Carpentry and Woodworking - Bending wood.

I want to bend 1/4" x 1" strips of hardwood to form a 18" diameter horseshoe. How can I steam the wood in order to do this?

I saw a tv show where they used a pvc pipe as a steam chamber for long strips of wood but I never saw how they got the steam inside the pipe.

Mark

Mark,
Just boil water in a container, cover it with something that traps the heat/steam and feed/vent it up into a pipe (pvc or whatever). Stick the wood down into it, and cover the upper end of the pipe to keep the steam in enough to soften your wood strips. Good Luck!

I agree with OldGuy up to a point, but one of the better technical articles on steam bending is in the wood handbook (U.S. Forestry Service). This link will allow you to search it http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/searchwh.htm the files are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader. Another source http://www.woodweb.com

The chamber: cap both ends (no glue) and drill holes at either end. One is a vent hole the other supply. Bore holes across the the pipe at 1/3 depth, and insert wood dowels to suspend the work on. Supply steam from a tea kettle or old pressure cooker and tubing. Charge the chamber then insert the work.

Thanks for the tips and links!

Mark