How to bend
Plywood
How to Quickly Kerf Bend Plywood and Solid Wood | Woodworking Coat Rack Project
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welcome to make something with me David
patoot oh and today I'm gonna show you
how to ban plywood and solid wood using
curve cutting while we make this
coatrack check so I have this piece of
plywood here that I want to do the kerf
bending and I got it cut down to rough
size the first thing I need to do is get
my blade height to just below that top
veneer the higher you go the more you
can bend but the higher you go the
weaker the surface so I'm gonna go just
below the veneer and leave part of that
top layer of the plywood you can use any
blade it doesn't have to be a flat
bottom blade I just have my combination
blade here in the table saw and we're
gonna use my crosscut sled is a website
called block layer com that does all the
math for you and tell us how many kerf
you need to make how deep to go and
depending on the radius that you're
looking for we are just going to start
cutting some curves until we get it
right if you cut too many it's not that
big of a deal I'm gonna have my radius
start about right here so I'm gonna do a
series of curves and in between I'm
gonna leave the width of the saw blade
and we're gonna just keep cutting curves
until I can get a 90 degree Bend
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I'm just going to move this over till it
looks like it's about the width of the
saw blade and I'm gonna make a little
pencil mark right here on my sled and
I'll know to move my curve over all the
way to that pencil mark every single
time
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so here's what we got so far we have
eight curves in there and I want to get
to 90 and we are almost there we're not
quite we still need one or two so I'm
just going to throw it back on the sled
and do a couple more so this is 3/4 inch
plywood and it took nine curves and I'm
trying to get the tightest radius that I
can
it'd be a big sweeping radius you can
space out your curves and not have them
so close so now I'm gonna make another
series of curves down here
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but we're gonna start to glue this up
I'm going to use this polyurethane glue
right here which we reacts with water
and causes it to foam and fill it space
so for these two guys right here I'm
going to wet it down I'm gonna fill it
with glue and then we're going to clamp
it in place like that and let it dry for
about an hour or so I've seen people use
regular wood glue for this as well but I
like using this because it expands so
I'm just gonna use a clamp try to get
that to 90 those two curves find this
one that I want to curve backwards where
it wants to break I'm going to squirt it
with some water for right now and then
I'm not gonna do anything but let that
sit and dry so that when it does dry we
can actually bend it a little bit more
you can see it kind of foaming up now
and filling in the space so it's been
about an hour getting this curve wet
help me get it past ninety degrees so
that experiment worked out pretty good
I'm gonna take this off the clamp here
and it holds its form now how cool is
that dan came up with the brilliant idea
of filling this end right here with that
expanding foam insulation stuff the the
great stuff and that I think could
actually work to stiffen that up I don't
need to do that for this because I'm
gonna make some side pieces and it's all
gonna be attached to that and it should
be nice and firm and sturdy so now that
we've gone over the basics of kerf
bending I'm going to make a coat hanger
out of this piece of cherry plywood at
the end of the video I'm gonna give you
some more tips and tricks to help you
along with this and while I'm making
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products now let's get back to this coat
hanger and finish it up
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it's as simple as that if you're
wondering why I used hot glue for the
merits because the screws coming in from
the back didn't penetrate this very much
so there's not a lot of holding power
and I wanted to use hot glue and not
regular glue in case I need to take it
off to replace a broken mirror I did use
this Kirk bending technique in my
previous video when we gutted the
Nintendo and remade the case out of wood
you might want to check that out
basically there are three common ways to
bend wood here we get curved cutting
which is probably the quickest and
easiest way but you have to hide the
kerf somehow there's also bent
lamination like we did with the wooden
spoon a couple years ago the problem
with that is you might see the
laminations and you got to build a jig
just for each Bend and then there's
steam bending but not all woods are
bendable so you're limited on the
species and you're also limited on the
amount you can bend the wood because
you're actually compressing fibers on
the inside and expanding fibers on the
outside so you're limited there each
technique has its own advantages and
disadvantages there's a great website
called block layer comm and it gets into
the mathematics of kerf bending and it
talks about spacing and then how many
kerf you need I wanted to avoid that
because figuring out how many curves you
need and spacing can be a barrier to
experimenting so I just spaced the curse
out to the width of my blade and just
kept cutting if you cut too many not a
big deal if you don't cut enough you'll
know because the piece won't Bend far
enough if the inside of your project is
going to be seen one way to cover that
up
is to get some paperback veneer and use
some contact cement and glue that on
there and that'll hide that just fine
you can go against the grain and also
with the grain going with the grain you
can actually vent a lot further I found
if the wood starts to crack get it wet
let it sit for a little bit in in that
curved position and then you can
actually bend it even more you can do
this with solid wood as well this is
walnut some woods are going to work
better than others and you can see I
left just a little bit of a veneer
thickness on the top there that is it
folks we'll see you next week with a
brand new project as always be safe have
fun stay passionate and
make something
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