Bending plywood. How to bend plywood. How. Features of complex structures. Working with large sheets Classification of the main grades of plywood

You can make a lot of useful things from plywood: furniture, shelves, partitions, various coasters, and more. However, in order for all this to be complete and beautiful, it is advisable to give home-made products different shapes, including round ones. In this case, the question arises: is it possible to bend plywood on your own and how to do it? To answer it, you need to know existing technologies and methods of this process.

Stages:

	Plywood bending options. Features and nuances of the implementation of various methods.
	Choice of materials. In specialized outlets, plywood of different quality, size and thickness is sold, so it is extremely important to choose the best option.
	Bending the material by heating or notching the workpiece.
	Bending plywood with a large thickness. Features, options.
	Tools for doing work.

How to bend plywood at home: features

To properly bend plywood, moisture and heat are required. It is also possible to use a dry version of changing the shape of the tree. These methods are applicable to plywood of any thickness, however, it must be taken into account that the thicker the material, the more time is required to obtain the desired result. The scope of use of curved plywood is quite wide - from construction works(lining spiral staircases, production of bases for arches, etc.) to the manufacture of bent furniture.

Choosing plywood for bending at home

Since this material is made by gluing thin layers trees located in different directions, the bending resistance increases. For this reason, for work, you should take thin plywood, since it has fewer layers. In the factory, its bending occurs on specialized equipment. The material is given the required elasticity by pre-treating it with steam.

At home, when repairing an apartment or a private house, structures that have a rounded shape are often needed (for example, when arranging an arch). They can be made with your own hands from bent plywood. Observing the technology, it is possible to obtain highly quality product despite the use of improvised means.

Plywood is sold in the construction markets and in special points(specialty stores, supermarkets, etc.). When choosing, it is necessary to pay attention to the flexibility of the material, which is produced with a thickness of 3-4 mm. As a rule, it is used to create arches in doorways or when moving from room to room. After processing the workpiece from similar material attached to the frame with screws.

Recently, similar Chinese-made plywood has been noticeable on the market. It combines affordable cost and suitable quality. There are several ways that are used to create bent structures:

gluing;

cuts;

steaming;

various combinations of the above methods.

How to bend plywood at home (video): heating

This process can be done in the following ways:

immersing the workpiece in hot water (temperature - 60 ° C);

using superheated steam;

soaking in a warm liquid (rarely used, as it increases the time of the whole process).

If there are no conditions and the ability to bend the material using the above methods, epoxy glue can be used.

To apply the superheated steam technique, some experts create steam using a boiling kettle, less often an iron. But since the supply of steam must be constant, it is rather difficult to obtain steam in the required amount at home. For this reason, the first option is more popular for self-obtaining the required form of plywood.

Hot water should be poured into any open container - a bathtub is best, as its volume makes it possible to make bent products quite large sizes. The plywood blank is immersed in hot water for about 30 minutes. During this time, the wood will be able to crack down on the desired amount. A wet blank will easily change its shape, however, it should be borne in mind that if it is necessary to bend the plywood at a large angle, the whole process will need to be carried out in several stages:

first, bending should be performed at a small angle;

the material is again immersed in hot water;

after 30 minutes, the procedure is repeated, the bending angle increases;

the technology is repeated until the plywood acquires the desired shape.

But you need to take into account the fact that when soaking the workpiece, it can exfoliate. In the event that the plywood thickness is too small, 4-6 minutes may be enough to bend it. In some cases, an iron is used. The wetted material is ironed with a heated iron and immediately given the necessary shape, after which it must again be moistened and ironed with a heated iron.

In order to process big leaf plywood steaming alone is not always the right conditions. In this case, to obtain the desired result, cuts are made in the material according to the type of strips that have the shape of a cone. For such work, manual electric tool with a cutter installed on it.

Such cuts must be made very carefully, otherwise chips may form on the material.

For a workpiece with a thickness of 4-5 mm, the depth of such cuts should not exceed 2 mm, and their number directly depends on the steepness of the desired bending radius. That is, the larger it is, the more cuts will be required.

After that, the material is clamped on the template. The outer layer is pasted over with a strip of veneer, for which epoxy glue or even PVA is used. Plywood dries for about a day. The result is a hollow blank that can withstand fairly large loads.

Workpiece fastening. Video

In order for the shape of plywood to be stable, it must be fixed. This work can be done in several ways:

Any heavy object is placed at the bend, the ends are pulled together with a rope and supports are mounted under them.

The workpiece is fixed in the template with a cord, rope or tape.

The first method is absolutely clear, however, it will be necessary to control the design, since the plywood may slightly move away from the required angle during the cooling process. The second method involves the use of a template, which can be used for almost any design with the necessary bend angles for the future part. Very often, a do-it-yourself fiberboard template is used. If you need to make an arch, then the steamed workpiece can be installed directly in place by clamping it with screws in the opening.

Steel templates can be used to fasten plywood. They bend with the wood. This technique is used for the manufacture of large parts with complex shape. A strip of steel is attached to plywood before lowering into the bath. After that, it is folded together with the blank sheet. Detachment occurs only after the absolute drying of the workpiece.

When using a load to fix the material, you should be careful and try to make it equal in width to the workpiece sheet. If this is not the case, then only the part of the plywood that was equal to the width of the load will be bent. Similar options are used for wood with a thickness of not more than 2 cm. In addition, it should be borne in mind that different varieties trees can bend in different ways.

The maximum effect can be achieved if the plywood was made of ash, walnut or beech. Experts do not recommend using oak, maple or larch blank sheets for plywood bending. As a rule, for wood it is possible to carry out compression by 25-33%, and tension by 1.5-2.5%.

How to bend thick plywood at home: video

If it was necessary to make a bent product from plywood with a thickness of 1.5 to 2.2 cm, then, as a rule, the option of cutting its surface with a cutter is used. The depth of the cut should not exceed half the thickness of the material sheet. It can reach a layer with the opposite direction, but not go deep into it. Otherwise, the workpiece will split. Not exact definition for the slit width as it can be different. The effect is quite possible when the bending angle on one side of the material is greater than on the other. This method can be used to create the walls of the boat.

The plywood is bent to the required angle and clamped into the mould. A strip of veneer is glued on top. Drying - 24 hours. The gluing procedure itself is possible both with cuts outward and inward - the level of rigidity of the part will not change from this. Just in the first case, voids are formed.

There is another option for obtaining products from thick plywood - gluing. In this case, the bent workpiece is cut with an allowance of 2-6 mm from thin material. Simply put, a pattern is created, which is superimposed on the sheet in such a way that the plasticity and direction of the veneer alternate in the finished part to obtain the necessary rigidity. Plywood layers should be glued together with epoxy composition, after which the workpiece is clamped with clamps for a day, which will give it the desired shape.

When the product is completely dry, it will need to be sanded and grind off all the irregularities around the edges.

To obtain a quality product, it is important to follow these recommendations:

for the safety of the received parts, the humidity level in the room should not exceed 9-11%;
the bend radius across the wood fiber should be smaller than along it;
steamed or soaked in hot water materials need to be bent while they are still warm.

In order to get a fairly complex bent structure, it is better to contact specialists with professional tools, experience and skills.

Plywood sheets are often used in construction. They can be used as a basis for shingles, for lining a wooden floor before laying a laminate, etc. But the scope of plywood sheets is much wider, they can also be used to create elements with a curved surface. To do this, the plywood sheet must be bent correctly.

Existing methods for bending plywood

When bending plywood, it is necessary to solve 2 tasks:

ensure sufficient flexibility of the sheet;
ensure the safety new form plywood sheet.

The plywood sheet acquires the necessary flexibility after steaming or boiling in hot water. At the same time, it is necessary to control the integrity of the plywood sheet; under too long exposure to high temperature, it can collapse.

There are the following methods of bending the sheet:

In industry, a combination of the effects of water vapor and mechanical impact. Individual sheets of curved shape are literally compressed in molds and then cooled until they retain their shape without external force.

The same approach is used for bending plywood at home. The only difficulty in this case is to ensure uniform heating of the sheet over the entire area. The wood cools quickly, so it can be difficult to bend a large sheet.
At the bend, the plywood sheet can be loosened with blind cuts. Cuts are not made to the entire depth of the sheet, the last 1-2 layers are left intact. After giving the desired shape to the sheet, these cuts are filled with glue.

A thick curvilinear piece can be obtained by simply gluing several thin layers of flexible plywood.

Plywood does not dry out immediately, therefore, during the first 6-7 days after bending, it is necessary to ensure the safety of the new sheet shape. For this, special templates are used.

Templates can be made, for example, from chipboard, fiberboard, etc.

Even the usual one can act as a template. steel tape, its use is permissible in the event that it is necessary to obtain a bend of a long plywood tape. In this case, the plywood is simply tied to the steel tape.

How to bend plywood - procedure

The answer to the question of how to bend plywood is quite simple - you just need to give it flexibility and fix it in the required position until it dries completely. The main difficulties arise just with giving the sheet flexibility at home. Most often, steaming or boiling is used to bend plywood. Therefore, first it is necessary to establish whether the selected sheet will delaminate from exposure to high temperature and high humidity. To do this, a small piece of plywood needs to be boiled / steamed, periodically checking its flexibility.

For steaming, some even use irons, ironing plywood through damp cloth. There are even makeshift installations, representing a chamber into which plywood is loaded, with a hole at the bottom. In this case, even an ordinary kettle can act as a steam generator.

There is a definite relationship between the steaming/boiling temperature and the flexibility of the plywood sheets different thickness. The data shown in the figure are valid for a water temperature of 90-100 ° C, at a water temperature of up to 60 ° C, the indicated periods must be increased at least 1.5 times. AT cold water plywood will have to be soaked 20-30 times longer.

It is important to remember that wood bends much better along the fibers than in the transverse direction. Therefore, a plywood sheet made up of an odd number of layers of veneer will bend better in one direction than in the other.

After the sheet has become sufficiently flexible, it is attached to the template.

Drying of the plywood sheet takes from 5 to 7 days, after which it can be used. Bending plywood at times increases the options for its use.

The usefulness of a material can be determined based on three basic components:

Minimum costs per installation, while taking into account the maximum overlapping area;
The price of the material itself;
The versatility of the material. This also includes the possibility of the full use of products, provided that they are given a non-standard, for example, bent shape.

Plywood meets all these parameters. In addition to the main purpose, lining horizontal surfaces, it can perfectly bend and be used in the construction of the so-called "inflated" or curvilinear forms. Here's how to do it in this guide.

Each layer has its own approach

In fact, of course, the solution to the question of how to bend plywood is not calculated up to the layer, but there is still a certain amount of truth in the title of the chapter. Let's explain: there are a number of difficulties in bending plywood, which are associated precisely with the structure of the material, as well as with technological features bending process.

Namely:

The thinner the plywood, the easier it is to work with. However, for the sake of objectivity, one must also take into account the fact that in order to construct, for example, arches, plywood must be at least 10 mm, that is, you already need to bend a fairly serious puff (see also the article);
Initially, the layers of veneer are located at different angles to each other precisely in order to increase the resistance of the material to bending;
In the conditions of workshops and special workshops, bending and the necessary curvature are achieved quite simply: the part is practically saturated with steam and then falls under the influence of a kind of vise that bends it to the desired radius of curvature.

Interesting to know! At home, you can also steam impregnate a small piece of plywood. For these purposes, you can use boiling water that turns into steam in a saucepan or kettle. Some craftsmen solve the problem of how to bend plywood using steam irons.

All this is real, but there are two points that must be considered:

First, the wood cools down very quickly, this is in equally applies to plywood;
Secondly, it is very difficult to achieve uniform heating of the entire part, so this type is suitable for small fragments with bends, most likely for the production of curved surfaces of furniture or other small products.

How to bend

So, how to bend plywood without any hassle?

There are two main technologies:

Ferry, (which has already been described);
in the bathroom with hot water.

The second technology is much simpler, it allows you to calmly put the necessary fragment in the bathroom, or another sufficiently large container and leave it in hot water for half an hour. The effect will be guaranteed, since the wood veneer softens under the influence of water and temperature, and the plywood part acquires the necessary elasticity.

Advice! Plywood, there is plywood, there is a very high probability of delamination of the material during prolonged contact with hot water. In this case, we suggest that you become an experimenter for a while.

Take a strip of plywood required thickness and soak it in the tub. Check the condition of the fragment every 5 minutes for bending, if after a certain time (within half an hour) the fragment bends normally, then this time is enough to soak the entire working fragment.

The softened part can be installed in a stationary place, attached with self-tapping screws and left to dry completely, this is if you are making a false column, simple arch or another detail that does not require additional complex structural inserts.

A few words about complex structures

Bending is a delicate matter.

The arch of the arch is different, as is the curvilinear design of another curvilinear design. Often, home craftsmen resort to complex, combined solutions using overlay ornaments and other decorative elements. In this case, the entire structure is assembled into a single ensemble, and only then it is mounted and strengthened in a stationary place.

Note! In this case, much depends on the angle of the fold. If this angle is very small, then in order to achieve it, you will have to make several approaches.

The material is soaked, bent as far as possible, then left to dry completely. Then everything is repeated again until the part acquires the intended curvature.

There are several basic technologies fixing blanks after soaking.

We will not repeat them all, we will focus only on the one that we consider the most acceptable for the following reasons:

If you do not immediately install the workpiece in a stationary place, then you need an accurate, even bend and a combined solution;
The most advantageous result can only be provided by a pre-prepared blank or template;
Fixing on the template is guaranteed to save you from having to redo or fix the part.

In this case, we are talking about fixing the fragment on the template until it dries completely. Making the template itself is quite simple, by the way, there are also a lot of manufacturing options.

Here is one of them:

Take wooden slats equal to the length details;
Cut out several fragments from chipboard or wood (from 3 or more, depending on the length of the plywood sheet being bent) and fasten them to the slats;
On the finished frame fasten the plywood puff with self-tapping screws and leave to dry completely.

About working with large sheets

Sometimes it becomes necessary to bend a large sheet of plywood with your own hands. This happens when making an arched vault of considerable length or other similar shape.

In this case, the following is done:

A wood cutter cuts to the last layer, but without damaging this layer (otherwise, you will simply ruin the workpiece);
The number of cuts is determined by the radius of curvature, the smaller it is, the more cuts;
The sheet is placed on the template and fixed, while the voids are not filled, but glued, PVA glue is quite suitable (find out here).

Finally

It is quite simple to bend plywood, a little patience and skills - and everything will work out (read also the article). The video in this article is ready to present you its report on the topic.

Steaming

In industrial processing, steaming is carried out using special installations and the necessary bending is carried out by a press. At home, a sheet of plywood can be steamed over containers with boiling water or an iron with uninterrupted steam supply.

Also, a sheet or part can simply be soaked in water (in the bathroom, for example). The soaking time depends on the thickness of the sheet and the direction of the bend. For bakelite plywood, it is less than for bakelite plywood. Below is a table for calculating the cooking time for plywood at a temperature of 90 - 100 C.

At home, it is quite difficult to ensure the boiling of sheets or parts: there is no capacity required size, it is quite expensive to maintain the boiling point for several hours. An alternative to boiling at home is soaking in warm or cold water:

for soaking at a water temperature of 60C, the time increases by 1.5 - 2 times
for soaking at a temperature of 15-30C 15-20 times.

After soaking, the part is attached to the template, fixed and kept until completely dry. The greatest allowable bend after steaming or soaking is possible when bending across the fibers. At home, it is better to combine steaming with moisturizing. Steam only the bend and moisturize upper layer veneer.

Plywood notching

This method is used for bending plywood sheets with a thickness of 16 to 22 mm. In the place of the intended bend, cuts are made with a cutter. The depth of the notch should not exceed half the thickness of the sheet and reach the veneer layer of the opposite direction, but not break it - the sheet may crack. Can make cuts different widths than we can achieve that on one side of the plywood the angle will be different. In this way, plywood is bent for the walls of the boat, for example.

The workpiece is clamped on the mold and a sheet of veneer is glued on top. Drying time - about a day. For bonding use PVA or epoxy glue. You can glue the part with cuts inward and vice versa. In the second case, voids are formed. But they will not affect the rigidity of the part.

Gluing

To create a curved part, it is cut out with a small tolerance (up to 5 mm) from a thin sheet of plywood. The detail (pattern) is laid out on a sheet so that the directions of the veneer alternate in finished product- this will provide greater rigidity and ductility of the part. Layers of plywood glued together epoxy glue and clamped on the workpiece for shaping with clamps for a day. After complete drying, the part is sanded and the bumps and glue along the edges are removed.

To get a quality part as a result, it is important to consider the following points:

the bend radius across the fibers is much smaller than along
bent parts must be stored in a room with low humidity (no more than 10%)
steamed and soaked parts must be bent with warm

For bending complex structures and in large numbers bent parts, you should contact a company that processes wood and plywood. Powerful in their arsenal steam plants, constructions for legend different forms and hot presses.

You can choose how to bend plywood from the suggested methods - they are simple enough to use at home. Provide parts with adequate humidity and wait for complete drying. Use quality adhesives and fix the parts well.

All photos from the article

In this article we will talk about how to bend plywood at home. I.e listed methods can be applied without the use of specialized equipment and preparations that change the structure of wood.

But, before bending plywood at home, let's decide what this material is and what its structure is.

Main characteristics of the material

Plywood is a multi-layered material of a slab type. As a basis for production, veneer sheets are used, which are stacked on top of each other in a cross position and glued together with a composition containing resins and formaldehydes.

Strength finished material provided by the cross-position of the veneer. That is, in one plate, the transverse and longitudinal directions of the fibers alternate, which means that additional resistance to mechanical stress is acquired.

This is a significant advantage, but if you have to bend plywood with your own hands, high strength turns into a disadvantage. Let's find out how to bend plywood at home and get the desired result.

Steaming and soaking plywood

Steaming plywood is perhaps the most common way to deform glued sawn timber. The advantage of the method is that it is equally relevant in both industrial and domestic conditions.

The bending instruction is nothing complicated, provided that you are going to deform the material no thicker than 4 mm.

From the tool we need the following:

kitchen stove;
pot big size with lid;
strong, resistant to high temperatures, rope;
kitchen mittens.

Categories

Popular