Bent Wood Lamination Glue

All the real time pitfalls and stressfulness.

Bent wood lamination glue.

With glue between each lamination a press is used to bend the bundle of laminations around a form. The wood used was hard maple one of the more difficult from both the glue adhesion and bending stiffness. Standard wood glue is not the best choice for bent laminations. Of these four glues urea resin and resorcinol achieve the most rigid glue line when cured.

Yellow glue is slightly flexible and will creep over time leading to spring back. Once the glue dries the workpiece will hold it s new shape. If you are using yellow glue this does not leave a lot of time. Quite a while back i did a series of glue tests on bent laminations.

What you need to use for bent wood lamination is 1 8 bending poplar plywood that comes in either long or short grain. The laminate parts need glue between each layer and to be clamped to the form before the glue dries. It also covers veneer laminating. Unfortunately it is not particularly rigid and does not have much open time.

Epoxy urea resin resorcinol and polyurethane are all good choices for bent laminations. There isn t one adhesive ideal for every application. Because bent laminations are under constant stress they require glue that sets hard. Part 1 of a bent lamination glue up.

It is also prone to glue creep a phenomenon in which the cured glue creeps out of the laminations over time resulting in unsightly raised glue lines. Don t use yellow glue titebond for bent lamination. The glue lines from jumping out. A couple of glues that seem to be good choices for bent lamination are.

10 layers 1 8 at about 5 radius after the glue had cured for 24 hours on the form the parts were laid aside for at least a week. Adding a maximum of 8 powdered cornstarch by volume makes the glue more rigid and controls springback. With domestic wood laminations the simplest and least visible glue is pva polyvinyl acetate yellow glue. Yellow glue sets soft and fast.

I have found that a mix of 1 part water to 4 parts glue spreads quick leaves a thinner glue layer which squeezes out less and gives more open time all without risking the glue bond. I ve got a lot of questions on laminating wood techniques and i notice a number of folks are interested in how to laminate plywood sheets. Use plastic resin glue or epoxy. When it comes to wood laminating pieces of plastics or another layer of wood are laminated to composites wood or plywood.

So the first order of business is to build the form followed by cutting the wood into lamination strips. Pro glue unibond 800 i realize th. In doing research before attempting my first bent lamination i m starting to look at the appropriate glue choice for the project.