Bent wood laminations or steam bending?

[chopnhack]

Has anyone had any success with steam bending thin 1/8" strips of s.y. pine? I was interested in creating something with an elliptical shape 12"x9" and didn't know if anyone had had any experience with such a tight radius for either bending as in laminations or bending assisted by steam or hot pipe. Any clues?
Thanks

[herb fellows]

I know nothing firsthand, but offhand that seems like too small a piece to make an elipse.
Would relief cuts be possible? Even then, you just don't have a lot of material to play with...

[3thumbs]

I have no experience with SYP but I have had good luck in bending thin strips (1/8 inch) of Luan mahogany very sharply. I soak them overnight, and then bend them over a hot pipe jig that I made.

[atgcpaul]

I've made several shaker boxes by soaking 1/8" strips of cherry in a simmering
water bath for 1/2 hour. The smallest one I've done is an ellipse of ~4"x2".
I know smaller ones exist.

Generally speaking, though, softwoods do not bend as well as hardwoods. I
don't know about SYP specifically. One thing that can help is a metal bending
strap. You wrap your strip around a form and as you're doing that, you also
wrap a flexible metal bending strap around the strips. This helps prevent the
fibers from breaking.

Paul

[chopnhack]

Wish I had a bandsaw about now to experiment!