Best Woods For Bent Lamination

If you ve ever glued two pieces of wood together face to face you ve essentially created a laminate.

Best woods for bent lamination.

Standard wood glue is not the best choice for bent laminations. I recommend unibond 800. Any wood will bend if it s cut thin enough. If gluing epoxy or other wise use 30 thinner stock if bending hardwoods compared to softwood counter parts with the exception of the really dense softwood such as syp.

Consider using a urea resin glue by the name of unibond 800 which. Among the commonly available hardwoods oak walnut mahogany and ash bend the best. Layers laminates and lamination we re all familiar with laminates. The gap filling properties of epoxy are of particular use when gluing bent lamination.

The more seams you have the less chance for springback. Ash oaks hickory and beech are the best for this method. Hardwoods usually bend better than softwoods but redwood yellow pine and cedar can be used in bending projects. What you need to use for bent wood lamination is 1 8 bending poplar plywood that comes in either long or short grain.

If your radii is tight you can use 1 16 wisa italian bending plywood. What is the best wood for steam bending. It s a urea formaldehyde glue with three shades of powdered catalyst to better match the wood you re using. While resorcinol has a type i rating a good choice for outdoor applications its color is very dark making it unsuitable for lighter woods like maple.

Epoxy is also a good choice for bent laminations but it costs almost twice as much as urea formaldehyde. Of these four glues urea resin and resorcinol achieve the most rigid glue line when cured. But some woods bend easier to tight curves without breaking. Steam bending usually works better with hardwoods as well.

David marks has a nice article on using urea formaldehyde glue. These sheets come in 4 x 8. The process is surprisingly simple and once you ve made your first bent lamination you ll want to include curves in all your future projects. Pva glues have a tendency to creep over time and wouldn t be my first choice for bent lamination.

Additionally a really green kiln dried softwood might also work to be steam bent. Are all good choices for bent laminations. What is the best wood for lamination bending. A couple of glues that seem to be good choices for bent lamination are pro glue unibond 800.