Wow, that's really great to hear! I'm glad it helped, and it's inspiring to know that age is not a factor in learning.

That's a good idea, especially if you will have a long steam session. You may still need to add more water, but it will cut down the amount needed.

If it's just short... Can you just... boil it? Sorry, I don't know what the difference would be if wood was boiled or steamed.

Factory production, where speed and volume are important, requires a different approach. They use various methods, including strap compression, male and female molds, and steel forms in combination with either soaking, steam, or heated forms.

You can still buy new metal gas cans, although you may need to remove or alter the safety pour device that comes with them. Really any metal pot or can will be fine. You could even use the big pot that comes with turkey fryers if you modify the lid to accept a pipe and to stay in place when the water is boiling. Fill the can up fairly high and keep adding water slowly enough that you don't slow the boiling. If you buy a used can, just allow any residual gas fumes to escape before you crank up that heat!

Thanks for getting back to me . That was fast.

I have seen kettles being used for steam generators, you just need to top them up frequently.

Yes

No, steam bending plywood would be a mistake. However, you are in luck. There is such thing as a bendable plywood, which goes by different names depending on the manufacturer. It comes in different species and thicknesses too. Find a good local lumberyard or specialty plywood retailer and they can order it for you.

+Peter Moritz If I understand you correctly you were hoping to take a one inch thick by one and a half inch wide strip of wood and bend it to a 12 inch radius? That's not going to happen. This technique might get you to that radius with a quarter inch or maybe a half inch thickness if you had a green, open pored wood like oak. The edges of the strips would still "pinch", though and not remain parallel to each other. Steam bending has it's limits! Some chairmaking requires bending of thicker wood, but not to that kind of radius. There are specialized manufacturing processes with bands or straps added to the heat process that can reach a tighter radius, but those require specialized machinery.

+Peter Moritz I think you accidentally responded to a previous comment, but I saw it. That video you reference illustrates my point. They are using a homemade version of the specialized machinery found in factory bending processes. It's pretty tricky to bend wood when you get into larger sizes. Don't let me stop you from trying! To maximize your chances, use green wood, use something like oak, and cook the living hell out of it! Bending it with a strap over a form helps control the bending and avoids breaks.

I presume the bow you are talking about is not on the edges of the boards but on the flat surface? You don't mention if the hickory was originally kiln dried or not, but I would guess that it was just air dried. When boards are left to dry naturally it's important to allow equal airflow on both sides of the board. Otherwise, one side can dry faster than the other and that's when you get the bow. The greener (wetter) the wood, the more likely this is to happen with unequal drying. The drier side will be the upper part of the bow or cupping and the wetter side will be the underneath part of the bow. There is an old trick to fix this issue. It works best on a dry, sunny day in the morning. Take the bowed board outside and place the dry (upper side of the bow) side down in wet grass, or on some damp towels. Leave the wetter (underneath part of the bow) facing upward toward the sun. This will force moisture into the dry side and it will dry out the wet side with the sun. The time needed will vary depending on humidity, temperature, etc. You will be amazed to see that the bowed board will often straighten itself out in as little as 30 minutes or sometimes a few hours. Another option is to use a truck bed or a low slope roof with damp towels underneath. I would try this method before a steam box and I think you might be rewarded.

PrimeEvol I have not tried cedar for steam bending, but there is some precedence for it in boatbuilding I think. Much will depend on how severe a radius you are looking to create. As a general rule thinner boards and slight bends will have better success than thicker wood in a tight radius. I would expect that cedar is more difficult to bend versus an open pored wood like oak. You may also find that red and white cedar take to bending differently. Steam bending is always a bit experimental, so I would highly suggest some practice on scraps before finalizing your design. If you have not built a steam box yet you may be able to experiment on some small cedar scraps using a pot of boiling water and a suspended colander on your kitchen stove before you commit to the larger project.

Naw, I wouldn't. It's just a utility box and it is going to leak water when the steam condenses. Any kind of finish isn't going to last and wouldn't buy you anything anyway. I'd be curious how your plywood holds up to the steam. I'm assuming you used an exterior grade plywood, but even that was never designed for steam. Have you used your box yet? Does it look like it will go for the long haul?

I used it for the first time today. It took a long time for the boards to get saturated, and even then they did not bend easily. I think my hose may be a bit too long. And I'm not sure about the plywood. I might get some 1X6 pine or deal, and make it from that.

+Seminole Tech Tube You know, it actually isn't very exciting to watch in action! Basically you've got an hour or much more of a box leaking steam out of a hole followed by 30 seconds of a frantic carpenter running a piece of hot wood from the box to a form. Here's some pictures from a past project, though: www.enduringcharm.com/gallery/clients/archdoor.html

+enduringcharm I teach engineering and manufacturing at a high school. Wood, due to cost is the best material to work with CNC, and hand/power tools. Now with a steam bender, we can model in SolidWorks better products with bending. My engineering 3 students will model and make your steam bender. Thanks for what you are doing.

+Seminole Tech Tube That's awesome--there is so little availability for hands-on work in K-12 schools anymore that generations of students are missing opportunities to develop a part of their brains and thought processes. It's really a tragedy. If you haven't already, pick up a copy of Matthew Crawford's book Shop Class As Soulcraft. You'll love it.

+enduringcharm will get it. Thanks

You mean steam bending pressure treated wood? Most pressure treated wood is southern yellow pine, which is then treated with a copper based solution. Pine can be steam bent, but it's not ideal. You need to have high moisture content in the pine (like, freshly cut wood) and you need to use metal bands to form and clamp the pine or else you risk breakage. It's just not high on the list of desirable woods for bending. What is more, the pine has been treated with copper. Heating that with steam is likely to release some of that treatment, some of which will leak down with the condensation, some of which may escape with the steam and potentially be toxic to you. After all that, the treatment will be compromised so your treated wood will no longer be as rot resistant as it was.

@@enduringcharm Thank You 👍

RKane I think the rule of thumb is an hour per inch of wood, but you really need to experiment. The relative "greenness" of the wood makes a huge difference, as does the species of wood. An open-pored oak board which has not been kiln dried and still has a lot of moisture in it will take far less time in the steam box than a closed pored wood that was kiln dried. In fact, kiln dried wood should be avoided if possible. The easiest wood to bend is fresh cut open-pored stock which will come out of the steam box almost like rubber!

makes sense thanks for the reply!

Kidding aside, the steam box does take a beating and it can leak steam if warping pulls apart the seams. It doesn't matter as long as enough steam remains trapped to do the work.

There are a lot of variables in how the wood behaves after steaming. Aside from the length of time in the steam box and the type of wood used, the age and the moisture content of the wood have a big effect. You can take three otherwise identical pieces of read oak, for example, with one being kiln dried, one being air dried over time, and one being relatively "green" or freshly cut. The green piece will far outperform the other two as far as pliability and will also take less time to do it. The kiln dried piece will be the most difficult to steam and may not work well at all.