Opposing Arch Table #7: Laminating the Arches

Finally I have the first set of arches glued and clamped in the bending form. I have only made the arches for the hall table so far. Once I finish it I will go back and do the coffee table.

Since I only made one form for each shape I did it in two stages. I glued the first two arches yesterday and just got the identical (“opposing”) set in the forms tonight.

I used my Thin-Strip Jig to cut the bending strips. That was very repetitive work for a while. I cut all the strips for all of the 8 arches at the same time. Each arch is made of 6 strips about 1/8” thick for about 3/4” total thickness (and 3/4” wide as well).

Then I mixed up the glue. After carefully reading over the highly technical instructions several times, I figured out that it is actually easier to mix the adhesive like pancakes (add a little powder, add a little water) without measuring. It seemed to work fine.

I screwed one half of the form to a MDF “base” to keep it flat, added a lot of packing tape to keep it from sticking, and then clamped the other half of the form together with the strips in the middle.

I definitely tested the limits of my clamp collection!

By tomorrow I will have all four arches for my hall table laminated. After I pop them out of the form I will start working on sanding and fitting them to the table.

About another 6 hours went into laminating the arches. Total project time: 28 hours.

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