Wood bending, How it's done

[Terry, NJ]

Hey guys! I ran across this little tidbit on you tube today. This old guy does a pretty nice bending job with a pretty nice home made (Self fabricated) press, well worth the time!
Steam bending wood, 1 inch Ash By Engels coach shop
Terry

[Mickey]

I'm not seeing a link here.

[tbirdtbird]

knew a guy who hand built a 65' boat. Hand laid glass over hand-made wooden ribs and keel and such. It was amazing to see what he could do.

For bending, he had a long pipe about 6-8" diameter, propped up, low end sat over a fire, first couple of feet of pipe filled with water, high end had a canvas flap for access, and he would lay his ribs in there for a day, and they would bend like rubber

learned a lot from that guy

[Terry, NJ]

I often wanted to get into that line of work. Although I was never a boat builder, I did work in a marina and learned much about the properties of various kinds of wood. I'll bet I'm the only person on here who knows what a "Garboard Strake" is and how to fit one into a 18' Chris Craft Mahogany Speedboat.

[Captndan]

I know because I was at the Wooden Boat School in Maine

[BNCHIEF]

Thanks Terry good info.

[CarlLaFong]

I suppose someone should put up a link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=b9UPihp04xY
Another way to accomplish bends, like this, is bent wood laminating. It's something that the slightly above average woodworker can do at home as long as he has a band saw. Bending forms can be made from MDF and a steam box can be made from a hunk of pipe, a gutter downspout or what have you

[BNCHIEF]

I have done that in finishing model t ford bows

[Tony Hillyard]

What an interesting video. Thanks very much for posting. Tony

[dmdeaton]

I have a square wood box with a 5 gallon steel gas can and heater hose going up to the box. Use it all the time in boat building. Recently, my hobby has changed to the Model A. Although, my project has the most wood of the bunch, 4 door.

[BNCHIEF]

Those skills will serve you well my friend.

[Terry, NJ]

I am pretty much finished with woodwork in mine ( 30 Briggs, Town Sedan ) Some I made, some I bought! I made mostly body wood. I cut down an old Ash tree and hauled the logs to the sawmill. About $35 per log to rip and rough cut. At first I thought you can throw any old wood in there and it would be OK. Forget That! The stuff that's in there must be accurately reproduced. Use a vernier for dimensions (A scale isn't good enough) All my pieces that fit with the new commercial wood were a perfect fit. Some pieces were so badly rotted that I had to establish where the center was and work off of it. Fortunately, with a career as a Machinist, tool and diemaker, and finally model maker, this stuff came naturally. There are practically NO right angles on any of it and these angles are small, maybe 1, 2, 3, deg. and are easy to ignore. Pictures are in my profile under "My A". To anyone who may need patterns, I saved what I could and would be willing to share it, FREE, just pay the shipping.
Terry

[Ed H]

Thanks Terry good info.

This guy is amazing, always wanted to get into that part of wood working. Maybe I have build my new roof pieces.
Thanks Terry

[Ray Horton]

Here’s another method. I’m not recommending this, just sharing the info.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z0SsAyHKzc

[BNCHIEF]

My brother did my wood on my 1927 fordor T think about starting from scratch to build there bodies building the plants and tooling and craftmanship plus all the outside contractors that is the most fascinating thing about these cars.