Bending Birch

[JasonTX]

So what happened, Jason!?

I'll find out tomorrow. I'm taking the road trip in the morning to pick it up.

[dwgriff1]

My Ultalight is 5 feet wide, so that pretty well determined the direction of the wood grain.

Since I don't think that Lauan or Maranti have great looking grain patterns, I decided to paint the inside panels. I painted them before assembly.

Prime on the bare wood, then texture paint from Home Depot (handled much like a think sheetrock texture) and two coats of oil enamel. Sanded between each coat, the results look almost like leather and are very smooth.

I iike the result, and my cabinet work should make a good contrast.

dave

[JasonTX]

I now have my bending birch but now I have a question. This stuff has a smooth side and the back is the rough side. This stuff rolled into a tube with no problem but it seems that it only rolls in a way that leaves the smooth side to the outside, which is just fine for the outside of the tear but for the inside I would rather it roll leaving the rough side out, which would mean it would roll the curve with no problems and still leave the smooth side to the inside of the tear. When the guy rolled this stuff up the first one he attempted to roll it with the smoth side in but it cracked. Has anyone experienced this before? My plans all along was to paint on the inside, so will it hurt anything at all by having the rough side being the side that will get painted?

[Guy]

Dear Jason,

There is also a plywood that is 1/8" bending poplar with a really light beautiful surface. I am using the 3/8" bending birch on the exterior and the 1/8" bending birch on the interior. Gives you the best of both.

[JasonTX]

Guy, thanks for the quick reply. I'm using 1/8". The problem I am having is getting this stuff to bend for the inside curve inside the tear. This stuff will only roll one direction and it's opposite of what I need it on the inside curves. I tried to unroll it and roll it with the smooth side to the inside and it began to crack so I stopped. I even took a piece that was left over after I cut what I needed and it snapped when I tried to roll it the direction I wanted.

[Ira]

Jason, I had the same problem, and I used 1/4".

All of my skins are just spar varnished, no stain, and as you can see from my avatar and other pictures, the varnish alone gives it a color and brings out the grain. (My side skins are birch too.)

Well, I made the mistake of installing the interior roof skin before varnishing, so I did the varnishing after it was installed. There's a certain trepdiation about finishing before you install it, because it will crack even when bending in the direction it's supposed to. And the FINISH could crack.

Anyway, varnishing on that rough side once it was installed, and trying to use the oribital sander between coats with that curve, I wasn't happy with the results at ALL and wound up covering it with tiki bamboo fencing. It was one of my many screw-ups, but it was a big one.

In your case, with paint, maybe you just want to sand that rough side down a bit. I think you would probably also be safe if you painted it on the sawhorses and then installed.