1/2 round Cherry side table

[GlenS]

OK. I'm going to try to keep everybody updates on this. I've never done this before,,chronicled a project,, so Please bear with me on my time frame & methods.

Glued up the apron this evening. What a mess. LOL  Next time I will take the time to glue 3pcs together at a time then glue those together.
I decided to use clear Pine for the filler rather than Poplar. It seemed to bend a little easier.

Any thoughts?? I'm open to suggestions as this is my 1st bent laminate glue up.

[Redman]

Looks like you got it going on there Glen. I don't know about poplar vs. pine but if it's working for you the that's cool. BTW I've never done any bent laminations.

[GlenS]

Thanks Redman! I'm assuming it'll be fine. The boards I ripped down had tight end grain. Another 10hrs & I can unclamp it.

[FrankAtl]

When I do bent laminations I use plastic resin glue. It gives you a lot of time to fiddle with the clamping and seems to have less spring back that regular wood glues. You have to be careful handling it after it dries because it's very sharp and hard as heck. I use a belt sander to remove the squeeze out before using a jointer to flatten one edge. The glue is rough on jointer blades.

[jteneyck]

You were better off doing the glue-up all at once rather than a few pieces at a time, IMO.  Spring back will happen only once, rather than multiple times.  I'll be interested in how much spring back you get if you used yellow glue.  Like Frank said, I use PRG (or epoxy though rarely) specifically to minimize spring back and creep over time.  But if your laminations are thin enough, like 1/8", you may not have much anyway, though it may still open up some over time unless it's constrained by the rest of the construction.  

So far, so good.  

John

[GlenS]

Thank You for the feedback Frank. I have a disc/belt sander and was going to use that on the edges 1st. I wanted a 24" wide table so I cut my form at 23 3/4". In the future i will look into the PRG glue.

[GlenS]

Thak you for your feedback John. I think you are correct on doing 1single glue up for the spring back. I used TBII Extend Wood Glue. I also built 1/4" into the form for springback to 24". The rear apron will attach to the legs with glue & pocket screws into 1 1/4" tapered legs. I am also routing a 1/4"W X 1/2"D groove into the aprons for braceing & attach the top to.

[Redman]

[Stwood_]

+1

[J-W-P]

Any thoughts??

I've done one demilune, and a few other bent laminations.
I've found that you can do a little pre-bending before the glue up.  Wet the laminations a little and clamp them around the form but not tight like you would the glue up.
For this table I clamped it down with enough clamps to get them to take the shape of the form. After a day I took off the clamps and while each piece did spring back quite a bit, they definitely had a good curve in them.
For the glue-up, I used a combination of strap and f-type clamps.  Starting with the strap to cinch it together, then starting at the top of the curve with the F clamps and working towards the ends, tightenign the strap and I went.  Lots and lots of clamps.

I was really happy with how this lamination turned out.