Bending wood - making a steamer

Because the top of the glass for the arched door has an arched top, I need to make some arched stop trim to hold the glass in. I could cut it out of stock, but it probably wouldn't look as nice, and the right way to do this is to bend some trim. The stop trim I am attempting to bend is 1/4" x 1/2".

There are several ways to bend wood, but the most time honored and most common is to steam bend. The process of steam bending is basically puting your piece in a pressure cooker until it is soft enough to bend around a jig. Wood simply cannot be wet, it needs to be pressure infused.


Here is a picture of the first steamer I built. The process is the steam goes in one end, builds up inside the box, pressure cooks the wood, and makes it soft. This steamer, lovingly titled the Mark I, didn't hold the pressure. I made some improvements, called it the Mark II, and it was much better. However, I really needed to crank up some pressure...



Here is the Mark III. I spent a whopping $38 and made a steamer out of 4" pvc. It holds quite a bit of steam, and allowed me to bend a few pieces into place. Now the pieces need to dry overnight, and I'll see if they fit!