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Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: John Cooper on August 21, 2008, 10:26:00 PM

Title: MDF for bowforms?
Post by: John Cooper on August 21, 2008, 10:26:00 PM

I love this new Forum!

I'm just starting to get my bowshop up and running and am planning on putting together a bunch of different forms for steam and heat bending.  (then I'll have some bows to show n' tell!)  I'm primarily a selfbow guy.

Has anyone used MDF for your forms?  The dimensional stability of it attracts me, but I don't know how it would hold up to my heat gun.  I know moisture is bad so I'm going to polyurethane the whole thing.

Am I just making more work for myself by straying from plain old pine lumber?

~John

Title: Re: MDF for bowforms?
Post by: Dano on August 21, 2008, 10:36:00 PM

I've had the same form for about 6 years, doug fir, untreated, unfinished, it takes a beating and I don't worry about it.

Title: Re: MDF for bowforms?
Post by: Pat B on August 21, 2008, 10:54:00 PM

Yea, mine are 2x4 and 2x6 lumber. How many bows do you plan to build?     Pat

Title: Re: MDF for bowforms?
Post by: John Cooper on August 21, 2008, 11:17:00 PM

Just one at a time, Pat!   :)   I'm going to try some experimentation on the amount of reflex and adding recurved tips to different lengths of bows.

John

Title: Re: MDF for bowforms?
Post by: Pat B on August 21, 2008, 11:55:00 PM

I don't know how the glue in the MDF will react to the heat. I use a heat gun for reflexing, recurving and corrections and my 2x4 caul has lasted quite a few years. Pat

Title: Re: MDF for bowforms?
Post by: Shaun on August 21, 2008, 11:57:00 PM

Me too for a piece of dimensional lumber - 2x4 or 2x6.

Title: Re: MDF for bowforms?
Post by: Glenn Newell on August 22, 2008, 06:27:00 PM

I use pine structural beams, I don't know what they are called in the USA but here they are sold as L.V.L. here. It is just pine laminated vertically to make the beam, a lot like action wood but used for construction in houses. It's light and strong and very stable, mine don't warp or move and I have fired mine in the heat box many times. I have seen the product in the States, she is ready to make into a bow form...Glenn...

Title: Re: MDF for bowforms?
Post by: TNstickn on August 22, 2008, 06:47:00 PM

The fresh cut edges of the MDF will soak up the poly very nicely and get very hard. I used MDF to build some book cases for the kids rooms and they took a real beating until we polied them, now they havent got a dent since. Had'em for maybe 5-6 years now. Poly a scrap and see how the poly reacts to the heat gun.

Title: Re: MDF for bowforms?
Post by: Holm-Made on August 29, 2008, 02:56:00 AM

I use the LVLs for my forms as well.  I cover the surface I'm glueing on with a strip of fiberglass to make it more durable and keep it from getting dinged.  Chad