Oregan and other woods

[Archie1979]

Hey all,
I have just about finished my keel on my new boat build. I am about to begin my apron and hogpiece. Tha plans call for oregan hogpiece and apron to be steam bent.
I am not steam bending any of my items I have been laminating them instead. The hardwood on the keel seemed to offer no problems however I began the hogpiece and began cutting my oregan into strips of around 5 - 6 mm in thickness for the laminationg particulalrly the stem of the keel this thin to allow it to bend enough.
As i starting laminating the oregan strips keep on snapping the are just not elastic enough.
What other sort of wood could I use.
Could I not just keep using the same type of hardwood as I laminated the keel from?

Cheers
Archie

[Gilbert]

Yes, certainly. If it is good enough for the keel it is good enough for other parts too.

[rwatson]

I have had success in getting thin strips of timber to bend without breaking, by epoxying say, 6oz cloth on the the outer side of the timber you are bending. It also works well on plywood.
Once cured, you are then able to put a lot of bend into the pieces without snapping. For really pronounced bends, maybe even both sides could be treated.
Oregon would be a real bastard to bend without breaking unless it was very,very high quality. You might have to get a better quality bending timber if you dont want to go the the bother of glassing the strips.
If you have a lot of strips to do, you could fibreglass one strip, lay a plastic layer over it, put another wood strip on top, glass that, plastic over etc
That would leave a nice smooth layer to work with later.
Since the strips have to be epoxied together later, it might be worth using 'peel ply' on the glassed surface while setting. When the peel ply is removed, it leaves a very even, but textured finish ideal for bonding something else to, without having to do any sanding.

[alan white]

Moisture in the wood will help the bending. Dry wood is more brittle. Try same wood at 20% or so.

Alan

[Archie1979]

Thanks for the info guys, I have tried re sawing the oregan strips at 5mm and although they are close to breaking it gives me enough bend in the plank to laminate.

Will post the updates on where I am at.
Just finished the keel today will post some pics shortly.

Steve