Post #790767 by Commodore on Sun, Oct 28, 2018 5:43 AM

Some additional notes here - all the hardwood were then cut on the tablesaw to about 1 1/2 and 2" strips depending on which beam they would apply to.

Heating the wood up took a number of tries to get right - I threw one home made contraption out and went to Rockler and got a proper steam producer made for such a thing (its in the top of the photo with the hot pots)... as awesome as that was I found it wasn't enough so went and bought three $15 hot pots and with some duct tape and hose we were able to produce quite a LOT of steam and heat. Its hard to steam up that many 14' long sections at once and so had to make sure all of the pieces were spaced out properly inside the bag. Ideally want the wood to get up to 212F for an hour for each inch of thickness on the wood. (The goal is to melt the sap or glue inside the wood - so when it bends and dries it will hold the bend shape - tricky for sure) The thermometer shows 195 or so - but thats as high as it went so I'm pretty sure I got the wood to 200+ and it became very pliable. Tricky setting the forms up, but it worked (finally) and after some mildly burnt fingers the end result as you'll see is awesome (IMHO).

Mahalo!