steam bending with a garment steamer? *LINK*

Re: steam bending with a garment steamer?

Kent in Emmaus, PA

>Mark, I use a 1,500 Watt electric kettle from Lee Valley. The garment steamer is identical in power, so it might work. The long, skinny hose could be a limitation - the LV kettle provides a straight shot into into the steam box through an approx. 1.5" pipe.

As for your SWBO concerns, I'll quote directly from the LV catalog: "it is useful (and promotes domestic peace) to have a dedicated electric kettle."

Hmm. We have one, don't have the other...

Mark in B'ham

>Is domestic peace worth 50 bucks? Heck, our marriage is pretty strong. I'm thinking I might play around with the garment steamer to see how I like bending wood. I haven't done any before. If I get into it, I might go for the dedicated steamer.

How about a wallpaper steamer?

Dan Donaldson

>They are not too expensive, and generate quite a bit of steam. (very hot ;-))

Re: steam bending with a garment steamer?

JL

>Volume is sometimes better than control. I use a pressure cooker and a radiator hose with a little propane stove burner. I like having enough steam.

I don't know if your unit will put out enough of a volume of steam to fill a reasonable sized chamber. Then again it may, if it goes through a gallon in 90 minutes. You can alway build a reasonable sized chamber a give it a shot. Just do it when SWMBO isn't around. It'd be nice not having to mess with a radiator hose ;).

Re: steam bending with a garment steamer?

Keith Newton

>I think it should be ok too. it sure seems like a good place to start. Unless you feel a lot of heat from the hose, and i would suspect that they insulated it for this use, I would not worry about the hose size. i am running 1/4" copper tubing from my pot to the chamber, and while I know that copper is a good conductor, I have it insulated well, and feel that I could probably use 1/8" as long as it is insulated enough. The steam can go through a small tube at a high velosity at no expense, so long as it is insulated.

Having said that, I will be changing to automotive heater hose, in the 1/2" size range, because something smaller and more flexible would be desirable. It will be insulated with foam pipe insualtion of course to conserve the heat.

if you can add water as you go, you should be able to do fine with this unit, and i don't know why she should mind, it would only be making steam, which is what it is meant ot do. if you can't add water along, you will be limited to 1 1/2" thickness

Before you start, be sure to get a copy of this and read it.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=31161&cat=1,45866,45867

I was bending some thick stock a while back, and felt I would be wasting BTU's if I steamed the whole length, so I made a box that I could shove the parts in one side and out the other, only steaming the part that was going to be bent. This had two advantages. first, I was not wasting energy heating up a large volume of wood that I wasn't planning to bend, but it also eliminated the tendency to get a reverse bend in the area outside of the main bend, which is supstantial as the parts start getting thicker.

Making a chamber like this is quick and dirty. I just stapled together a box about two feet long, then in the ends that the parts pass through I had holes for however many parts I need to bend, cut about 1/4" oversize both ways. I just shove the part through to the marks, then chink around the parts with strips of old T-shirt, shoved in with a puddy knife. I used several wraps of 1/8" packing foam to insulate the box.

If it leaks too much around the parts, I just shove in some more cloth. As I need to remove parts, I had wedge shaped blocks to shove in the openings on both ends as I would remove a part, unless I was going to insert another part to keep the ball rolling.

Thanks for the input *LINK*

Mark inb'ham

>I'll let you know if it works. But, it may be a while. This is just one of the "Hmmm... I wonder if this will work" things. I don't even have a project in mind that needs bent wood.

I saw that booklet on the LV web site and wondered about it, but I didn't notice that it was free online! I guess I just assumed that everything from LV costs something. Thanks for the recommendation, Keith.

Here is the link again so anyone who wants to can just click on over.


http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=3116