Bending purflings in a heat blanket side bender

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I have started making my own BWB puflings which turn out pretty good. Much cheaper now than buying them.
The ones that LMI sold went around the curves easily and pulled into the channels nicely.
The ones from SM don't take the curves as nice, and as I found out when building the Jumbo, they do not come long enough. Thus, I started making them from dyed black maple and Holly.
However, these also don't bend in the tight curves and I've had to apply some heat as I go into the waist areas especially. Sooooo

My question is: has anyone ever bent their purflings in he side bender along with the binding and or sides?
Does it work okay? I just used Titebond III to make my last batch and figure they just might take he heat in the bending

I'll try it but would love to hear about experiences or opinions.

Thanks Guys and Gals!

Kevin

[tippie53]

yes I have I think it may be in my bending library. I bend them and set them against the sides and put binding so they don't twist as you bend

[Stray Feathers]

Kevin, I do this all the time. I laminate the purflings to the bindings that are to be bent together, and I wrap the other purflings snugly to the bindings with paper, secured by tape. In the photo, the purflings are w/b/w, like the ones laminated to the bindings, two stacked together. Don't be confused by the bindings being on top of the side - I bend them beside the side, one package of two bindings and two purfling strips per side. I usually wrap them with four strips of paper to reduce the chance of something bending the wrong way. I've had very few problems. When I take a side out of the bender, I put it in the mould, and then clothes pin the binding/purfling package to an edge of the side until everything cools.

P.S. I'd be interested to know more about how you make your own purfling - I'd like to try incorporating some brown lines, or perhaps bloodwood if I could get it thin enough. Bruce W.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Thank you John and Bruce. This gives me confidence to go ahead and bend them next time.

Bruce
I am using 6" x 36" x .6mm dyed black veneers from Stewmac and same size Holly that I got from Constantines many years ago. I have one piece of the holly left. After that I'll try to find more or start using dyed white veneer. I've seen them for sale somewhere, or just use maple.

I'm now using Titebond 3. I cut the veneers to 3" widths and I have 3" wide alder boards covered in wax paper for clamping the glued up veneers in-between. The 3" strips are just easier to handle then using them at 6" wide. I use plenty of glue spread with a foam brush. The Holly seems to curl less than the black so I lay a black piece down, then lay the glue surface Holly on that, spread glue on the top side of the Holly and lay the second black down, then lay the second board on top and use lots of clamps. Let dry over night.

Cutting the strips on the bandsaw; fine tooth hs worked well. I cut them to around .100".

However these are not very flexible thus the desire to pretbend them. About $40 for the veneers yields like 36 strips. Way cheaper then buying the purflings these days. And of course you can do color combinations too!