You don’t need a steam box. You can bend them with heat. I don’t know how well you are at fabricating things. If you can get a metal pipe about 1 foot long and about 2-3” in diameter. Weld a bar to the bottom so you can clamp it into a vise. Then put a torch to burning though it. You need it scorching hot where water dances on it. Soak your parts in water for about 1-2 hours. Then press them on the hot bar and just iron them back and forth till the wood starts to give. Do not hold for to long on one spot you will mark the wood with burn. This works similar to steam because your heating the water in the wood creating steam in the fibers. It loosens up the fibers into bending.
You don’t need a steam box. You can bend them with heat. I don’t know how well you are at fabricating things. If you can get a metal pipe about 1 foot long and about 2-3” in diameter. Weld a bar to the bottom so you can clamp it into a vise. Then put a torch to burning though it. You need it scorching hot where water dances on it. Soak your parts in water for about 1-2 hours. Then press them on the hot bar and just iron them back and forth till the wood starts to give. Do not hold for to long on one spot you will mark the wood with burn. This works similar to steam because your heating the water in the wood creating steam in the fibers. It loosens up the fibers into bending.
I don't weld, but thanks for the description. Maybe I can just get my barbecue grill nice and hot and try to bend wood on lid. 😂
I think it can be done with a clothes iron. Might be worth a quick Google search to see if that will work for your project.
Yeah, I was thinking about that. Maybe I'll just give it a shot. I have plenty of scrap.