Fruits Of My Labor (A-113)

[ebb]

1/8" ply you have to bend, if bending is possible, WITH the face grains.

You may have to cut into the compressed side of the ply with your table saw. Like cut with the grain 1/16" in on the side that will be on the inside of the curve. The tighter the curve the more slices you must make. Like 1/2" spaced cuts.

If you are encapsulating, which I would heartily recommend, you will gain 90% of the plywood's strength back.

With tight curves you may still have to presoak the ply in boiling water to get it close to keeping bent.
Don't know about keeping its curve.

To keep the curve you may have to augment your jig.
Use mylar or seran wrap to separate the pipe form from the work. Epoxy the cut side
On your second or third try you might be adding strips of glass over the curve INSIDE. It would be a composite you are making.
All in an attempt to keep the wood from spring back.

Good luck.

Be easier with plain 1/16" veneers (Constantines). Ending inside with an added layer ie a piece of 10oz cloth.


You saw my cheat. I glued afro mahogany veneer right onto PVC pipe. Wish now I had used drain pipe rather than sched 20.
But the choice of diameters would have been limited.

For bigger curves you can get ready-made curves out of poplar - they come in quarters and halves. And the stuff is thick.
Poplar has the same rot resistance as birch, so it has to be totally isolated from reality.