Thread: Curved plywood web site

Originally Posted by Mr woodmachinst

G'day all, Any interested in curved plywood, Architechtural panels, moulded
plywood furniture components. Have a look at this web site.
You will be amazed www.slorachdesigns.com.au
Any information please PM me or email me, enjoy!!
This is what i do for a living!!

Nice stuff. Didn't know that furniture manufacture from veneered timber (ply) was so complex.
Cheers and thanks for the interesting link.

Hi, I am hoping someone can help me. We bought a house that has arched doorways. My partner and I love the arched look but not the total openness. So we got a quote for arched french doors. $21500 for 5.
Everyone recommends we cut the arch out of the wall and insert normal french doors. We don't want to do this. So I want to do it myself. I have some basic handyman skills. So to make this long story short, how do I bend the wood around the inside of the arch to make the door frame?

The easy answer is: you don't.

What you do depends a lot on how tall the opening is. If it is very tall, you can make a 'demi-lune' window in the top of the arch & make regular, rectangular french doors, and hang them in the usual manner. If there is not enough room for this to work, then you have a much more difficult task of making the doors with 1/4 circle tops - which will be MUCH weaker.

In either case, the curved elements are cut from solid wood, not steamed & bent. You either get a huge piece of wood, or make the thing up from shorter segments glued up with angled ends, and then using a bandsaw you cut out the circular segment needed. Fancy edge treatments are done with a shaper (in commercial shops) or with a series of router bits & jigs on a router table in the home workshop.

You should harass the local library for copies of 'Fine Woodworking' (FWW) and look for issues with 'circular casework' or that feature furniture with curved faces - there may be something relevant in their new 'Best of Fine Woodworking' series of reprint books.