Turning a Bentwood Urn

[George Golesic]

Good Day everyone. I was reading a back issue of Woodturning Design (Spring 2010) and found an interesting article by Jim Vogel on turning a bentwood urn. The design and bent wood legs for support were quite amazing. I would like to turn some of these but have been unable to find any articles on how to turn the urns or espeacially on how to make the bent wood supports for the urns. If any one has any input would appreciate it.

Thanks
George Golesic
Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Canada

 

[john lucas]

turning urns is just a matter of making a hollow vessel. You can find info on sizes needed if you do a google search on turning urns. The curved legs are easy. Turn them. Then soak them in water. Wrap them in a wet wash rag and put them in the microwave for about 30 seconds. then bend them around a form to a little bit smaller than the arc you need. Let them dry overnight. They will spring back slightly but should stay in that shape. oops forgot to mention that you need to use straight grain wood. I rive the wood which is split it with the grain so the grain runs continuously from end to end. If the grain runs out the side it will break when you bend it.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

are woods with more sap better for bending ????? such as pine, spruce, etc........

 

[hockenbery]

are woods with more sap better for bending ????? such as pine, spruce, etc........

Charlie, I don't think the softwoods bend well. Below is a list I copied from a bending article from wood web.
I have seen cherry bend well too. Seems like it should be on the list.

Stock Selection
The U.S. Forest Service has evaluated 25 hardwood species for relative bending quality. In their testing, the best 17 woods were:

Hackberry (Best)
White Oak
Red oak
Chestnut oak
Magnolia
Pecan
Black walnut
Hickory
Beech
Elm
Willow
Birch
Ash
Sweetgum
Soft maple
Yellow-poplar
Hard maple (Worst)

 

[john lucas]

It depends. I just bent a whole bunch of pine scraps from 2x4's without a single problem. I'm making some flowers with leaves and grasses and going to color them so needed a light wood. It really depends on how much your going to bend them. I think most any wood with straight grain will bend a moderate arc like you might use to support an urn. If you want to bend a tighter circle then it gets really interesting. I have the most experience with Cherry and it bends quite will if you boil it first before using the microwave. Of course you can steam wood and even bend it over a heated rod. I'm still experimenting with the heated rod trick. The use that for veneers for guitar sides.

 

[Jerry Bailey]

the last cabinet shop I worked at, we bent lots of woods
if you're going to be bending often, then making a steam bender box might be best ( all material/components for less than $100)
well worth the investment if this isn't a one-time project.
remember, the harder the wood, the more it will spring back when releasing from your mold,
and you must bend larger (or tighter radius) and adjust for that as John says .....
softer woods will only spring back a minor amount so not needing as much a tighter radius when forming.
after you do a few pieces, you'll know how much extra to give any certain species to retain the actual shape you want.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Would you want to start with wood that is green or at least not kiln dried?

 

[Jerry Bailey]

as a cabinet/furniture maker I have only used kiln dried woods
Green wood would need less steam to bend than kiln dried as it has all it's moisture still, but then you have the drying issue with green wood
bending kiln dried wood, once dried, there'll be no more movement like you have with green wood while it completely dries.........

I think personally, you'd want to use the kiln dried woods if wanting to get pieces finished sooner or time was a factor.
If time not an issue, green woods would bend easier with less steam,
but take longer to dry to take out of "mold" else you'd get more "spring back", and possibly twisting/warping of the shape

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Alternate to bending

You could laminate to a form in thin strips. Would have to shape after glue up dries. This might be a easier procedure since only very little spring back. There are several ways to shape from sanding to routers to spokeshaves. The glue choices are limited so that you will not get movement in the joint.

 

[Bill Boehme]

You could laminate to a form in thin strips. ....

I remember doing that once and it worked great. I cut laminations of white oak slightly less than 1/16 inch thick, glued up five layers to give me a 1/4 inch thick curved form. There was an article, I believe in FWW on that topic and how to estimate spring back -- it turned out to be almost nil with the thin laminations. The lesson that I learned is that there is no such thing as too many clamps.

 

[George Golesic]

Thanks for all the input on the bent wood supports for the urns. turning the actual urn is not a problem. I have little experience with steam bending. I will try making a jig for the leg supports and steam bending the actual legs and experiment with the amount of curve that I get. Yes I will remember to have lots of clamps on hand.

 

[frank p lench]

George

Go a site named pure timber.com and look up galleries and sample pack.

You will see some familiar names and work in the gallery.

This wood really bends easy and you can get different species.

Good Luck

Frank Lench
Eagle ID

 

[Jerry Bailey]

that's a pretty cool product, wished we had something available like that when I worked cabinets ....
steaming & laminating are both PITA's
this looks like it works like a dream........