How do I even begin estimating and templating a multi-window radial turret in stain grade?

Six grand is way too low for a two-story stain grade radius job. You aren't just trimming windows; you're essentially building custom furniture on a curved wall. If you want this to look like one solid unit, you need to bill at least 3x to 4x your normal flat-wall rate. Stain grade means there is zero room for error with wood filler or caulk. Every joint has to be tight enough to hold a finish, and with six windows across two floors, any slight misalignment in the framing is going to ruin your day. First thing you need to do is get a laser on those windows and check the vertical alignment between the floors. If the builder didn't stack them perfectly, the vertical casing won't line up and you'll be fighting the geometry the entire time. If they're off, you need to know now so you can adjust your quote for the extra shimming and scribing required to fake the eye into seeing a straight line.

For the actual construction, don't even think about using off-the-shelf flexible trim for a high-end stain grade look. You shold look into **bent laminations** or using thin layers of the actual species glued up over a template you build on-site. Get your templating done with strips of 1/4 inch plywood or MDF so you can take those back to the shop. This allows you to pre-assemble as much of the unit as posible. Trying to piece it together on a ladder at a vaulted ceiling height is a recipe for a choppy mess.

Ask for a **time and materials** contract with a high-end cap. If the builder refuses, walk away or double your current estimate. You're going to spend as much time building the templates and jigs as you will acutally installing the wood. If you've never done a radius of this scale, you'll probaly spend forty hours just in the 'thinking and scratching your head' phase before the first piece of oak or walnut even gets cut.

That sounds like an absolute beast of a project! I'm just getting started in the trade and seeing stuff like this makes my head spin but also gets me so pumped to see what's possable. Building those templates on-site sounds like a total workout but the final look must be insane. Since you're talking about custom shop time, has anyone here ever tried using one of those vacuum bag setups for the bent laminations? I saw a video on them recently and they look like magic for getting curves perfect. Also, what kind of wood are they leaning toward? I’ve been obsessed with white oak lately!

While vacuum pressing is superlative for veneered panels, you must acknowledge that for structural stain-grade casing on a radius of this magnitude, the spring-back inherent in bent laminations can be quite treacherous if your glue-up schedule isn't mathematically precise regarding the number of plies and the specific resin used. I woud strongly suggest you investigate utilizing a trammel-guided router setup to mill the segments from wide, solid stock—provided the grain orientation is aesthetically acceptable to the client—as this eliminates the internal stresses that often plague laminated members when they are introduced to the fluctuating humidity levels typical of a vaulted, multi-story overlook.

If you're worried about those joints looking like a choppy mess, you need to grab a Festool Domino DF 500. For stain-grade radius work like this, standard biscuits or pocket holes won't give you the structural alignment you need to keep those vertical casings perfectly flush over two stories. I used my Domino on a similar curved library project last year and it’s the only way to ensure the pieces don't shift during that stressful glue-up. It'll save you hours of sanding and make those 'one solid unit' seams actualy disappear.

Quick update—I ended up doubling my quote after hearing that I was basicly building furniture on a curved wall. I also pulled the trigger on a Domino DF 500 like one of you suggested. It was a total lifesaver for keeping those vertical joints flush over both stories. The homeowners are thrilled, and I acutally made a profit instead of just barely surviving!