steam bending set-up

[Todd Jensen]

Julie, I just use a $10 hot pot from walmart or whatever and it works great. I set the pot at the low end of my steam setup and a lot of the runoff goes back into the pot and would steam for an hour or two at a time between refills.

Here is my $20 setup that worked quite nicely for pre-bending a tight handrail.






I ran 1/4" bolts through the black pipe about 1" up to support the work out of the water/runoff, and used a dremel(Foredom) to cut the spout off the hot pot and cut a circle in it to accept the white pvc. I have addt'l pictures of the setup if you wish. Have fun!

[julie Graf]

todd, that looks like a nice little set-up.

i'm leaning towards something like that or the used paint thinner can idea...

thanks all!

[David Epperson]

Has anyone tryed (and had any luck) using steam to flatten cupped or twisted lumber prior to jointing/planing. Did the cup come back? Or did it stay flattened?

["Jason Belous"]

I use a propane burner "like the ones for the turkeys" with a metal gas can 5 gallons. This gives you a spout to run a steam line off. I piped mine into a large pvc pipe with a fixed cap on one end and a screw on cap on the other end. Tap it for pressure release and you have a great champer. I got my design from fine wood working and it works amazing. this seems to be the path you were on until you got side tracked. Good luck to you

[Doug Shepard]

Kerosene heater sellers ought to have the 5 gal metal cans for kerosene too.

[Marcus Ward]

I use a keg with the top cut off. Holds enough water to boil and steam for 3-4 hours and on top of a 60000 btu gas burner it really provides tons of steam. I bend inch thick oak with it. I usually use it to make beer, however, and it excels at that also. Google: keggle.

[Todd Jensen]

Naysayers.

[Jim Dunn]

Would an older style propane tank, filled with water naturally, work? You could take out the top valve and suppliment some sort of fitting and hose.