Steam-bent Headphone Stand Made From Reclaimed Materials

This was a gift for my 18-year-old step daughter to store her fancy headphones. I thought it would be a nice juxtaposition for her shiny, new cans to rest atop some reclaimed wood and scraps of steel. Watch the video above to see how I made them or read the following Instructable. Thanks and be good! -Tim

I was given huge white oak beams from the belly of a schooner being restored, so i had a lot of work ahead of me to get a manageable piece ready for making this. Once I had it all squared up I was ready to start slicing.

I sliced the oak into very thin pieces (less than 1/8" by setting a sop guide on the opposite side of the blade, away from the fence. I have a fancy Rockler product for this that is quick and awesome, but you can also use a feather board or make something yourself.

To steam the wood, I simply put it in a 4" PVC pipe stuck in a pot of steaming hot water atop my woodburning stove. I poured a little extra water in and capped the top. After about 15 minutes in this tube, I pulled the wood out and bent it around another piece of 4" PVC tube, applying wood glue between each layer. and clamped them all in to shape.

Yes, the wood got wet and this is not the proper way to steam wood, but it worked. The main down-side was it took the wet wood and glue forever to dry.

Eventually the next day it was dry enough to shape it a little on the bandsaw and sand the rough spots away. There were a few gaps in the layers that didn't fully adhere, but it still looked pretty darn good. I did a lot of hand sanding and used tung oil as a finish. Now the base.

I had some scraps of 1/8" steel that I cut to a shape I found pleasing. I have a plasma cutter which speeds things up a lot, but you don't need one. I ground all the edges even and smooth, then bent the edges of the pieces 45-degrees. Once bent, I welded the two pieces together, did some cleanup on them, drilled holes and bolted the wood to the steel.

A few people disliked the bolts I used and suggested rivets instead. i completely agree rivets would be a more elegant solution.

I hope you like. Thanks for checking it out! :) -Tim