How straight must (should) the sections be before moving on to rough planing ? I've got my first butt section split , nodes done and sections cut to length (3x3 node spacing) and have finished straightening them , kind of ... . But how straight should they get ? I'm still a little hesitant with the heat gun not knowing yet how much the cane will take before I wreck it so am wondering if I should stop now or what .?

Take a spare piece of cane and "wreck" it. Heat and bend it until it fails. Then you will know how far you can take things. I think you will find that cane is a lot tougher than you might expect.

The straighter you get your strips the easier they are to plane to the final size.

fishbum

darrin,

reads like you filed nodes, pressed them. if there are no big sweeps, kinks, should be good to heat treat. or do the initial bevel and then heat treat. if there is concern with how the strips look, post a picture. others will certainly chime in and provide feedback.

as fishbum stated, straighter strips, pressed flat nodes, much easier to plane.

Thanks guys . i'll put up a pic or two later tonight (after the kids are asleep ) . The nodes are pressed etc but there are a couple of sweeps that I've tried but failed to get rid of . I'm thinking that I'm not applying enough heat (scared lol) as I didn't quite get that "pliable" feeling that I did when Wayne was doing the heating whilst showing me .
I'll also play with a sacrificial piece and see what I see .

thanks again

I rough straighten my strips before planing, but there's no need to get them perfectly straight, as if that were possible. Get the twist and kinks out, but gentle sweeps are OK, and there's no way you'll get them arrow straight. Heat treating will take out some of the sweeps, but most of the straightening comes when you glue and bind.

As for destroying a strip, that's unlikely. Generally I heat a section by gently rotating it over a heat source for 25 to 30 seconds, and then testing it. If it doesn't yield, I give it another 15 to 20 seconds. Be sure to spread the heat over the whole area that needs to be straightened.

What surprises most folks is that, when properly heated, bamboo becomes plastic, and can be bent into almost any shape, and will hold that shape when cooled. If it resists bending, it isn't heated enough, or not heated through.

The key is to get the nodes flat and take out the kinks at the nodes and take out the twists. The important thing to do is make sure the strips lie down into the grooves. Thath will give you the proper taper. I find that after heat treating my strips they have a uniform gentle sweep. If the planing is done properly then when you bind them together you will be surprised how they just nest and come out straight. Remember - gentle sweeps are okay but kinks at the nodes are not.

Cheers!

Arne

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Heat Treating Fixtures

Harry beat me to it.

Get the nodes flat. Get the dog legs out of the nodes. Bevel the strips. Heat treat in the fixture and the sweeps are gone.

I don't care about a little charring of the corners on the pith side. It gets planed away any way. If it really bothers you, soak the strips first. You gotta get enough heat into the cane. When it is ready it is really obvious. I thought that I had broken it the first time I hit the right temperature. It gets that plastic.

I was real paranoid about straightness and asked the same question when I started last year. 10 blanks latter I'm a lot less concerned about getting thing real straight before heat treating.

I've found that the Heat Treating Fixtures are worth every dime. Just be sure to bind the strips tight before you heat treat. I also wet the cotton thread so it will tighten even more as the strips come up to temperature.