nice job on rocker. I really like the seat sculpting you did

Sal

No picture, but a steamer set-up is simple--just a plywood box not much bigger than the pieces you want to steam.
You make a connection for the steam hose in the bottom on one end and connect a hose from there to whatever vessel you use for the boiler. I set the box on trestles with the steam connection lower than the other end.

 I used a large old aluminum kettle with 3/4 i.d. vinyl hose and heated the kettle with a propane camp stove. You don't really need both an inlet and outlet connection like some how-to books or articles show. With a 3/4" hose, the steam runs up the middle of hose, and the condensate runs back down into the kettle, clinging to the walls of the hose. This is the same way old one-pipe steam radiators worked. The steam fills the box, because steam always rushes to wherever condensation is greatest, so you don't get cool spots with this method.

I'm no expert on steaming and bending wood, but I learned some valuable things.

You bend the wood as quickly as possible after removing it from the steamer. You clamp it to your form and leave it there for a day or two. It WILL spring back somewhat, so your form should be a tighter radius than the final bend. For example, the back pieces on the rocker were clamped to a form with a 19" radius, and ended up with about a 21" radius.

I fit the pieces after bending.

The tight radius needed for the knee braces had to be done in a two-step process:  first, I ripped the oak to 1/8" strips and steamed them and clamped them onto a form in the same order they came off the saw; after they cooled and dried on the form, I glued the strips together, again in the order they came off the saw, and re-clamped them onto the same form. There was virtually no springback.

It's not all that difficult. There are quite a few good articles on the subject that you can google, and I recommend reading as much as you can find, because you'll soon find that everybody has a little different idea about how long to steam and how to build the steaming setup, etc. All of which shows that various methods all work, so you need not be intimidated from trying it.

Nice finished rocking chair. I say finished because completing some things for my wifey generally get put aside, ( I gots too many irons in the fire). Did you wedge tennon the legs to the rockers? keep up the nice work. Tim