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Step 3Make Former
Right first step:
Make the former for bending the legs. It is roughly something like that pictured. The sketchup model should give you a better idea. It should be 1650mm long about 500mm wide and have an arc of radius 1640mm. The ideal former is not what I built, but I just used what was on hand really. The former pieces were 18mm unfinished chipboard on a baseboard and skinned in 6mm MDF. 12mm dowel rod was used for aligning the pieces. You are gonna need 28 or so identically sized chipboard pieces if you make it this way. I made it with about 16 former pieces with spacers between them and then skinned it all over with 6mm MDF after.
I wanted to CNC the parts but I couldn't get access to the machine so I made the former in my house instead. I printed out a pattern at full scale with the plotter because I had no room for a beam compass in my tiny house and it was raining outside.
Just mark out your first piece with the beam compass. Mark some holes for the dowel rod so that you can line up all the former bits afterward. If you had threaded rod instead of dowel that'd be even better... Then drill the holes out with the appropriate sized bit. Cut out the arc with your jigsaw and use a rasp and some sandpaper and elbow grease to get it smooth (maybe even a belt sander if you are brave). Mark that piece and use it as your template. Call one side the face side also.
Line up a blank on top of your template, clamp them to something secure like a proper workbench. Dont use your kitchen table like me. Rough out the arc with your jigsaw and use your router and bearing guided bit to finish the job. Mark the face side on the freshly cut former piece. Flip both over and clamp again. Drill through the holes again using the template as your guide. Now wash, rinse, repeat until you have enough pieces to make up in their combined thicknesses the height of the leg plus a fair bit for waste seeing as we are going to be cutting off some angles later on.
Stand up the former parts so that the face sides are all facing the same direction. Line up the first two pieces and pass the dowel rod through the holes to keep them lined up. Screw them together with 30mm screws. Push the rod through a bit more and add the next former piece, screw that to the others. Repeat this until the former is finished. It might be hard work to get the rod through because of all the friction. Your trusty hammer will be useful here!!!
Make the former for bending the legs. It is roughly something like that pictured. The sketchup model should give you a better idea. It should be 1650mm long about 500mm wide and have an arc of radius 1640mm. The ideal former is not what I built, but I just used what was on hand really. The former pieces were 18mm unfinished chipboard on a baseboard and skinned in 6mm MDF. 12mm dowel rod was used for aligning the pieces. You are gonna need 28 or so identically sized chipboard pieces if you make it this way. I made it with about 16 former pieces with spacers between them and then skinned it all over with 6mm MDF after.
I wanted to CNC the parts but I couldn't get access to the machine so I made the former in my house instead. I printed out a pattern at full scale with the plotter because I had no room for a beam compass in my tiny house and it was raining outside.
Just mark out your first piece with the beam compass. Mark some holes for the dowel rod so that you can line up all the former bits afterward. If you had threaded rod instead of dowel that'd be even better... Then drill the holes out with the appropriate sized bit. Cut out the arc with your jigsaw and use a rasp and some sandpaper and elbow grease to get it smooth (maybe even a belt sander if you are brave). Mark that piece and use it as your template. Call one side the face side also.
Line up a blank on top of your template, clamp them to something secure like a proper workbench. Dont use your kitchen table like me. Rough out the arc with your jigsaw and use your router and bearing guided bit to finish the job. Mark the face side on the freshly cut former piece. Flip both over and clamp again. Drill through the holes again using the template as your guide. Now wash, rinse, repeat until you have enough pieces to make up in their combined thicknesses the height of the leg plus a fair bit for waste seeing as we are going to be cutting off some angles later on.
Stand up the former parts so that the face sides are all facing the same direction. Line up the first two pieces and pass the dowel rod through the holes to keep them lined up. Screw them together with 30mm screws. Push the rod through a bit more and add the next former piece, screw that to the others. Repeat this until the former is finished. It might be hard work to get the rod through because of all the friction. Your trusty hammer will be useful here!!!
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