Video: How to Make a Steambox to Bend Wood

[Glenn MacGrady]

Need to bend wood for ribs, stems, seats or whatever? You need a steambox. Here is a short video in which Xyla Foxlin shows how easy it is to make one.

Xyla is an engineer who makes all sorts of things on YouTube—including stripper canoes, paddles, rockets, wooden corsets, guitars, and bullet proof ball gowns. She's the niece of Peter Macfarlane, the owner/builder of Otter Creek Small Craft, the only canoeist who has paddled the Northern Forest Canoe Trail in both directions, and a guy who gets extra credit from me because 15 months ago he was the only person I could find within 150 miles who agreed to re-rail and wood repair my Swift Winisk, a project I eventually postponed.

 

[Fitz]

I like the plastic bag method for inwales, outwales and things. I still use a box for ribs.

 

[Cruiser]

Cautionary point with her design .... metal can stain the wood, that may or may not be an issue, depending on how your bend wood is being assembled/glued. So if you can't do the box vertical and hang the wood in the box, wood dowel/shelving is likely preferable to metal IMO for the shelving part.