Curved wooden doors

[Theo]

How would you make something like this:

'solid oak curved kitchen dresser doors convex / height 1210 mm'

I've seen various techniques using kerf cutting, and things with (bendable) plywood, but wonder how this works with solid wood. Is this steam bending of the frame plus a thin wood inner, almost like veneer, that's flexible enough to be bent?

I'm curious as to how it can be done for kitchen door, which has to take a certain amount of abuse, so can't be too thin or too fragile. A kerf cut probably wouldn't take enough openings and closings, for example. And if you don't want a painted finish that limits the wood options (although could veneer on top of ply I suppose).

Wondering how feasible it is to make curved kitchen doors to a particular profile. A factory can presumably cast MDF or chipboard to a profile, but can you DIY if you don't want to have a frame+veneer door as above?

Theo

[John Rumm]

The top rail looks like it is steam bent with a bending form.

The joinery is done using a cope and stick "raised panel door" router bit set, similar to what I used here:

I would guess they cut the joinery before doing the bending.

The panel is probably 6mm thick - may also be steam bent or soaked. They may have bent the rails, then glued up to one stile. The panel may have been pre-bent, although you might get away using the curved rails to force it into shape if you can get it "floppy" enough to slide into the rebate and follow the curve. Once in, trim flush, and then fit the other rail.

[nothanks]

The top rail looks more like it's been made from a number of thin laminations that are glued together. My guess is that they made formers for the rail and panel and then used a vacuum press.

[John Rumm]

Yup you could be right - if so it looks like quite a high number of very thin laminations. It will make cutting the joinery harder since you won't be able to do that before bending. However on an industrial scale where you can opt for custom clamping and work holding that probably does not matter as much.

[nothanks]

The rail seems to have 13 laminations, and 1.5mm oak veneer seems to be easily available in a range of sizes. The stiles and the last section of the rails aren't curved so cutting the joint shouldn't be tricky. All that's needed is a simple carrier jig to support the rail as it goes past the cutter.

To the OP: from talking to a cabinet-making chum it seems that vacuum bagging is fairly straightforward; the bags are easily available and not much "suck" is needed because of all that atmosphere resting on our heads ;-) The former needs to be strong, but a few pieces of ply cut to the desired shape, fixed together and finished on a spindle sander, should do the job.

[fred]

Panel may be bendy ply

[Theo]

Looking at some other listings of the same item, it's not very clear to me exactly how the laminations go:

I think I can believe they might be there.

I suppose you could also fretsaw or CNC the curved pieces out of sheet veneer, glue them together and then sand down to the finished profile. Once you have the curved rails the rest is regular cabinetry.

Interesting, thanks. I hadn't come across that technique before.

Theo

[Theo]

Does that come in oak? It doesn't look like ply in the panel, although I suppose it could be veneered.

Theo

[Andrew]

Visit the Morgan factory in Malvern and you will see a 50-year-old jig being used to bend, glue and clamp wooden components.

[Murmansk]

It looks quite impressive and very good value at £75 if you ask me

[nothanks]

Look at the final photo in your first link and zoom-in on the top of the rail - the laminations are obvious. Here's one seller of oak veneer (the first offered by Google):

Look at the final photo in your first link and zoom-in on the top of the rail - the laminations are obvious.

[Vir Campestris]

Ah, probably more helpful that my pointing out that Mosquito aircraft from WW2 are made of wood with all sorts of curves.

Back in the 1970s some small sailing craft were made with what was colloquially called "tortured ply".

Andy

[Chris Bacon]

Glue it up from thin pieces.

[The Natural Philosopher]

you can *cut* a curved piece of wood out of a large enough starting point

[The Natural Philosopher]

It will be