I have to bend some redwood deck fascia and it’s giving me some trouble. The fascia size is 2 x 10, and I need to bend it to a 5′ radius. We had some rough stock ripped on the band saw at the lumber yard to 1/4″ thickness to laminate the curve (the bottom edge will be exposed so kerfing isn’t an option here), thinking that I would just clamp it and laminate it with marine grade epoxy. The problem I’ve been running into is that at this thickness the stock is drying and cracking, but any thicker and it just breaks. Using thicker stock and steaming it probably isn’t an option either. What else can I do to make this bend work?
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Fine Homebuilding's editorial director has some fun news to share.
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
Can you help this poor guy out?
continue with the 1/4 stock, but steam it as well .. should do the trick .. post a nice pic for us when your done!
I did a redwood surround on an oval soaking tub a few years back. But the laminated rim was 1-1/2" thick and about three inches wide with random length 1/4" thick strips...not your 2x10 dimension.
I ripped from very well seasoned redwood in a manner that yielded vertical grain in the 1/4" dimension and glued up planed layer after layer and then sanded to a finish dimension.
If you are using green redwood I would expect that as it would dry, it would crack and split.
What type of glue are you using? After you rip can you then plane down to 3/16th?
A 5 ft radious is about the same as a rocking chair rocker, could you bandsaw 1-1/2" square arches out of the redwood and glue them in over lapping stacks to make the distance of the arc you need . Sand the surfaces and the instal as a single assembled 2x10 curve?
...............Iron Helix
I'll attempt to help.
Redwood is very dry, and it's a very brittle wood, as you are finding out. Make sure the stock has very straight grain.
You could try steaming or even soaking the 1/4" pieces, but you may have to go to 1/8" laminations and soak or steam them. You'll have to experiment I guess!
Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.
John Svenson, builder, remodeler, NE Ohio
Is there any possibility you could miter it (with biscuits or splines)?
Essentially, you would just be making a picture frame (okay, part of one), so would just have to divide 360 by the number of sides (for a full circle) to get your angle. Of course, half that being your miter cut.
It might be easiest to lay it out on a table, or piece of ply.
If worse came to worse, since you have a bandsaw, you could make a couple, laminate them together and run the joined monster through the bandsaw to get your arc. You'd need a decent support table, but I've done similar things on my little 14" Powermatic.
No, mitering isn't possible. The fascia follow an S-curve, and really needs to look like one piece. But thanks for the suggestion.