Well, I got a little bit of work done today.
First off I built a pattern to taper the sides with a router. Saw this jig on one of Jesse's builds and he explained how to lay it out for me.
This one tapers from 4 1/8" down to 3 1/8". So I measured to the waist on my pattern, then I started my curve 2" before the waist. Curving down to where the shoulder comes around at the top end. Drew a nice graceful curve, then straightened out for the 3 1/8'' part. Cut my pattern out on the bandsaw, screwed a piece of 1x4 to the back to clamp in the vice. And there it is.
I band-sawed most of the waste off to make a cleaner cut with the router, but even so, on the first try, climb cut, the router grabbed the grain and split the side. Luckily, these sides were thick and I had managed to re-saw them before I started so I've got extra sides. This time, I back-cut with the router first to remove the waste without the chance of the bit grabbing, and this worked great, all sides shaped and ready to bend.
Backs are joined and sanded also.
So on to the bending. I use a propane torch heated bending iron, (aluminum really) and use a paper towel sprayed with water between the iron and the water sprayed wood. The wet paper towel idea came from watching a build by Ed Schaeffer. I had had problems before with scorching the sides, which then entailed lots of sanding to clean up. This pretty well eliminates that problem.
My iron.
Ready to bend.
And the first side in the mold.
And both locked in safe, for drying.
This is the first time I have shaped my sides before bending, sure looks nice in the mold. And is going to be sweet not having to carefully plane down the fragile sides while bent.
That's where I stopped today,
Till next time,
Joe