Tag Archives: bending

Walnut Wales Bending

My first experiment produced a couple of Wales that were bend nicely however there were a few cracks in them…

Wales with cracks

I mean… They’re perfectly usuable, but I think that I’ll use them on the Lower Wales so that the cracks aren’t as visible.

That process was simply soaking for 1 hour in 1/2 cup Ammonia + 1 Cup Water in my Plank Soaker. Then bending it around my Jig.

This next experiment, I soaked the Wales for 2 hours or more. Then I carefully inserted the 2 Planks into the Jig and clamped them together with my little Clamp I made to keep them from turning like they did last time.

Then, I used some Clips to weigh them down and stress them gently into a bend… Instead of rapidly like I did last time.

I then used my Iron, set to Max with Steam… I gently went back and forth across it to make it bend.

Well… It bent pretty nicely I must say…

Gently bending with weight
Getting ready to bend 4 – 2mm x 2mm and 2 1mm x 4mm Walnut stock
Slow bending with my Jig
Walnut without cracks or breaks

Yeah… It seems like taking your time is the key with bending these Walnut stock.

I did manage to crack 2 of them… But I think that was just a matter of me sticking it in to get bend in the wrong direction. The wood didn’t like it.

You have to determine what the wood wants to do. Or else it will end up cracking on you.

Walnut Wales

Here I’m trying to bend these 2mm x 2mm Walnut Wales after I had it soaking in hot water with Ammonia for about an hour.

Bending Walnut Wales

I’m not too happy about how it cracked the outside of it… Perhaps for the next ones I’ll soak them for a lot longer maybe.

I submitted a question to my Model Shipbuilding Group which went –

You should see all the answers. One of them did make sense… which I’ll try next.

I’m soaking the Walnut 2mm x 2mm stock for extra long. Then, I’m going to slowly bend it, but this time I’m going to use a couple of clamps across the Walnut and bend it extra slowly while applying heat to it using an Iron. I was thinking about using my Plank Bender Heater… I’ll try that next.

That’s one thing that I love about this hobby is going through these different types of experiments to see what works…