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David Marks wrote the step-by-step photo feature below detailing the build process of his bentwood laminated lamp. His “Woodworks” Seasons 4-6 Collection has just been released on shopwoodworking.com. Enjoy…
Bentwood Laminated Lamp
The first step is to create a flat surface.
Phil, a student from the Sacramento, CA area, took a class with me in November 2012 on how to make a bentwood laminated lamp from mahogany, similar to the one I made on “Woodworks” Season 5, Episode 12.
Bending wood opens up a world of design possibilities that enables one to create furniture with flowing curved lines, as opposed to the predictable flat planed designs that woodworking is usually associated with. The process ironically began with jointing the wood to create a flat surface.
The next step was to resaw the wood into thin strips, the mahogany used needed to be 1/16” thick in order to bend to a tight radius.
Laying out the strips on a table covered with plastic makes for a faster method of rolling on the glue. I prefer a slow setting Urea resin glue. The brand we used was Unibond 800.
Laminates are coated with urea resin glue.
After the glue had dried overnight at 70 degrees, we unclamped it and the wood retained the shape of the form.
Our next challenge was to resaw the bentwood lamination in half which, because of the wide curve, was done on a 36” band saw .
After that, we routed a channel and glued in some 3/8” copper tubing for the wire.
Once everything was glued up, we joined the legs to the trunk and Phil could begin sculpting and shaping the legs.
You can purchase the David Marks’ “Woodworks” Seasons 4-6 Collection at shopwoodworking.com to see this project and many others!
To see this entire project, view the gallery below:
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