Hi Eric,
I took the "avoid steam bending" route initially but it is not too difficult once you make up your mind to do it.

As for cost. it can be negligible in the overall scheme of things. My 'boiler' is a 'retired' soup S/S stock pot, conveniently the S/S lid had a rolled-under lip just right for adding an O Ring (cost $3) to help keep the steam in. Bored a hole and inserted a 3/4" brass pipe nipple from my 'scrap' box with locknut ($3). Initially used a spare hot water hose from a washing machine (no cost) but it was not big enough; replaced it with 1m (3') of 3/4" automotive heater hose (cost about $8). The steam box is made from a 1.2m (4') square piece of 50mm (2") thick Styrofoam (cost about $15).

The 4' box is long enough for the cockpit floor timbers but there is a second box from the same piece of Styrofoam which I will duct tape to the first piece for steaming the coaming timber.
The total cost of my steaming system was about $29 excluding the 1,600 watt electric hot plate - initially I used the home BBQ !

There does not appear to be a method of including a pic in this response unless the pic resides somewhere on the Internet . My pics reside in my computer only so you will need to access the Australian Sea Kayak Forum (need to Register - it's free and a great Forum worth reading regularly) and go to the "SoF in the West" thread to see a pic of my simple setup.
Alternatively Eric, email me on mcbunny09@gmail.com and I can reply with the pics.

Cheers from Martin Bunny.