Can you water bend glued wood?

[1213brett]

I have a bulwark that needs soaked in water and bent.  It would be a lot more easy if I could glue the inboard planking on first.  Is that do able? 

[BANYAN]

I wouldn't recommend it for a number of reasons.  Once glued, then soaked, the planks may come off as the water dissolves the glue (true of steaming also).  Also, wood needs to compress or expand as it is bent in one direction or the other.  You will have differing rates of compression on the outer and inner sides.

 

Best to place the bulwarks first I think.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Rick01]

In a word "no". As Pat explained the expansion/compression will cause problems, in addition if you use a water based glue it will come undone whilst soaking. It's not that hard to pre-bend and then fit the inner planks - just need a lot of clips to hold it firmly on the bulwarks as you glue it.

 

[Ulises Victoria]

No... I wouldn't recommend it either. Easier to put the bulwark and then, if needed, bend the individual planks as stated above. You may not even need to pre-bend the planks, just press them hard against the bulwark while the glue dries.

[mtaylor]

An easy way to bend these is with a old curling iron.  Put them in water for about 10 minutes, then use the curling iron to bend them into shape.  Let cool and Bob's your uncle.

[Jaager]

If you were to fabricate the multi layer bulwark complex and then bend it:

If the glue joints survived the stress -  which is not likely.

If the interior components did not break due the the compression force  -  depending on the species of wood, also unlikely

The interior components would be applying force to reverse the bend.

 

If you pre bend each layer and then assemble it, the interior components will help hold the bent shape.