My other hobby is making furniture so I've got all of the necessary equipment to do that already. I've got hundreds of board feet of lumber (cherry mostly but I've got some oak and hickory too) so enough wood to make the tower is readily available but just looking in the scrap pile.
Out of curiosity... How did you get the wood to bend in a 180 degree angle? Water vapour? I'd like to do that myself one day! What's the final weight of the tower?
Out of curiosity... How did you get the wood to bend in a 180 degree angle? Water vapour? I'd like to do that myself one day! What's the final weight of the tower?
Oh, and I forgot to say: impressive work!
I almost built a steam "tank". From looking at some websites, they're nothing more than a heat source, a tank of water (tea kettle), a hose from the kettle to a small hole in a PVC/plastic pipe (something that can take the heat) two rags lightly stuffed in each end (gotta let the pressure out of the pipe.
I think I would have rather liked the look better had I done that. Steam the wood for an hour or two and then bend it around a form and let it cool and dry.
But...I chickened out and just cut two pieces of wood roughly equal in size to the bottom of the "tray" (the curve was already cut on a bandsaw). Then I glued those two pieces together. The next day I cut both layers on a bandsaw (inside and outsides of the curve) and then glued they resulting curved walls of the tray to the existing bottom of the tray.
As far as weight...I'm not really sure and I'm a terrible guesser of weight. 2 pounds maybe? It's a pretty substantial item.
I've had a few requests for information about how the tray attaches to the tower. It simply "hooks" onto a rail dadoed and glued into place along the bottom of the opening. The tray remains "attached" to the tower while in use but is easily removed during storage.
