Learning How To Bend Wood Using A Steam Cleaner | Woodworking

Learning How To Bend Wood Using A Steam Cleaner | Woodworking

I’m trying my hand at bending timber for the #rocklerbentwoodchallenge
Turns out steam bending wood is a lot trickier than I had originally thought!

Great article for bending Australian timber: https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/390293/The-Bending-of-Timber.pdf

I took a lot of inspiration from Mike’s video: https://youtu.be/-7X0XgMziBM

My official website: http://www.robinlewismakes.com/
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/RobinLewisMakes

Thanks for watching

#steambending #woodwork #robinlewis

50 Comments

  1. george.m on February 23, 2022 at 10:43 pm

    I tried doing this: now I’ve injured myself



  2. Miguel Rivera on February 23, 2022 at 10:44 pm

    I love that you showed the FULL learning experience. Enjoyed the vid for sure! Subscribed! 😎



  3. عمر العنزي on February 23, 2022 at 10:45 pm

    أحسنت يابطل



  4. AngelicusImmortus on February 23, 2022 at 10:47 pm

    Just think, boats were made by steam bending wood for centuries and with massive sections of wood. Makes you wonder how they pulled it off when they didn’t have clamps etc, they often had to nail pieces in together really fast!



  5. Scorpiog 946 on February 23, 2022 at 10:48 pm

    Hi god bless



  6. The Reckless Boy T.R.B on February 23, 2022 at 10:49 pm

    If you had gotten quick clamps you would had more then enough time to bed it



  7. Alper Can Çelik on February 23, 2022 at 10:49 pm

    Thanks a lot



  8. Landon Brown on February 23, 2022 at 10:50 pm

    Would it be a bad idea to try and use water? Or does that completely ruin the wood



  9. I Am on February 23, 2022 at 10:51 pm

    Would soaking the timber in water help?



  10. Alex Viol on February 23, 2022 at 10:56 pm

    3:42 Rip the people who actually thought he was sure about what he was doing and followed it like a tutorial.



  11. Zach McDermott on February 23, 2022 at 10:57 pm

    So don’t bother. Got it



  12. Ray on February 23, 2022 at 10:58 pm

    I just watched a man bend wood…. I’m not mad about it tho



  13. jon yoda on February 23, 2022 at 11:01 pm

    Just soak the wood in cold water until saturated then clamp it up one side ,then, with a propane blowlamp heat up the bend and gently pull it to shape. The water boils in the wood and it goes to putty .easy quick and cheap .



  14. Sean Adshade on February 23, 2022 at 11:02 pm

    I know a south african accent when I hear one!! This is the first woodworking channel I’ve seen made by a native of SA



  15. Suresh Vhatkar on February 23, 2022 at 11:04 pm

    So kind



  16. Anne Guillen on February 23, 2022 at 11:04 pm

    Dude this was awesome – thank you so much!



  17. Joe on February 23, 2022 at 11:08 pm

    You might want to try getting the bending done within 30 sec. of extracting it from the steamer, good luck!



  18. Wood Be on February 23, 2022 at 11:10 pm

    nice work mate. In my opinion that steam box you build is absorving a lot os steam instead you pieces. tri to cover the interior with some plastic or some varnish.Encrease the time steam a little bit more. 🙂



  19. Donavon Euton on February 23, 2022 at 11:11 pm

    Use fire to boil water and create steam well it may get to sayed certain temperatures. I seen this done once before on someone’s else’s youtube.



  20. Philip Ripper on February 23, 2022 at 11:12 pm

    It’s been years now! I think you underestimated how long you should steam it, but even more so, you underestimated how severe your curve was. Some lignan doesn’t begin to melt until ~175c so it can take a bit more heat too. The steam will keep it from burning up to about 160c without too much going on. If you change the atmosphere you can go way higher but of course that’s a gigantic pain in the butt outside the scope of most individuals, even extremely dedicated ones. Most old fashioned wood bending used full forms to accomplish the bend — so you’d have two pieces of form in the final shape you wanted, they’d be spread apart so the unbent wood would fit, then you’d turn a press to push them together. But the acuteness of angle is super tight here! At least it looked like it. I think most people get around the difficulty by using extremely thin wood, but it’s still not that forgiving, as you saw.

    How is it going now, years later? Any new insights or experiences?



  21. Guevie Moncor on February 23, 2022 at 11:12 pm

    It’s just too dry… that’s it… I wonder why you miss this.



  22. John Fortune on February 23, 2022 at 11:12 pm

    Soaking the wood in water beforehand is the key. Getting moisture in to the centre of the wood by soaking it will help the steam transfer the heat to the inside, separating the internal fibres. Dry wood won’t transfer the heat inwards. (Hence wood burns).
    I soaked half-inch oak strips for a week and, using the ‘one-hour-per-inch-thick’ rule, they bent like toffee after 30 mins of steam.



  23. Scrubby Cubby on February 23, 2022 at 11:13 pm

    YOUR INVENTION IS EXACTLY WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR TO BEND MY BOW AND ARROW THANK YOU SIR!!



  24. Randy Brown on February 23, 2022 at 11:15 pm

    The thicker the wood the longer you have to steam you may have to steam that wood for at least 4 hours



  25. Emily Stow on February 23, 2022 at 11:17 pm

    Thank you so much for posting! I just bought a steam cleaner for my mattress and coincidentally always had dreams of building my own dinghy. This video’s a huge help when I’m ready to build.



  26. Tazz on February 23, 2022 at 11:17 pm

    you are not teaching anything in this video, you yourself are learning.



  27. Stewart Carberry on February 23, 2022 at 11:18 pm

    SAFETY NOTE!!! DO NOT MAKE YOUR BOX AIRTIGHT! FURTHER, be aware that saw dust can block your vent holes, if your box is air tight, as the steam cools it will expand greatly and can tear the best build boxes catastrophically apart!!!



  28. Marinos g on February 23, 2022 at 11:19 pm

    Hi there… for a 3mm thick wood, you don’t need a steam cabin… just use water and iron and the job is done!



  29. CRAIG BERUBE on February 23, 2022 at 11:19 pm

    Lights on drill press are awesome



  30. Dragonax on February 23, 2022 at 11:20 pm

    I found this video because I saw a guy boiling wood to make bow



  31. John Helton on February 23, 2022 at 11:21 pm


  32. AH K9 on February 23, 2022 at 11:22 pm

    How long should I steam a wood untill I can bend it?



  33. Jay Lackovic on February 23, 2022 at 11:25 pm

    The edge banding you’re using is far too thick. You would have better success with it being thinner.



  34. Shoukat Ali on February 23, 2022 at 11:26 pm

    Hi please make Birds Horus wood



  35. M Yusuf Rafli on February 23, 2022 at 11:26 pm

    great’s job Robin dan good luck brother.



  36. Ta Panta Ola on February 23, 2022 at 11:27 pm

    The easiest way to curve wood (or to have the illusion that we have curved it) is to cut the wood into very thin slices (one millimeter), put them in the mold we want and put glue on all the pieces. Of course we have more wastage in wood



  37. Brallant P. on February 23, 2022 at 11:28 pm

    Why not bend it in that temperature



  38. Michael Mantell on February 23, 2022 at 11:30 pm

    I was watching a video and they would steam the wood for 2-3hrs. I would try steaming the wood for longer to make it more pliable. Think of it as dried pasta. The more you boil it, the more pliable it becomes.



  39. Dennis Sorensen on February 23, 2022 at 11:30 pm

    Might it help you to steam the wood where you want it to bend – while you bend it? ☺️ Boiling water might also help you.



  40. Ghani's Era on February 23, 2022 at 11:31 pm

    He look exactly like Travis Fimmel (but without hair)



  41. Olaf Beyers on February 23, 2022 at 11:31 pm

    Are you South African? I’m asking cause of the accent



  42. Wong William on February 23, 2022 at 11:32 pm

    You know what, you should deep the wood in the water for over night l, good to be hot water, then go for steam, why ?
    You need to soften the wood by water penetrate to center of the wood.



  43. Aleen Manjith on February 23, 2022 at 11:33 pm

    really love the fact u dont give up!…



  44. Istis Valamilyen on February 23, 2022 at 11:34 pm

    Soak in water the wood and then put it in to the steam! You can see that despite it was in the steam it too dry to bend. Soak!



  45. Drew R on February 23, 2022 at 11:34 pm

    I did wood bending in wood shop class (high school). Built a cutting board with maybe 4 different types of wood and 12+ pieces in total (they were pressed into waves). The problem you are having is that you’re trying to bend too quickly. If I recall, would soak the wood and then insert into press with a little pressure. Next day, would re-soak and do it again. After a few days had a really nice waves throughout. This process might not be the fastest or most efficient but it worked.



  46. Graham Tunnadine on February 23, 2022 at 11:35 pm

    I am trying to straighten a warped beam profile on a 1950 teak sofa. It has been in (damp) storage for years. It distorts about 5 cm over the 150cm length and is a cross section about 8cm cx 5cm.
    Can I use steaming on this thickness to straighten this out, Or should I first soak it in a bath of water? or something else?



  47. Michael Bedell on February 23, 2022 at 11:37 pm

    Although I knew this was beyond me, kiddos still for the perseverance.



  48. 77Avadon77 on February 23, 2022 at 11:39 pm

    Lmao fail



  49. Jon Matthews on February 23, 2022 at 11:40 pm

    Don’t bother wathcing "How NOT to bend wood but break it".



  50. Sadrakh Genji on February 23, 2022 at 11:40 pm

    Video nya sangat bermanfaat dan keren.