Bending oak

[Little Rascal]

Well I think it's oak, maybe teak? Perhaps you can tell from the photo...

I have a wooden guide rail for the sliding companion hatch that has bent/warped. It was taken off the boat by the previous owner for sanding and varnishing - which I am now doing a year or so later.

It's about 3 and a half feet long and roughly an inch out of true. I'm reluctant to just bolt it back on, as the boat is quite small and I don't wish to put that kind of strain on the hatch side. It's obviously warped because of it's L shaped section.

I was thinking I could soak/steam it and bolt it to a piece of 2 by 4 to straighten it. What do you think?

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[old_salt]

Just set up a jig with a little bit of extra to counter the bend and clamp it up may be pour some boiling water over it from a kettle and leave it over night, un-clamp and have a look see and if under done increase the extra counter and re do if over done just leave free and let it reset it's self a bit then fix in place leave for a week then free it and see if it is mate-ting up without any strain to the hatch side.

 

[SHUG]

OR you could get it into position and use a wallpaper steamer to heat it up as you tighten up the screws. You could put old blankets or sacks on top to retain the heat and steam.

 

[oldfrank]

It's not important but it looks more like teak or iroko than oak.

 

[AndrewB]

It's not important but it looks more like teak or iroko than oak.

Agree it looks more like teak. It may matter somewhat. I used to find oak the easiest hardwood to bend, teak is harder to persuade but iroko very inclined to split.