Advice on bent laminations please

[fobos8]

Hi all

I need to make some slats for this chair

They will be vertical and will go from the rear rail to crest rail. The will have the same contour/curve as the rear legs. Each slat will be about 20mm thick by about 25mm wide.

I've never done any bent laminations before so I'm not sure how thin the veneers which are laminated together should be.

The thinnest I can thickness down to on my thicknesser is 4mm. Is this thin enough to use? I can bend this to the former no problems but with the veneers being quite thick will the laminated slat spring back when I take it out of the former.

Thanks in advance, Andrew

 

[Chrispy]

5 @ 4mm =20mm sounds good to me, But to cut 5mm with a table saw with kerf of 3.5mm = min of 8.5mm per lamination x 5 = 40mm of timber per finished slat, so why not just cut them from a solid block stacked together? simple spindle moulder jig, sorry should have asked have you a bandsaw and spindle? if you laminate them there will always be a bit of spring back so when making the former allow a bit more curve in anticipation.

 

[jasonB]

Whats the overall thickness you want to end up with, you really need 3 or 4 laminations minimum. I would just put a bit of MFC or MDF onto the thicknesser table then you can get down to 3mm without much risk of chewing up the timber.

Thinner will also be easier to get to follow the former, you could also make a tapered jig to feed the laminations through so they come out tapered if thats the look you want

J

 

[fobos8]

just put the laminations on MDF like you said - works really well. Got them down to 2.5mm.

Think I'm gonna glue them with Titebond Extend - says its good for laminations.

What glue do most of you use for bend laminations - Cascamite??

 

[jasonB]

I use titebond II but the extend should give you more time to get it all clamped up.

J