How do I get this profile?

[Tar Heel]

A friend has asked me if I could reproduce a slat for his porch rocker that is broken. The slat is 1 1/2" wide, 3/8" thick, and 19" long. I could steam it but don't have the equipment to do that. I plan to use oak. I have thought of a couple of ways that might work. 1) Use a piece of green wood and hope that I could force it into a jig for the profile. 2) Glue 2 to 3 pieces of thin strips together and put in the jig before it dries. 3) Cut it out of a thicker piece on the bandsaw. Does anyone have a idea as to what would work? :help: :help:

 

[gator]

Fasten two or three pieces of 3/4" MDF together, draw the edge profile on the stack and bandsaw the MDF to form a gluing jig. Be sure to cut the MDF allowing for the thickness of the slat. Smooth out the cut in the MDF. Use 1/8" thick slices glued with Plastic Resin glue and press the sandwich in the MDF jig and clamp for 24 hours.

George

 

[rhett]

It was most likely steam bent, but that does not seem to be an option. IMHO, take the piece and trace the profile on a piece of mdf and make a jig. There are numerous articles to be found on the subject of strip laminating so I will save you the 500 word post.

 

[DaveO]

All of your ideas will work well. The green wood idea probably would take too long to dry to stable. The bent lamination idea requires making a form. The sawing out of a thicker piece would be the quickest, but might cost you in getting thick stock.
If it is only one piece I would be inclined to saw it out of some thicker stock, provided that the stock doesn't need to be overly thick. Trace the profile on a piece of paper and use a straight edge to determine how thick the piece needs to be to accommodate the curves.

Multiple pieces I would make a form and go with the bent-lam.

MTCW,
Dave

 

[Travis Porter]

Gator's got it. I would wax the mdf jig so the glue doesn't stick to it.

 

[ErnieM]

I'm with DaveO on this one. While laminating works great it's a lot of trouble to go thru for a one-off piece. Cut it out on the bandsaw and save yourself a lot of time.

Ernie

 

[junquecol]

Welcome to the wonderful world of steam bending. Because it is a compound bend, you are going to have to double bend your piece. That means you bend it one way, and then the other before putting into forms. You will need to make a form from either plywood, or solid wood. Steam saturated wood does strange things to MDF. Get some oak from either Jeff, or Scott, and borrow my steam box. I built it for a job I did a year ago, and it has been stored since.