Thoughts On The Bentwood Lamination Class

For this class I took the students thru the process of building a project from concept to construction. I started out with an idea for a bent laminated three legged stand for a large 30 inch tall vessel. The next step was to compose the design and do a mock up, which enabled us to fine, tune the proportions and generate a full scale drawing. We used the information from the full scale drawing to build our bending forms. This was a challenging project which involved tapered laminations for the legs. I choose purpleheart for the stock for two reasons. First, because it is a very strong, inexpensive wood with a rich purple color that I like. Second, to prove to the class what the mighty Mini Max bandsaw can do! Sure enough, the MM20 ripped all the six inch wide laminates without hesitation. Some other curves that I threw in there to spice up the class were a demonstration of a continuous strip lamination. In other words, we used the bent lamination technique to create a solid circle made of purpleheart.

Another demonstration that everybody loved was showing them how to do a compound bentwood lamination. I got out the form that I used to make the compound bend for the arm of my award winning chairs, the Scarab Chair.

I also took everyone on a tour of my house to show them the collection of furniture that I have built on Woodworks, paying special attention to all of the bentwood lamination projects. This was especially helpful and inspiring for the students to see the actual pieces in person.