Paul Hubbman
Member
- Messages
- 582
- Location
- St. Louis, MO
Apparently, my newly found free time is too torturous, so i'm cued up for the next project. I pulled out one of my older sketches that i've been mulling over for a while and have decided to build it. It's a shallow wall hung table about 5' wide and about 14" deep at the center. The front edge is radiused and returns back to the wall on either side. The top is supported by a radiused apron with an arched front. It's about 20" tall at each end (where it mounts to the wall) and about 3" tall at the center.
The top, i'm not concerned with. It will be solid stock with a radiused dado to receive the top of the apron. The apron is the issue. It will be 3/8" or 1/2" thick, made of 1/8" layers laminated together to hold the curve. The outside radius of the apron is a hair under 30 inches. I am building a "mold" or die with the proper radius to use as my base. On that, i can either laminate the layers and clamp them over each other using a "blanket" of slats (think beefy roll top desk top) and nylon strapping, OR i can build a vacuum bag and clamp it that way. I've done the straps / slat blanket process before. It works fine, but you need to work quickly. I've got a vacuum pump, and i've read up on making vacuum bags with thick plastic sheathing such as shower curtains.
Anyone out there with any experience with both processes willing to chime in with bits of wisdom???
Paul Hubbman
The top, i'm not concerned with. It will be solid stock with a radiused dado to receive the top of the apron. The apron is the issue. It will be 3/8" or 1/2" thick, made of 1/8" layers laminated together to hold the curve. The outside radius of the apron is a hair under 30 inches. I am building a "mold" or die with the proper radius to use as my base. On that, i can either laminate the layers and clamp them over each other using a "blanket" of slats (think beefy roll top desk top) and nylon strapping, OR i can build a vacuum bag and clamp it that way. I've done the straps / slat blanket process before. It works fine, but you need to work quickly. I've got a vacuum pump, and i've read up on making vacuum bags with thick plastic sheathing such as shower curtains.
Anyone out there with any experience with both processes willing to chime in with bits of wisdom???
Paul Hubbman