The last few weeks I have been thinking about how I will construct the arms. My stock is only 5/4, so after resawing into three slabs and planing out the saw marks I don't see how I will be left with enough material to reach the 1-1/8" arm thickness. This got me thinking more about steam bending, although I have never done it before. So I have been getting ready for some experiments!
First I built a simple box, just a 1x8 and 1x6 cut down to about 40" and attached with deck screws (no glue). Inside there is a row of captured dowels to suspend the work piece in the steam. The door has some high-temperature gasket material around the opening and a stainless steel toggle latch. Not pictured at the far end is the steam input fitting, provided with the Earlex steam generator.
P1020927.20.jpg
My brother is an architect and has access to large-format printers, so he enlarged and printed the bending form template for me. I spent today building the form from half a sheet of 3/4" MDF. I made a starter template from a thin piece of plywood, then cut all the MDF on the bandsaw a little oversize. Then I used a router and bearing bit to trim each layer to size after screwing it into the stack. It was dusty work and I am glad it's over.
P1020926.20.jpg
I don't know if I will try to bend the whole arm in one shot or go for two steam-bent and laminated layers. I am thinking the two-ply approach might be the sweet spot; then I am only bending 9/16", just over half an inch, and the final lamination step may eliminate a lot of the springback.
Mike