Bent Wood Lamination

Lamination is different than veneering.

Bent wood lamination.

The process starts with ripping some thin strips of wood and applying glue to each strip. Lamination is the process of bending many thin parts together and holding them in the desired shape until the glue between them dries. If your radii is tight you can use 1 16 wisa italian bending plywood. Using clamps or a vacuum press and we will look at both methods.

Bent lamination just introduces the element of curving the laminate. So the first order of business is to build the form followed by cutting the wood into lamination strips. These sheets come in 4 x 8. Just a saw some wood some glue and a few time tested techniques.

There are two basic ways to clamp the parts while the glue dries. In veneering the layers are oriented in an alternating fashion while in laminating the layers are oriented in the same direction. Once dry the resulting part will pretty much hold its shape forever. Max thickness of laminates veneers is 3mm.

It s messy but rewarding to see a gracefully bent piece of wood emerge from a glue encrusted form. After using an oscillating sander to clean up the inner curves and a disc sander to clean the outer curves trace your shape to another mdf board using your sanded shape and then rough cut the same shape only this time leave at least 1 16 of an inch between your cut and your pencil line. Actually there s no magic required. Steps in laminating wood.

When used as a structural element such as a table leg they are actually stronger than if the piece were cut from a single block of wood. Once the glue dries the workpiece will hold it s new shape. Bent lamination is a process of bending thin strips of wood using lots of glue and lots of clamps. Woodworkers use bent wood laminations for everything from chair rockers to drawer handles.

What you need to use for bent wood lamination is 1 8 bending poplar plywood that comes in either long or short grain. Bent laminations do more than give your project a graceful look. With glue between each lamination a press is used to bend the bundle of laminations around a form. When making small curves it is best to laminate several many layers using thin strips of wood called veneers no steaming is required for small bends.