Cutting a curved brace

[<stevehus]

I am in the planning stages of a project that will require 2 curved braces approximately 3 feet long. The material is 5/4 red oak. I can cut the braces out of an 8" wide board but the center line of the board will run through the inside of the arc. I don't have a lot of experience at this but something tells me that this will weaken the piece quite a bit. This is mostly decorative so it won't bear a lot of weight; maybe 100 pounds at most. I just don't want the brace to split. I would rather not use a wider board... this stuff is already too expensive. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Steve H.

[Scott Cramer]

On 15 Oct 2003, spake unto rec.woodworking:

If the board is 3' long and 8" wide, and the center line of the board will run through the inside of the arc, then you are cutting an arc considerably less than a quarter circle, yes? I don't think you need to worry about splitting across short grain, if the arc is that short.

[<stevehus]

It will be pretty close to a quarter circle.

Steve

considerably

[Michael Daly]

What's the cross section dimension of the brace? 5/4 x 3' x ???. If it's not too deep, use quarter sawn and steam bend it. With a roughly two foot radius (3' is quarter circle), it shouldn't be a tough bend to do. This would likely be the strongest solution.

Mike

[Bay Area Dave]

what about a glue-up of narrow pieces, Michael?

dave

Michael Daly wrote:

[Michael Daly]

That'll do, but for the lines from laminating. If they are not a problem, it'd work fine. Thin oak will bend easily when cold for the dimensions in questions. Just make sure there's no significant grain runout. This would also be better if the dimensions are big - 5/4 x 3' x , say, 3".

Mike