If you are really into woodworking, sooner or later you are probably going to come up with a need to bend wood. There’s one tried and true method for bending solid wood, and that is steam bending. To steam bend, you need a source of steam and a DIY steambox. There are also many DIY ways to create steam, for now I’m not going to focus on those. I’ll just recommend buying something like the Earlex Steam Generator, which you can get for about $20 less than the Rockler Steam Bending Kit.
To build your DIY steambox, you only need few materials other than the steam generator. These are:
- 1 – 4×8 sheet of 3/4″ pressure treated plywood
- 10 – 10″ x 1/4″ diameter stainless steel rods (for a 48″ box)
- 1 – stainless steel hinge
Building a DIY steambox
You’ll want the inside measurements of your box to be about 7″ x 7″ for flexibility and efficiency in bending most average size pieces. For length, you can make the box as long as you wish. I chose to make mine 48″ long, with a removable end piece and an expansion collar so I can add an additional 48″ box on as needed.
To make the box 7″ x 7″ on the inside, I cut my pressure treated plywood to 8 1/8″ wide. That allows me to use a tongue and dado joint on all four corners for strength and stability.
Before assembling your DIY steambox, choose the pieces which will be used for your sides and drill 1/4″ holes for the stainless steel rods you’ll use for the “shelves”. I recommend taping the sides together and drilling both sides at the same time to ensure these holes are aligned properly. IMPORTANT: if you are using tongue and dado joinery, remember that your sides need to be taped together at an offset to account for the tongues and dados.
Also, drill a single hole in the center of your bottom board to match the diameter of your steam hose. Also drill two 3/8″ holes to allow cold air to escape in order to avoid pressure buildup.
On one end, use a piece of the 3/4″ pressure treated plywood to make an 8 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ door, attached with the hinge. On mine, I added a magnet to the door and the frame to hold the door shut.
The extension collar is just four pieces of the plywood, cut to 9 5/8″ x 8″ and joined using the same tongue and dado joinery. You can either permanently attach it to your main steambox, or permanently attach it to the steambox extension.
The last piece is the 7″ x 7″ block used to close in the open end. This piece just needs to fit loosely into the steambox, and can be slid in farther if you are using shorter pieces. You may find it useful to add a wooden handle to this piece, just to make it easier to slide in and out. Don’t use a metal handle, or you could burn yourself from the heat from the steam.
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