Temptress Build 23: Stem Lamination (Part 1 of 2) 

What you should do before bending the on the jig, is steam the wood in a steam box for a few hours. That should make the wood little easier to bend.

It's very cool to see this coming together! Looks like you've got those joint offsets spot on here. A couple of suggestions for easing the stress on bending all laminations at once. As a few have mentioned you could steam the laminations, just make sure the moisture content gets back down in the timber before you epoxy it. Also bending the laminations a few at a time and glueing up in several rounds will help things. Boat terminology is a minefield in itself, I am certainly way off being proficient in it so probably not the best person to learn it from 😆 Love the cowbell, great work Bob!

Maybe contact or view episode 127 of Ship Happens. The used steam bending for first shaping the curves and epoxy them afterwards.

Thanks for sharing the build process! More and stronger clamps may be too much for the MDF form so I would agree with the comments below. Pre bending using heat would be a good idea. I have had success with cedar and just a heat gun. Once the lignin in the wood reaches a high enough temperature the wood just relaxes and bends. Rob Macks at Laughing Loon Kayaks has a great write up on how this is done for cedar strip kayaks. Your thin strips may not need the water / steam for heat transfer that larger pieces need. A bit of experimentation with a heat gun and an off cut may be worthwhile. Apply heat and use hand pressure to feel when the wood relaxes - it's quite incredible to feel when it changes. Also, as below, if you only glue up 2 or three pre bent strips at a time it should reduce the stress on the form and clamps. It may take a bit longer but should get the results you are after without the risk of a big mess of wet epoxy and a cracked former. Which ever method you use, I will be tuning in to see how the build goes. Best of luck!

Maybe try ratcheting nylon straps in addition to yupr clamps?

Enjoying your videos! Are you going to try to glue and bend all the boards at once? Might be easier to start gluing and bending two or three boards allowing them to dry, adding a couple boards at a time.

I would steam bend each board to get them into the right shape. Then glue them all up at one. If they are close the the right shape, then you won't need nearly as much clamping pressure. Also less likely to delaminate. For the steam bending, you might try wetting down the area to bend on one board, clamp the long/straight/dry section into place, then gradually bend while applying a heat gun to the area you are bending. Once the wood gets warm enough, you can feel it relax. Then just move the heat down a little further. This is a little more time consuming that using a steam chamber to warm up the wood, but you don't need a steam chamber/generator. Try the process on some scrap material about the same thickness. I bet you will be surprised at how easily the wood relaxes when you get the fibers in tension warm enough.

Why not glue 3 strips and after curing another 3 until all are glued

Did you get a PHD in gluing from UMass?

BOC