To laminate or not there’s the question

[mtt.tr]

I wish i had taken pictures of the work we used to do, towards the end of my apprenticeship i was earning my crust in the workshop shame it never recovered after the recession.

Gets me emotional. Lol

 

[Shox Dr]

Best steam setup I’ve seen is a Boat builder in North America. He used continuous plastic bagging, the type used on heat sealing packages.

beauty of this method was the timber could be transferred to the boat while still in a hot atmosphere.

there’s a video on yt

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

This AC has a has a Beech frame. The straight parts are solid. But any curves are laminated.

Rear OS Wheel arch was damaged and poorly repaired.

We had to fix it.

1/8 thick seasoned beech strips were used to made the part.

The triple bend inner edge was made from 6mm steel bent to fit the under edge and welded to a decent size bit off steel.

The steamer was made from 6" steel pipe with 5" roof insulation, wrapped in blankets. The steam was supplied from the old daily steam cleaner. When that failed our Tea urn was adapted.

The outer edge was fabricated from sections of 5mm steel. ( we ran out of decent 6mm) Shaped to fit the final shape, with the old part acting as a guide.

The wood was steamed, we had 25% more than we needed. We didn't know the failure rate. Plus 5% test strips.

Steam was raised, until the pipe was a constant temp all it's length.

The strips added and left, until the test peace's bent with out failing.

A good tip, get all your clamps ready to go. Plus spares.

Then, lay up. Speed is important.
When you have you wood in, clamp up.
Walk away. Do not be tempted to tinker.

When dry, we left it a week.
Remove the strips. We had 8" over the length. Mark them up.

Then glue up and replace into the clamp. Add news paper under it as that will make removing it simpler.

Remove and fit.

Sounds simple.

First attempt.
Steam was not hot enough.
We had to mainly failures.

Second Attempt.

We didn't make it thick enough, we had thinning off the strips.
This only showed when we finished it to size. We later found out that it could of been used by cold gluing.
That's when we found out that news paper in the glue stage was a good idea.

Third Attempt.

All went to plan.

That part was fitted.

 

[RonA]

View attachment 224929

This AC has a has a Beech frame. The straight parts are solid. But any curves are laminated.

Rear OS Wheel arch was damaged and poorly repaired.

We had to fix it.

1/8 thick seasoned beech strips were used to made the part.

The triple bend inner edge was made from 6mm steel bent to fit the under edge and welded to a decent size bit off steel.

The steamer was made from 6" steel pipe with 5" roof insulation, wrapped in blankets. The steam was supplied from the old daily steam cleaner. When that failed our Tea urn was adapted.

The outer edge was fabricated from sections of 5mm steel. ( we ran out of decent 6mm) Shaped to fit the final shape, with the old part acting as a guide.

The wood was steamed, we had 25% more than we needed. We didn't know the failure rate. Plus 5% test strips.

Steam was raised, until the pipe was a constant temp all it's length.

The strips added and left, until the test peace's bent with out failing.

A good tip, get all your clamps ready to go. Plus spares.

Then, lay up. Speed is important.
When you have you wood in, clamp up.
Walk away. Do not be tempted to tinker.

When dry, we left it a week.
Remove the strips. We had 8" over the length. Mark them up.

Then glue up and replace into the clamp. Add news paper under it as that will make removing it simpler.

Remove and fit.

Sounds simple.

First attempt.
Steam was not hot enough.
We had to mainly failures.

Second Attempt.

We didn't make it thick enough, we had thinning off the strips.
This only showed when we finished it to size. We later found out that it could of been used by cold gluing.
That's when we found out that news paper in the glue stage was a good idea.

Third Attempt.

All went to plan.

That part was fitted.

Thanks for that info Yellow Ardwark just the sort of write up I was hoping for when I posted. Nice motor by the way.
Never cease to be pleasantly surprised by the breadth of knowledge available on this forum. Touch of serendipity when I came across, when doing a web search for something totally unrelated.
RonA