How to bend a 1/8" dowel at a 90 degree angle?

[dennis thompson]

I have been making some toys for my grandson. I need to bend some 1/8" dowels at a 90 degree angle ,I don't have any steam bending equipment.
Does anyone have any suggestions how how I might do this?
thanks

[Phil Thien]

Boil a pot of water on the stove. Place a full-length dowel over the pot, centered. Rotate it from time to time. Test/bend it as you can, returning it to the steam as needed. Once it is bent, remove it and clamp to preserve the bend.

Once it is dry, cut to length.

* I've never tried this. But it seems like it would be an easy/cheap place to start.

[John Vernier]

I think that method will work fine, but a lot of commercial dowels are not very straight grained, so a lot will break due to grain runout even if well steamed. Buy extras if you aren't making your own (and yes i know, how many people make their own 1/8" dowels?).

[Jim Finn]

I have bent 1/8" strips of oak by soaking in water for a day or two, running hot water on them and then bend to a form and then dry for three days in the form. This may also work for oak dowels.

[Peter Quinn]

Can you boil the whole dowel? Cut them a little over sized, then boil, bend around the form, let them dry? I've bent spoon handles on accident leaving them in a pasta pot for 14 minutes.....should work with dowels too?

[John Donhowe]

Depending on the dowel length, an easy way to steam bend is to wrap in a moist paper towel and microwave.

[John T Barker]

Soak it in Woolite. I have no idea how much of a radius it will allow but it should make it pliable. Years ago Fine Woodworking's back cover showed a wood apple with a wood arrow through an obviously much smaller hole than the arrow head. The fellow that did it had used Woolite, which is ammonia...I think.

[Joe Spear]

Woolite isn't ammonia. It is a relatively mild laundry detergent that doesn't even have any ammonia in it.

[Lee Schierer]

As others have noted, bending a dowel that was purchased may lad to a lot of frustration as you are likely to get more breakage than success. The grain in commercial dowels generally does not run full length. Even with soaking or steaming it is unlikely you will be able to get a 90 degree bend. I would suggest you find some maple of better yet recently harvested hickory or ash and split it with a Froe or chisel so that the split piece follows the grain. Then carefully sand the piece to 1/8" diameter before it dries and then boil/steam it and bend it to the shape you need. Let it dry on your form and you should have much better luck.

Or since you are only using 1/8" get some rattan for making baskets, soak it and make your bent pieces. Rattan will look almost like wood when dry and will bend more readily than wood od the same diameter.

[Bradley Gray]

What about using bronze brazing rod? I use it for hinge pivot pins an many other things - easy to make an abrupt bend - no steaming required.

[Perry Holbrook]

Dennis, would you mind posting your results? Lots of ideas here. I'd be interested in knowing what actually works.

Perry

[Mel Fulks]

The way I have heard Woolite described is it is very strong,and because of that, clothes don't need a lot of abrasive agitation. Never heard of it being used for wood bending but if FW said so it probably has some validity,and I'm not a big fan.

[dennis thompson]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
Results so far:
tried holding it over a boiling pot of water and I broke the dowel
tried the microwave idea and I couldn't get it to bend , going to try again and microwave it a little longer
I hadn't thought of the brazing rod, I did think of maybe using a coat hanger

[Bradley Gray]

coat hanger wire is smaller and can rust. The bronze polishes nicely.

[dennis thompson]

coat hanger wire is smaller and can rust. The bronze polishes nicely.

Tried the microwave idea again and broke another dowel.
I plan to try the bronze brazing rod idea. I know nothing about these rods but the Home Depot has them and they are "flux" coated. Do I need to remove the flux? If yes do I simply polish it off with a wire wheel?
Thanks