How to Build a Steam Bending Box

hey guys welcome back to the shop well this week's project is a steam box we're going to be building a simple steam box so we can do some wood bending here in the future I've got a couple of projects in mind that I want to do but they require wood bending now in order to kind of expedite my process so I can get to the bending more so than the building I'm going ahead and purchased a simple same bending kit from Rockler first thing I'm going to do is I've got two of my boards I'm going to set aside they're going to be my top in my bottom they are already seven the quarter inches wide focal length so they're done now I need to go ahead and rip down my sides and I'm going to rip them down to 5 and 3/4 and width and they're already cut down to their 4-foot links now that the two sides are cut to width I've got their laying side by side here because I'm making marks on them every 5 inches and I want the marks to be identical on both sides what we're going to do here is we got to drill some holes for some dowels and there's going to be dowels that extend from one side to the other that will help raise our strips of wood or whatever we're steaming off of the bottom of the box it will allow that steam to go all around those pieces of wood so what I basically did is I went started from one end off three inches and then made a mark and then from there every five inches with my fence set up on the drill press that'll ensure all my holes will be in line all I have to do is make sure that I land on the crosshairs all right now that I have one of the sides screw to the bottom I'm going to go ahead and set my other side in place and I'm going to determine a measurement I'm going to get a measurement for how long I need to cut my pieces of dowel stock down to when it comes to the dowels as I said I'm using 3/4 inch dowels and I am NOT going to be gluing them into the holes that are pre-drilled in both sides but all that heat steam and moisture that's being generated I want things to be able to expand and contract and be able to move freely so I'm definitely not going to glue these into place alright I've installed all the dowels into the side that I don't have screwed on yet and the biggest challenge of this box is going to be making sure all of the dowel holes line up and getting them into place at the same time alright that wasn't too bad now that I have everything pressed into place I can go ahead flip it over and screw the other side down now I'm going to make sure when I screw the other side down that everything is in line before I set the screws and then we'll get the top side on all right basically what I'm doing is I'm taking the clamps and kind of pressing the sides in until they're flush with the top and then I'm working my way down pre drilling and screwing these holes once I have all of them screwed together then I can flip it over in put the top on okay well here's the box with the side screwed on these Stiles is I said they're going to act as a riser so when I take my strips and I put them in this box they're going to lift them up off the bottom of the box so the steam can generate all the way around them and get good penetration and stuff so that's the only purpose for the dousing the clamps on the box all they're doing is they're just lining everything up and keeping everything in line while I pre-drill and screw since there is no glue there's no clamping required all they are just some extra hands for me all right guys so there is the box that's the basic construction now we need to go ahead and work on the back up front now the back in the front the back is where the steam hose is going to go into it's also where the condensation the water that builds up into the box where it's going to run out of so on that back panel we're going to drill a hole for that water to run out of and we're also going to drill a hole for the hose to fit into and all the fittings came with that kit now we're getting into the hardware part of the kit on the rear panel we need to go ahead and drill a 9/16 hole is what it recommends I'm using a 1/2 bid here because I want to be able to thread in the brass fitting and have a snug secure fit brass fitting needs to be installed before the rear panel is screwed to the back of the box alright so on the back side of the box where we just screwed the back into place on the bottom where the bottom meets the back panel we went ahead and drilled a small hole and I used a 7/32 drill bit for this to do it create like a condensation drip hole because the box is going to be built as an incline when we put the legs on it that water as the steam generates water and moisture and condensation and everything it will allow that condensation to run towards the back and drip out this little drip hole now as I said I used a 7/32 drill bit for this if I find that the hole is not quite big enough for the condensation to drip out everything I'll increase it but I didn't want to go too big to start with alright before we assemble the lid or put the lid on with the hinges in the hardware that actually came with the kit the steamer kit the one thing that I did is I took some eighth inch weather stripping just regular weather stripping and I put in here now on them on the on the print it shows the weather stripping on the door I put it on the box here alright so now I can go ahead and get it in place now I haven't drilled the hole for the vent hole yet it goes to the top I'll do that after get the hardware out of them now that I have this weather stripping and everything on the air I want to just kind of press it down seal it so when I get my hands in place I can screw them on so I'm just going to set the box up here and we'll get them screen to place get that door on your hardware on don't get some legs put on this thing and I'm just going to say this and not going to work the front leg is going to be taller than the back leg so the Box sits at a small incline so that compensation can roll out show you that and say all right so with the hinge is on we can go ahead and install the clasp and this is the class that come the hardware it's just a simple latch class that has a little hook and everything just a quick and simple one similar I want to go ahead and get the hook part of it on the door and then I want to position this to where when this class locks down it's going to pull that door tight and seal it with that weather stripping and everything all right I'm going to put the second screw in so when the door is closed this craft can hook and you want it to be in a position to where when it locks down it snaps and that's going to pull it in and seal up that weatherstripping role well and that completes our box all right with the Box assembled now I can go ahead and focus on the feet in the plan that came with a kit it called for the feet to be in set to a set of data a couple of day toes cut on the bottom of the box and the feet fit right in there because the feet are cut out of the same stock as the size and of the box well I decided I didn't want to do that I didn't want to cut dedos and I didn't want to do all that I want to did you choose pocket holes and I'm going to pocket hole screw the feet on place it quick and simple so if I wanted to do data is if you want to follow the plan if you happen to buy this kit or whatever cut your day toes into your bottom piece before you assemble the box okay over the drill press I've got one of the cut-offs from the box sides as well as a four inch hole saw installed this will allow me to drill a hole right in the center of this board that I can later split to create the two legs all right our steam box is nearly complete we just have two more holes to drill the first one is going to be at the top so that this thermometer can fit inside so I can regulate the temperature and this is just a standard meet the moment er and the second hole is in the door close to the top and it's a vent hole for those holes drilled everything is complete now it's time to go ahead and set everything up I went ahead and filled my reservoir to the maximum fill line now I've got the hose here the hose simply screws on to the front of the reservoir and falls all over the place and with a lot of links it gives you a little bit of mobility of where you can place this in the other end of the hose hooks to the brass connector that we put in the back panel so now with the hose connected there's only one thing left to do and that's a test run to see if I have any steam leaks anywhere that I may need to seal up now the reservoir as I told you I filled it up to its maximum water line and I used hot water to fill it with to speed up the heating process with everything ready to go I can go ahead and plug that in will get the same steam as the temperature in the reservoir begins to heat up and steam begins to fill the box we're already at 160 degrees in climbing now I'm going to continue to monitor the temperature as well as the box checking for any problems or steam leaks so far so good if the test is successful we're good to go for a steam dipping project next week's video well that wraps up this video for this week I hope you enjoyed it thank you for sticking with me if you happen to be new to the channel please take them in and subscribe I put out a new woodworking project every week as always if you liked the video please leave a comment give me a thumbs up well until next week guys I'll see you soon oh hey guys I've got some exciting news stay tuned for a follow-up coming soon so now with the hinges on we go ahead and put the clasp that come in the hardware and it's basically just a move

Channel: Laney Shaughnessy

Views: 607,871

Keywords: A Simple Design of Ocala, Laney Shaughnessy, flatiger4u, woodworking, woodworking project, Make a, Learn woodworking, how to, how to make, how to build, woodworking how to, weekend woodworking, woodworking videos, Wood, woodworking Projects and plans, Woodworking Tips, Steam Bending, Wood bending, How to Steam Bend Wood, Steam bending wood, Steam bending box, Rockler, Steam Bending Kit, Make a Steam Bending Box

Id: NMvc2tuVGcQ

Length: 14min 12sec (852 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 27 2013