I had success with a slightly different technique with the iron. I did not use the steam, just the heat. The day before I bent the strips I applied a coat of MAS epoxy to one side of some mahogony and spruce strips. One day later the epoxy was still very flexible but kept the grain from splitting out. The strips were applied with the epoxy side out and the iron supplying heat. This worked very well on my Little Auk cockpit coaming. I don't have all the pictures up on my website yet (just got a new scanner last week) but one of the existing pictures does show the radius of the cockpit coaming.

Steve

: Spidey and myself have used irons for steam bending and we both have left
: posts about our results. Spidey has a nice web page with good
: documentation.

: I have done my steam bending two ways; one with the PVC tube, with fairly
: good results. But watch out the tube will bend under the heat also you
: don’t have much time to work with the strip. Second way is the iron
: method, which I personally like. What I like is that you are working a
: small area at any given time, this way you do not have to worry about the
: entire strip cooling off on you before your done (can give you more
: working time).

: The largest piece I have tried is an accent strip for my current canoe
: project it is ¼” thick and about 4 ½” inches wide. I have not tried it on
: a thicker piece of stock than ¼”.

: Here are a few tips that I have: Pre moisten the strip prior to being
: steamed (ie go over the area with a wet rag).

: Don’t flip the iron so that the front edge is angled downwards or the
: water will spill out.

: if possible start at the lowest point and work your way up (steam rises).

: I have found on larger pieces (such as my accent strip) that I cannot get
: into there final place at first, was no big deal. Clamp it into place and
: the next day they will with a little coxing slid into their final resting
: place sometimes with a little more steam.

: Good luck

: Jason