http://www.woodreview.com.au 53TECHNIQUEbending form must match the inside
concave curve of the door. So before
making the ribs of the bending form,
you need to know what the door will
be made from and its thickness.
Working from the drawing, I make
an MDF template for the ribs of
the bending form. This template is
longer than each rib and also deeper,
allowing for batons to be screwed onto
it to hold the rib blanks (photo 1).
The template is used with a bandsaw
template cutting guide (photo 2) to
cut close to the final shape (photo
3 ) before finalising the cut on the
router table (photo 4). This method
allows quick and accurate production
of the ribs.
A series of MDF spacer blocks are
placed between the ribs to provide
lateral support and an even distance
between the ribs of about 50mm
(photo 5). The ribs can now be
covered with bending ply which is
tacked in place before a sheet of
thin birch ply is glued over the ply
in the vacuum bag. Locating battens
are added so that when the door
components are being glued up in
the vacuum bag they do not move
around and get distorted (photo 6).The material
There are a number of different
options to use as laminations in a door,
but bending ply is commonly used in
this application. This is a commercial
product where the plies are glued up
with the grain direction running in the
same direction in each layer whereas
with regular ply, the grain of each
layer runs at right angles to the layer
above and below, adding considerable
stiffness to the final product.Bending ply can be purchased in
2400 x 1200mm sheets, with the
bend either going across the sheet
or along the sheet. For curved doors,24Main: Silver ash cabinet by Peter
Young. Building curves into your
cabinetry can add a subtle and
distinctive design element.
Photo: Andrew Porfyri- Template for cutting the ribs for
the bending form. For use on
the router table, a long lead-in
section is required as well as
a method for securing and
holding the rib blanks. - Showing a template following
jig for the bandsaw, where
the guide is below the part
to be cut. - Cutting the rib component on
the bandsaw. - The assembly is then taken to
the router table for the final cut.
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