Internet says one in N. London and one in Cornwall. Anyone know any others down south?

The leg is heavily stained and polished, so if it was a laminate/ply replacement that would be perfectly acceptable.

My dad has a very comfy, fairly expensive chair that can only be sat on if it’s leant against a wall.

Any hints/help gratefully received. Thanks!

Laminating ply is pretty easy to diy. Jigsaw a jig, build up a layers of 3mm ply and glue, clamp it all up for a bit. Sand and stain, job done.

Got a photo of said leg? I’ve made stuff from laminated ash sheets, thickness depending on how tight the bends are. Done carefully and with lots of clamps you can hide the joins between the plys.

I’ve done simpler repairs: clamp, glue, when set strengthen joints with these, cut, sand flush…

http://www.axminster.co.uk/miller-standard-dowels-ax816467

… step taper dowels, compatible drills needed.

We recently had a chair repaired (teenage son and friends managed to break it while been stupid alog with other things, and they paid for it too).

They had the leg cnc’d – wasn’t cheap but it’s a matching set.

Local to us, handy really 🙂

Real Upholsterer LTD
Address: The Green, St Boswells, Melrose TD6 0ET
Phone: 07570 003010

Dunno if cnc would be the way to go. It’s a sharp bend – t’d need lots of wood cut away and wouldn’t be very strong.

It’s a lot like these:

Where do you get laminated ash sheets, Mowgli?

without looking very close up i’d say that those legs are laminated ply thats been pressed over a form, more than likely birch.

in all honesty i think you would be better having a go yourself because although the pressing is’nt that hard, it would be a simple job with the kit i have that i use to make old fashioned surfboards, all the time would be taken making the form.

there’s a shed thread on here the other day, have a look how the guy makes the beams using a board and blocks. i’d go down that route with some wood glue and clamps. a 1/4 sheet of 4mm birch should be enough, maybe a tenner.

gav, I’ve just been researching exactly that! And Kayak’s shed thread made me think of asking on here for ideas. I think the steaming was an assumption of my Dad’s which I’m fairly sure is wrong.

I’ve found a place for birch ply, TiteBond3 looks to be a good glue, and I should be able to cobble together a mould out of bits of wood I’ve got in the shed.

Need to get to Dad’s for a leg to copy now.

That would be time consuming, hence expensive, so worth having a crack yourself.

Where are you Ned?

For glue I use cascamite. Easy to use, reasonable drying time and strong.

Will definitely be having a go myself. Steaming not worth the bother. I’m sure that gav’s right. No way it’s one thick piece steamed at theat angle. pretty sure you can see that laminates if you right click, open in another tab and enlarge.

I’m guildford area. Why, reuben? Have you got a wordworking shed? vacuum bags? 😀

nick – have you done lots of this sort of work yourself? would cascamite be your recommendation for this sort of thing?

Edit:

suitable for load bearing and laminating. Leaves a clear glue line and will not discolour hardwood, mould resistant. Tack time 1-2 hours cure time 6 hours (temperature dependent)…

I want all of those things! Thanks for the tip!

I got all my wood from Robbins in Bristol. I wonder if 4mm might be a bit thick? That’s quite a tight bend. You could steam the 4mm and it’d be OK, otherwise I’d go for 2mm. I’ve cobbled together a steamer from some drain pipe and a camping stove before.

I made a steam chest last week as it happens. Steamed some ash and had fun twisting it 180 degrees along its length as a demo to our 2nd year furniture students.

Those legs are laminated however.
Laminating is straightforward in theory but you need to be able to get good clamping pressure not just around the bend itself, but also along the flat sections, else it’ll have voids and be weak.

The hardest part is making the former(mould) and without a decent former that’s consistently flat on its surface, you’ll again get low pressure voids and have a weak laminate.

For a simple bend like that, you may even be able to use two lengths of 4×2 with a curved block glued in the corner to take it around the 90 degrees (If it’s 90 degrees obvs) using ratchet straps and g-clamps.

This video explains it pretty well.

[video]http://youtu.be/TXAeLwJ8fcw[/video]

If you get stuck, I could do it for you I’m sure.

Cascamite is good for veneering and laminating as it sets very rigid.

would cascamite be your recommendation for this sort of thing?

Cascamite is a bit of a favourite of people who are a bit more time-served but its a skill to learn to use it and you’re already on a learning curve with all the other aspects of what your making. Titebond will work well enough and is ready to use, easy to apply and quick drying. It also sands well and takes paint / stain. IIRC TB 3 is for external applications so if you can get a better price on regular Titebond just buy that.

Something you’re trying to account for when you’re making a jig for steam bending or laminating is the degree to which the wood will spring back when released – so if you wanted to make a 90deg bend your jig would have to bend the wood a little further in the jig – how much is down to experience. A jig scribed from an existing component won’t result in a bend that matches.

That makes replicating a bend in an existing bit of furniture pretty tricky. But if you’re making a jig anyway then you might as well replace all the legs rather than one – that way all the legs will be matching shapes and will also matching finishes.

2nd the casamite. Really good glue, a bit more of a faf but solid. Never tried the TB3 but I am sure it would be fine too.

Springback isn’t such an issue or unknown quantity with laminates though as it is with steam-bending. You may get a little but it’s generally pretty faithful to your former as long as it’s clamped effectively.

As already said, cascamite is old school stuff.

Get titebond but you don’t need three, just buy the regular red cap.

Watch the temp when you do it though as it does not like cold. I won’t use it less that 10c and even then only in an emergency. 12c plus is safe.

Also thinking it through I reckon the comment that 4mm is maybe to thick for that bend is right, go thinner or even look at bending ply.

Thanks so much gav, kayak, mac and brick.

Looks like 3mm birch ply is pretty easy to come by, as are places that cut it to size – good for me, as I’m short of a bandsaw. He’s said he’s not fussed about an exact match, and I’m certainly not going to volunteer to do another 4!

cheers for the video link, looks like I’ll be needing a few of these to supplement the g-clamps I’ve got:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/irwin-quick-grip-6-mini-one-handed-bar-clamp/29139

glues: Sounds like I can just pick the one that’s cheapest/easiest to get hold of.

3mm ply will probably be 3 sheets of 1mm bonded together. It’ll be pretty stiff, and I doubt it’ll bend enough without splitting. Have a feel of it before you pay for it.

And mowgli! sorry I missed you. 🙂

So I want to find some solid, unlaminated 3mm or 2 mm sheet?

just been a-googlin’.

Seems it’s all ply. I guess unlaminated sheet is pretty fragile stuff.

2mm ply it is, then. Cheers again.

Aeroply is the best for bendin’ but not cheap and not particularly readily available.

and not particularly readily available

I see what you mean, google’s not giving up the goods on aeroply.

Reckon the 2mm would be OK, kayak, or would 1.5mm be a safer bet?

Its not so much the thickness as to whether it’ll bend. Aeroply is designed to bend, whereas many other plys are designed to be flat, although strangely, finding a sheet of flat ply in a builders merchants is nigh on impossible 😀

You also have bendy/flexi ply, which as the name suggests is designed to bend. It’s normally about 5mm thick I think but it has a relatively ‘open’ sort of structure which I’m not convinced would make it that strong.

You also have constructional veneer which is what we use a lot for laminating. It’s basically veneer(solid wood but mega thin), but thicker. Standard veneer is about 0.6mm thick whereas constructional is about 1-2mm I think.

Wood veneer Hub Constructional veneer

I’m with you now. Thanks for the link. They do 1.5mm and 2.5mm.

If it’s a bit stiff, I reckon I could knock up some sort of steam bag: camping stove on the garage floor, bin bag hung above (safe distance, obvs) with the strips inside, slits for either end so I’m only steaming the bends, half an hour (???) in there, into the mould without glue, leave overnight, out, glue and back in.

??

If you can steam them then all good. You can boil too if that’s any easier. They’re relatively short sections you need right?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpWJyHZbk38[/video]

You may not need to steam them anyway. Constructional veneer will usually bend fairly well.