Wife wants a DVD cabinet.
Here's the thing, she wants it to look like a British Telephone Box. That isn't too tough, just basic cabinet work but the real ones have a dome shaped roof. I'm not sure how to do that. Plan is to make it about 1/4th scale. Maybe I will cheat and do a barrel roof front to rear. 1/4" plywood is pretty bendy but it won't bend in two directions easily...
If you are really good, you would steam the wood that will be on top and form it before it cools back down like Roy Underhill from the Woodwright Shop does!
Is It For Her Beatles Collection ?
If so you want to build an outhouse for your Country and Western.
What you could do is use 1/4" plywood and cut the square top corner to corner, bending each pie quarter to shape. After the pie quarters are cut you have some shaving towards the ends. Glue a 1/4" strip under the seams then sand the high points. The under strips ending inside the side corners.
Alternatively get an aluminum snow saucer or a large wok.
Paul in PA
Dave,
Is your wife a fan of the English TV show Doctor Who? I have not watched the show in many years but I think the box had a different top.
For those who have not watched the show it is an English Sci-Fi show about time travel that uses the telephone box as a portal. The show has been on for many years and is on the eighth or ninth actor playing the Doctor.
But can Dave make it dimensionally transcendental? Then his scaled kiosk could hold a LOT of DVDs.
I agree that it would be possible to wet and bend your wood to match the shape of the top of the phone box.
They say Gorilla glue will bond and hold it forever.;-)
Floyd-we used to watch that show years ago.
The Tardis, a phone box on the outside and roomy spaceship on the inside.
Paul
yeah I was thinking about the metal snow saucer too.
Bill
I flunked out of that class in school LOL.
Domed top: the British did not rule the world for nothing.
Is It For Her Beatles Collection ?
I'm thinking of adopting your strategy of cutting four over sized squares using 1/8" plywood (only 10 bucks for a 4x8 sheet). Build curved roof rafters then glue and screw the plywood down to the rafters and the curved gables. Maybe saw cut shallow radial grooves on the bottom so it bends easier.
Looking down on the top it will look like a section cut into the four quarters. Each square of plywood roofing will represent one quarter, the northwest quarter, southwest, southeast and northeast. The roof rafters represent the centerlines of the section. The gable ends are the exterior section lines.
After the roof is down and the glue is dry trim close to the edges with the saber saw then trim off with router trimmer bit. I would cover the butt end of the plywood sheets with a skinny piece of trim that will bend.
The trouble is it seems like it has to give somewhere, like it will want to kink.
I think the saucer idea would work better.
Is It For Her Beatles Collection ?
Maybe it'll work if I cut it into 8 pie pieces. This would require additional rafters across the diagonals.
Dr. Who
The current Doctor is the Eleventh.
With the mixed compression and tension forces required to bend a flat board of any kind to fit the top you would need to steam the wood well and bend it over time using continuous steam while doing so. Then you would need to leave the final shape in the form until dry and it still might crack and break. For a wood top you could lay up round wood rings just a little over size to the final shape. Then I would rig up a router on a jig to rout both the inside and outside and then cut the bowl you have into a square one, sand and finish. Might be able to build a jig to shape, get some 1/4" Plexiglas and with careful heating, form it, probably the best way would be to build the form and layer it up using fiberglass and matting or you could use a foam core. My choice would be fiberglass with a foam core.
jud
