My pet snake Reggie died unexpectedly while trying to dine on a porcupine, so I decided to make him a nice snake coffin; complete with a steamer to keep him cozy on those cold winter nights. I think he'll be very comfortable in his final resting place. Well shoot; now that I look at it, this would make a nice steamer for bending chair parts. Hmmm, sorry Reggie. Looks like a cardboard box will have to do for you.
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| Six feet long. About 4 1/2" square inside dimension. |
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| Plenty of hose length. Eleven feet long. |
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| 3/4" dowels, 5" from the front and back and 9" between on the others. Eight dowels total. About an inch and a half off the floor. |
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| My steam source. Little wall paper steamer. Says it'll run for about 70 minutes on a tank full. Bought from Lowes with Christmas gift card from my mother in law and father in law. Thanks guys! |
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| The back cap piece, rabbeted on the inside to help keep the box square. Need to drill a small hole or two back here near the bottom to let the water that builds up from condensation run out. |
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| Converted the end that was originally going to a wallpaper steamer head to this garden hose type fitting for easy disconnect. |
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| Shot of the fitting disconnected. Just a few turns to disconnect. |
9 comments:
Nice shop, Nice steam box, Nice spring pole lathe…
As for the steamer, it look good to, but the hose is way to long in my opinion, I would shorten it as short as you cans you minimize heat lost. But that is just me…
I really like the work you do. Real inspiration!
Cheers
David
Thanks for the tip David! And the compliments. Shortening the hose makes a lot of sense, and can be done very easily. Once I figure out where I'm going to put the steam box, I think I'll take your advice and shorten the hose to be only as long as needed.
Thanks again,
Jamie
Nicely done Jamie. I agree with David. I think you'll find a shorter hose delivers more, hotter steam. I'd also suggest with this setup that you flip your parts halfway through steaming since you put the steam input on the end rather than the middle. The end closer to the hose will get more heat and steam than the opposite end. So to balance it out, you can flip your parts at the halfway point.
So watcha bending :-)?
Great idea for shortening the hose. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. For the plumbing-impaired what are the exact parts you used. And did you have any trouble or are there any tricks to getting the new fitting to fit correctly to the hose?
Hi Jeff, the fittings I used were a brass garden hose fitting with a 3/8" barbed end that just pressed into the wallpaper steamers rubber hose. The fitting that is actually in the box is the matching (to the female garden hose fitting) male fitting on the exposed end and 3/4" NPT threads on the other end which I just drilled a 3/4" hole in the box and threaded the fitting into the wood. Both fitting were bought at Lowes. Ended up being a pretty simple solution.
Thanks Bob. I may end up capping the fitting on the end and putting one in the middle of the bottom of the box, depending on how and where I place the box.
I'm trying to gear up for making some chairs. Windsors and Welsh stick chairs. Made a new shave horse, a tapered reamer, a bending form for a sack back, etc. and have been acquiring chair making tools the past few years. ( Froe, nice draw knife, Galbert draw sharp, scorp, adze, travisher, wooden spokeshave from Dave's Shaves, spoon bits ). I think I'm pretty much there, other than some nice, straight grained red or white oak.
I'm taking a week long sack back class this Spring/Summer with Jim Rendi. Really looking forward to that!
Cool. I've a pile of red oak splits in the backyard for the same purpose. Started a post & rung rocker several months ago but had to put it on the back burner when some other things came up. I'm looking forward to getting back to that chair myself.
Have fun in the class. Jim is a good guy. And you couldn't ask for a better location for learning to make chairs. Stop by on your travels if you get the chance. I'm about 45 minutes or so from Jim but you more or less have to pass right by me on your way to Jim's place and back.
Thanks for the offer to stop by Bob. I would like to take you up on that. It'd be great to meet you and see the shop in person. After seeing all the video pod-cast, it'll be like walking onto the set of the Woodwrights Shop. I'll let you know when I get a date scheduled for the class and we'll see if we can work out a time that will work for both of us.
I'm really looking forward to Jim's class. Sounds like a nice, laid back atmosphere. He's talking half priced appetizers at the hotel down the street after class, maybe some grilling if the weather permits; and the other cool thing is that you can stay right at his place. Can't get much more convenient than that. And I can say I learned from the guy who wrote the book on Windsor chair making. Well, A book anyway. ;-)
Love the idea for the garden hose fitting. I have been looking for something like this. DO you know the size, thread, details about the fittings?
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