Engineered wood is often more difficult to bend than natural wood, but not impossible. There are many spaces using industrial wood that have been gently curved and formed into typical works of art. And to bend Polywood is not as difficult as you think. Let’s get started!
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How to bend plywood?
The easiest commonly used method to crimp polywood at home is to use clamps, depth cutters, and glue.
Use the cutter to cut at the point where you want to bend small grooves more than half the depth of the board but without touching the veneer.
You adjust the depth of the cuts to suit how much bend you want. Then you use force to bend the polywood board and then glue it back with special glue. Hold the bending force until the glue dries again.
Steps to bend plywood
Step 1: Prepare the tool
Organize your tools needed to bend plywood include:
- Wood planks need to be bent
- Wood saws should be circular saws
- Square ruler
- Wood glue
- Marker/Pencil, calculator
Step 2: Calculate & mark the cutting position
This step is extremely important because you need to divide the correct distances to be sawed to ensure the correct number of angles is required. This calculation requires knowledge of mathematics and is quite complex.
But, you don’t need to worry. Because, we will introduce you to a tool that will help you to calculate accurately.
Please go to the link: https://www.blocklayer.com/kerf-spacing.aspx and enter the parameters that the website requires. Then you click calculate. The website will give parameters with a full image with each position, length, and quantity to be cut.
The parameters you need to keep in mind include.
- Curve radius : Radius from the center of the bend angle.
- Curve sweep angle: The number of degrees of the angle to be bent.
- Cut width: Thickness of the saw blade
- Wood thickness: Thickness of the board
- Min thickness: The remaining thickness of the cut (This thickness is not used in the calculation. Because it depends on the board material. You should try it first to check the bending strength of the board. When you enter this number, the image displayed below of that website will also correspond for you to see very intuitively)
Then you mark the position to bend and divide according to the correct ratio as shown in the picture + quantity.
Geometrically, closer, and thinner cuts result in smoother bends. Smaller and wider cuts can create a curve with segments with sharper curves in the cut.
Step 3: Cut the marked groove
You can lay the board down on a flat surface. If your house has a circular saw table, put it on it. Then fix the board and start sawing.
Make sure that the saw cut retains the remaining thickness to ensure that the board is not damaged when bent.
Try pre-cutting the same sample of boards to check the remaining thickness suitable for each board material.
Step 4: Glue and fix
Flatten the product again. Fill the cut with wood glue. You should be careful not to use a lot of glue as it will expand and straighten the curve when it dries.
After attaching the glue, bend the wood panel like the original idea. At the same time, use clamps or other suitable tools to press down so that the fixed wood panel bends to the correct shape. And waiting for the glue to dry, you may grind the excess glue to make the board smooth as usual.
Related article:
- How To Make Plywood Smooth and Shiny – 5 Simple And Effective Steps
- MDF vs Solid Wood: Which type is best for interior decoration?
- Plywood vs Solid Wood: Which Should You Use ?
Bend plywood test
To test the curvature of the board after the glue dries. you lay the bent plywood on a flat surface so that it rests on the ends. Press into the center of the curve with your hand to see if the plywood straightens.
If the curve doesn’t hold, reapply the glue and let the plywood sit longer. You can also glue additional layers of plywood to the curved plywood, using clamps to hold them in place.
Final Word
We hope that the step-by-step instructions and tools we sent you have made it easier for you to bend plywood. In addition to this method, there are still a few ways to make customers require more requirements and tools. We will send you the information later!
Reference source: How to Quickly Kerf Bend Plywood and Solid Wood | Woodworking Coat Rack Project