Building a Portal Turret with motion controlled audio and lighting

Step 11 Aluminum Leg Rods

These pieces were tricky to figure out how to make.  After doing some research, I finally settled on using 3/8 inch aluminum rods that you can pick up at any hardware store.  Getting the right curve is pretty important as it will effect the angle of the legs so I built two separate jigs that I used to bend the front and rear leg pieces.  Two for the front, one for the rear.  3/8 inch aluminum is thin enough that you can bend them by hand although it does take some effort.

The first thing I needed to do was build a template for each of the two leg shapes that I could use to bend the rods.  I built these out of 1/2 inch MDF and they reflect the shape of each piece.  I firmly clamped these to the edge of my work table and insert a 3/8 inch aluminum rod into the slot and then bent the rod to match the shape.  These rods then had the excess length trimmed off to set there final length.  All that is left to do is to give them a quick coat of black gloss spray paint and then attack them to the leg pieces.  All of these pieces were then epoxied together for maximum strength.

Materials used for this stage
MDF (medium density fiberboard)
3/8 inch aluminum rods
Black glossy spray paint
5 minute epoxie

Tools used for this stage
Clamps
Band saw
Dremel with cutting blades