# Need advice on how to make curved chair back



## SebLolo (May 1, 2012)

Hello LJ's! (sorry for my poor english, I'm Frenchy !)

I must made forty curved chair back to replace older in a restaurant. Here a pic of the chair










That's a challenge cause they are curved on two different directions



















I know a way to do that : I'll make 2 molds (one male and one female), and I'll glue three fine sheet of wood between them (like that I create a shaped plywood , and don't have trouble with movement of wood).

I'll make mould with chipboard.

My question is how can I made mold to match the exact (or mostly exact) shape of the chair back ?
First, I'd thought I'll sculpt chipboard to the shape, but this is hazardous …
I could do that, and after, I'll put some car's mastic to perfect.

An other way I'd thought, his to copy the shape with a "bath" of epoxy's resin. I know how to use that, but it's expensive … I'll protect a chair back model and put it in the epoxy …

Is anyone have an idea / advice for me, please ??

Thx


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

I would check with Rembo, a member here, and see

what he has to say. Or, look at his projects and maybe

you'll get an idea or two.

Rembo's one of the best for this application.

Good luck my friend.


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

For a form, if you need an exact duplicate, how about casting with plaster or concrete? Cheapest way to fill a large space that needs to exactly confirm that I can think of..


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## renners (Apr 9, 2010)

If someone asked me to make a mold for that bent lamination, I'd start off with fibre glass - you can get that in a car spares place. Put barrier cream on the piece you are duplicating before applying the grp resin. You can buy structural veneers (2mm thick) for the bent lamination - I saw some recently on ebay.


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

I have used automotive filler (Bondo is local brand) to make a mold.
It is a form of epoxy, but more affordable because it has fillers.


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## SebLolo (May 1, 2012)

Thx for your advices LJ´s!
I think I'll use your idea Renners, fiber glass. I'll put some with epoxy on the piece, after putting wax on it. And I'll made an approxymate mold with chipboard.
After that, I'll glue the fiber glass / epoxy on the mold with a litlle "bath" of epoxy.
By this way, I'll have a strong mold that I can use for around twenty chair back. I'll do a second mold with the same technic if the first laminated piece is as I want.

I'll post the result on this topic or on a new blog topic, depend of the result… Lol!

Thx for your advices buddies!


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

Looking forward to your blog!


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