by Lawnjockey » Sat Dec 05, 2009 11:47 am
Yesterday I picked up the decking, fasteners and template stock. The weather was still not good enough for outside work. This morning I woke up to snow so I lofted the profile in the kitchen while the wife was out shopping. Once the layout was done I cut the template then I put the wall lines down on the kitchen floor. I put my sleeping mat down and tried it out for size. I invited the dog in and the cats gave their approval.
In regards to the actual laying out of the lines for the forward curve I made a large compass out of a batten by drilling two holes the distance of the radius apart. One for a tack and the other for a pencil. It worked great with no flexing. For the aft curve I used a 10' length of 1/2" pvc pipe to form the curve. This allowed me to tweak it with ease until I was happy with the curve. Once happy I ran a pencil line down the edge. Like they say, faster, cheaper, better.
On cutting the template stock I left the line. That means cutting to the outer edge of the line. I used a Bosch jig saw with a metal cutting blade. This gave a finer cut. The next step will be to smooth out any waviness using sandpaper wrapped around a scrap of wood. If I had not left the line the template would be slightly undersized after sanding.
I took more pictures and maybe I might try to figure out how to post them soon.
Jocko