I am trying to built a starting step for a stairway. I need to bend oak, or a suitable substrate to a 16" radius for the riser section. If something other than oak would handle that bend, then an oak veneer would be applied.
Thanks for any help you may offer!
Neil
Try using a "knee", a piece of oak that grew that shape. Some sawyers keep them around, as do some boatbuilders.
16" radius is a tight bend. If you're making anything thicker than a rowboat, you'll be wanting to laminate that, not bend it in one piece.I have used 3/4" riser stock by cutting the backside of the material with the table saw. Many relief cuts, about 1/8" apart leaving about 1/8" on the surface. It works ok, but the radius is not perfect (you have to feel the wood to know it though.) and you have to be very careful handling it or it will break. Look for straight grained material. Oak plywood is easier using the same technique. Either way you need relief cuts. I think the veneer would be the cleanest cover. Less worries about cutting the riser too short too(grumble, grumble)
M Hamlin
"Neil Woods" wrote in news:3M31b.285079$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.columbus.rr.com:
I did this for the bottom step of my stairs. I kerf cut 1/4" plywood to the radius and used contact cement to glue on a veneer of my wood (Brazilian cherry). It looks great. Just make sure that the veneer is thick enough to take a vacuum cleaner and thin enough to bend around the radius and get held in place with the contact cement/glue/epoxy/whatever. I ended up with a thicker veneer and had to add a trim piece that holds one end in place becuase the cement wasn't strong enough.
Alternatively you can laminate on thinner sheets of wood an put the veneer over that (to avoid the kerf cut), though it isn't clear that method would take less time or yield a better result.
-Matt
I have kerfed the back of maple for a similar application and had good results. The problem with oak is that it tends to kink where the board may have a cup. . This will happen when one of the kerf cuts is deeper or shallower because of the cup. It, the oak, is also more brittle and seems to crack more easily than the maple
We have considered using plywood (3/4" oak), but the total length of the riser is longer than 8'. We can get oak veneer 10' long to apply to a pine board. The problem we fear is that the pine may "move" too much and the veneer will work loose or buckle in some fashion.
I may be all wet about the movement of the softwood substrate though....
Oak plywood would actually work great, but again, there are no 10' sheets available in our area.
OH well, if this were an easy problem, I wouldn't have to ask the experts in this newsgroup.
Neil
If you build a backing frame you can face it with wiggle wood. It is
1/8" or 1/4" ply that is laminated with all the grain running in the same direction. Rather than being stiff by opposing grain directions the stuff is like a wet noodle. Then you can face it with a veneer. It comes with the loose direction in the 4ft or 8ft direction.Lets say you are building a 6" riser. I would bandsaw three pieces of your favorite 3/4 ply at a 15 1'4" radius (I would use baltic birch but MDF will work also and is much easier to sand out). Then put some
1 7/8" tall ribs between the pieces to make a 6" tall sandwich. Then wrap the front with6 layers or 1/8" wiggle wood. You could probably tack the wiggle wood to the radiused pieces but be sure to fill and sand any indentations. The proper method would be to build a negeative radiused piece to match the outside diameter so you could clamp and glue it. Then veneer it. You should also clamp and glue the veneer veneer but if you use contact cement and a good roller, you should be fine.BW
I'm confused by this whole thread... Staircases have some tricky radiused curvy bent thing at the bottom? Why?
Gives easier access from the side.
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