BAWA President Frank Ramsay called the meeting order at 7 PM. Jamie Buxton gave short introduction of the 2x4 contest and pointed out the entries on the back table. Members voted on the winners in several different categories at the end of the meeting. Per Madsen introduced the first speaker, Don Naples, who gave a talk on steam bending of wood.

Steam Bending

Don started out by pointing out that the structure of wood is like a bunch of parallel straws, tracheids, bound together by glue, lignin. To bend wood you need to loosen the adhesive bond of the lignin to the tracheids, which is done both by the heat and moisture of the steam. Green wood is the easiest to bend, air-dried the next easiest and kiln dried the hardest. I n the case of kiln dried wood it is helpful to soak the wood in water for three days before steaming so that some moisture is re-introduced into the wood beforehand. As an alternative to steam bending one can use commercial plywood called wiggle board (Italian bending poplar) that comes in thin sheets, which can be easily bent and then laminated together and veneered to create larger structures.

He then described the steps necessary to make a steam box, which can be made of exterior plywood or PVC pipe large enough to hold the wood to be bent. It should be air tight except for a single steam vent. The steam source he showed was a modified gasoline container heated by a propane burner (160,000) Btu and connected to the steam box by a radiator hose. The steam box is arranged so that the condensate is channeled back into the steam generator to be reheated and re-used. This is necessary, as the steam generator cannot be re-filled during the steaming process, as this would interrupt the flow of steam. Don pointed out that when wood is bent, the outside of the bend is stretched and the inside is compressed. The compressive stress on the inside causes the wood to crack. Cutting kerfs on the inside of the curve can alleviate this. More kerfs are better, since with too few kerfs, the outside of the curve takes on a faceted appearance.

Following this, he described the steps involved in steam bending. The first is to make a form strong enough to withstand the stress of the bending process and design the curvature to be about 10% sharper than desired as there will be some springback after the bent workpiece is removed from the drying jig. For timing purposes, the steam penetrates the wood at a rate of 1 inch of thickness per hour. For multiple pieces it is useful to have a drying jig as well as a bending jig as it takes only ½ hour before the piece can be removed from the bending jig, but it still needs to dry slowly for 1-2 weeks in a tent with a small fan to avoid splitting and checking. For clamping the wood during bending and drying, Don suggested cauls made of sheet metal banding attached to wood blocks which are fastened to the workpiece using wedges. In addition, regular clamps are used along the length of the bend to clamp the workpiece tightly to the bending jig.

Don them described the construction of the frame and panel walled staircase in his home 12 years ago using steam bending to make mahogany rails, stiles, and panels for a curved staircase and banister. The rails were not a simple curve but had a helical shape. The panels were also bent and not rectangular. All the shaping of the moldings was done while the rails and stiles and panels were flat and they were bent afterwards. The finish was a shellac sealer followed by spar varnish. Don said that the staircase still looks very good and has not visibly distorted in the intervening years. He would not hazard a guess on the number of man-hours involved in this impressive project but he said it was very enjoyable.

2 X 4 CONTEST

Next, the entries in the 2x4 contest were introduced by their fabricators. The members voted on the category winners at the end of the meeting, but the results will be included here for clarity.

Claude Godcharles- an 8 foot long, 2x4 box with piano hinge and latch to hold his 2 Pinnacle straightedges-winner for most original and most useful

Ed Marinaro-a chair with laminated bent legs and a woven seat-winner for most intricate

Mike Cooper- a plant stand- winner in open category

Frank Ramsay-an end table with curved legs and inset top

Arnie Champagne-a model for the kiosk at the Colma Train Station-winner for most puzzling

Frank Taylor-a propeller driven fighter plane and a Star Wars X-wing fighter-winner in most wacky

Jamie Buxton- a three legged stool with inset seat-winner of most beautiful category

John Wilson-cherry drawer for cabinet in his garage-winner in open category

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Don Naples announced he would be giving a sharpening class at the Japan Woodworker on Saturday, 6/19, from 9-1 at a cost of $10.

Tony Fanning has been contacted by Gene Doucette, who is donating a set of jigs, fixtures, and plans for building several different sizes of hobbyhorses. Harold will be asked if he would like to use them at the toy workshop. Gene also has wood to give away, which will be announced in the classified ads in this issue.

Claude announced that Woodcraft is selling ambrosia maple and cherry.

Stan has pieces of black walnut to give away.

Per then gave a summary of the upcoming programs at our meetings for the rest of the year. This information is also available elsewhere in this newsletter.

The meeting was concluded with a tech talk by Max Hunter, President of Western Dovetail, which is a manufacturer of custom dovetailed drawers located at the former Mare Island Naval Base in a 24,000 square foot building. Max showed a cinema verite tour of the facility where he ran by the many machines so quickly there was barely enough time to describe the details. The shop can take custom designs of drawers in numbers from one up to many and build them with the customer's own wood or any wood specified, including FSC certified. The factory can take in raw boards and rip and plane them to exact dimensions. After sanding and cutting to length, the joinery is machined into the ends and the drawer is clamped and glued. The single clamping and gluing machine at the end of the line can handle 200 drawers a day, which is the maximum output of the factory. The lead time for a small job is one week. Max then showed a huge set of nested boxes, which form a 10-foot tall tower on radio command. When nobody at the meeting could guess how the raising mechanism worked, Max opened the box to show a belt drive. Max said that they have been switching to a UV cured water based finish to answer concerns about formaldehyde outgassing. Further information can be gotten from their website, www.drawer.com.

The meeting ended with Stan drawing some door prize numbers and many members remained until well after 9PM to discuss the stimulating presentations.