it before bending (or after bending when it dries).
Have seen water skis and snow boards fashined that way.  Only suggest if the solid blanks don't work out well for you.

Like this line on your pic here

 

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, I've seen that suggestion in my Wood Worker's Manual to. So far so good. 

[moonhill]

SD, your shop reminds me of my Dads shop, he always used his table saw as a work bench too. 

I built a square box once where the sides were one piece of wood the only joint was in one corner and it was pegged.  Angled cuts at the corners not all the way through and put it in the steam box then bent it around the base.   

Tim

[SwampDonkey]

First ski off the press. A little marring on one edge from fiddling with a couple form corner edge pieces I had to take off and the edge rubbed along a couple bolts. Had to twist it some to get around the last mold which caused a sizable sliver on the same side, bottom corner edge. I'm going to look it over a bit closer, I think I can glue the sliver up. It's on the face which will have a Teflon shoe so will probably be fine. In all, the ski set exactly to the 16" rise I wanted and looks square as can be. A little modification that I made in the former will allow me to bend the next ski without having to twist it over the last corner edge. Learn as you go.

[Warbird]

I do not understand the twisting you say you had to do, nor the modification that fixed it.  Can you be more specific?

This is a pretty cool project.  I have a couple of friends I will be pointing to here and some of may try to build something similar to what you are doing.  Thanks a lot for sharing!

[beenthere]

SD
Did you select that blank in the pic because it had the steep slope to the grain for the bending process, or just what was available? Or for the nice figure in the grain?

Keeping the grain running straight in the piece seems should give you the best results without the splintering along an edge. Split or riven blanks might be the way to go if this gives much trouble. Even tho you might get by during the bending with no splits, the ski in use might fail due to the weakness from steep slope of grain.  Just a thought.
You are braver than I. 

[SwampDonkey]

I'll Show you tomorrow Warbird when my second piece goes on the former. Basically in the picture with the ski in the former the two pairs closest to the camera view had to be modified by removing the pair seen with just lag bolts standing and the one half of the pair in the closest pair. To be able to bend the piece around I had to lift the far end (the straight end) up to clear the lag bolts remaining behind and the last remaining half of the closest pair where one set of lags is standing. Everything was clamped down to the table so there was no quick removal of them bolts. I'm just going to leave the halves on the inside of the curve attached and clamp the ski.

Beenthere it was just fine bending, it was the twist by lifting up on the end of the ski that caused a sliver to break at the twist on a corner. Other than that the grain on the bottom side is straight if i recall. Once it set the ski was solid as any 3" piece of ash. Can't expect to get it right all the time, even with a perfect straight piece through and through.  To think so is not wise.

[SwampDonkey]

Sled ski number two taken out of the chest, bent and clamped to set.    On a roll. This time, perfect. Didn't have to twist it to get around the former closest to camera this time. Didn't hear as much as a squeak.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Hope it works    Sure doesn't look like an ideal piece of wood to bend that far  

[Left Coast Chris]

SD,

Good work there!      Did you purposely use flat sawn ash rather than quarter sawn and what drove the selection of ash as your wood type?

Hey,  also,  did'nt you know that we are in the midst of global warming?     

[SwampDonkey]

  Hope it works    Sure doesn't look like an ideal piece of wood to bend that far  

Hey, it's ash it ain't oak. When you look on the edge of the skis it looks like 25 layers of veneer sandwiched together. It was also the natural bend of the wood, it was bowed up slightly. So what say yee?

Never know 'til ya try. 

Did you purposely use flat sawn ash rather than quarter sawn and what drove the selection of ash as your wood type?

I've got no quartered ash, so a fella just worked with what he has.  Besides ash is the traditional bent wood in these parts. I've never seen oak snow shoes or potato baskets before. Although, I know they were hand split green. Natives up here used black ash fresh cut and pounded to loosen the fibres. Never steam bent nothing. I've seen them do it a good many times. Black ash has higher moisture content than white.

It's gotta get a lot warmer than this, but I'll say it's about 50 degrees warmer this January than it was last year. That was ungodly cold.

I've got to steam bend some cross members now for the bed of the sled.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 I'm just eyeballin that Cathedral design, from 4000 miles away   Whadda I know

  All recommendations here and otherwise, stated for Parallel grain. That just doesn't look parallel to me, from this distance. 

  NOW, if it DOES split, later on, you gonna fess up  

[SwampDonkey]

That just doesn't look parallel to me, from this distance. 

  NOW, if it DOES split, later on, you gonna fess up  

Your looking at the wrong angle, tilt the telescope a little to one side.

Well, if it checks, that don't count.

And if it does, I'll just replace it with a new one..... In 10 or 20 years when the sled is warn out anyway.

Besides straight grain doesn't mean it has to be quartered. It means no knots and defects or crazy figure going on. Laminated bending would be quartered though, but your growth rings go across the width of the strips when you sandwich them. I've cut thin strips like that on the table saw and I can bend 1/16" ash at a multitude of angles without steaming.

[beenthere]

I'm with FDH on the cathedrals (that crazy figure, if you will).   

That was my question ( concern) with the grain (annual ring run-out) that shows in the first one shown too. But if you can get by without failure, even though it is weaker than straight grain, that is great. No complaints here. 

Good on the steam bending technique.