Stuglo above says the blade is reversible. I will check that out! Of course this puts me back at the bottom of the learning curve, but so what. It is very sharp. In fact, I relegated it to duty as a plank snipper. Works great in that role. But I'd rather have a dry bending tool. Thanks all.
Thanks, I like the way you are thinking.I too, like Brian use a similar tool. I've tried the soldering irons with the adapters and molds and soaking and clamping to the hull. I take a contour tool to get the shape of the hull then "eyeball" transfer it to this tool.
I've found that this tool will handle any bending job I give it.
As far as how well it will do the job really depends on 3 things, thickness of the planking, wood type of the planking and finally the severity of the curve in the ship's bow. Softer woods are more malleable, harder woods less so. I've never had any trouble bending even 90 degrees over a 6-10 cm ever. I have had to soak harder woods longer in hot water, up to 60 minutes. BUT the aspect of this tool that I love is, depending on the width of your planking, you can bend up to 6 planks at once AND it is a passive tool!!! Unlike other planking tools that you have to actively work. Once you put your planks in this tool and wait for them to dry, you can get back to doing other things on your model. I'd rather put 6 planks in this thing and go work on something else for 2 hours than sit there for 2 hours bending planks
Also, if you don't want to wait for them to air dry, you can hit them with a heat gun or hair dryer to speed things up. But I rather let them air dry and work on something else as we all know how monotonous planking can get.
View attachment 187424
Cheers,
Ken
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available in Scotland :-(.
I turned the blade over and the difference is like night and day. I don't think I even COULD snip through with the full side in use. I trial bent a piece of lime wood left over from the first planking and it curved somewhat but more importantly provided negligible resistance to following the hull curve. One more thing is that when the sharp side was in use the plank formed a polygon, not a curve -- many, many flats that would have to be sanded smooth. When using the full side I donr see much evidence of this.
Well. My brother just gave me one of these today. He doesnt use it. Is the roller there just to hold ether wood down -- it's a clamp. It came with Englitalian instructions, but it just says to wet the wood and bend it, and don't use it too long or it will scorch the wood. I wish there were some videos but there aren't that I can find. Do you dip the wood first or just bend it dry?
Metanol oldugunu sanmiyorum. o zehirli bir kimyasal. Etanol (alkol) olablilr.
You can only use that tool where the concave side of the bend is glued down, hidden. Does it do a good job with the blunt edge out on stock that thick?
have a pair and never use them
In my limited experience yes. Have just shaped and stuck the first false keel plank on my AL dhow. I shaped the strip in two planes, curving round and curving up to follow the deck line.
I personally like to do bending by heat with slow curves being bent and checked to what I need. It is like sculpting or molding clay for the end result. I can always "unbend" or straighten out a curve that is too tight. Also it gives me the ability to do compound curves in both axis to the plank and hull itself. The isopropyl alcohol at room temp and only a few minutes is sufficient for the hot bending iron. Just my own preference as there are many ways to skin a cat. RIch
I used to do some shrink wrap wing covering on my large sailplane gliders with just the home iron held close and always moving as I recall. For ship plank bending I bought an electric plank bender which I roll/pass along the strip gently working it down while the free end is in contact with my wood work surface. I don't use precut jigs so far. Rich
Thank you for your good ideas El Capi. I like the bean can idea; I think that it needs to be fixed into a (wooden?) cradle to stop it from rolling about. My own recent thoughts have been based around using copper pipe from a diy store as the vessel/chamber in which the plank is heated or steamed. Again this would need to be held in a cradle and the end(s) stopped-off with a cork perhaps?
