Steam

I always wanted to try out steam-bending in one of my next furniture projects, but somehow I haven't come up yet with a really compelling design idea.And, probably less of an excuse - I was always a bit afraid of trying it out. Turned out: steam-bending wood is much easier than I thought.

In particular with the Melonseed frames, the maximum bend radius of the frames did not require supporting the bend with some bending iron. This is normally required to make sure the fibres are compressed on the inside of the radius  as opposed to overstretched on the outside (which usually leads to breaking).

First frames bent and clamped in place

With a smaller radius, this kind of "guiding" iron or spring steel is a must - I will see later with the knees supporting the carlines how this will work out.

Bottom end of the frames goes into the notches

So here is the steambox - just a box of made out of spruce and a 30 EURO wallpaper-remover from Amazon. Wallpaper-remover works like this: water in, plug into socket, steam comes out after 15 minutes.

a glimpse into the inside - maybe next time I place some potatoes as well...