Best way to construct a curved piece for strength

[Vic Baron]

Planning a quilt rack. Current favorite design is a pair simple inverted U's with cross bars between them. Material will be either 4/4 mahogany or Red Oak.

My problem is in considering grain direction for good looks and strength. One way would be two straight legs with a small inverted U on top. Another would be for each leg to have half of the full arch on top and be joined at the top. My concern is the cross grain in the arch. Wouldn't this be very weak or would it be ok in this application?

Thanx,

Vic

[dpb]

W/ no more load than I would expect there to be, I don't think it would structurally be a problem unless the pieces were exceptionally narrow.

But, an alternative would be to join the arch piece at the top of the upright at (say) 45-degrees and the middle so could lay out the arch portion roughly along grain. Many variations of the same theme are, of course, possible.

--

[Lee Michaels]

Much ado about nothing. You are not building a bridge here. Quilts, even big ones do not weight that much.

Also, the quilt rack is designed to show off the quilts. anything too big or fancy will distract the quilt view.

I have built a number of quilt racks with 1 X 2's, 1 X 3's and 1 X 4's. I used lap and half lap joints, a little glue and some finish nails. I puttied in the set nails. Sorry, no pictures of them. But they were done as a quick, inexpensive project. And the ladies who received them acted like they were fine, expensive furniture.

Quilters go nuts over anything you make for them. I know, I am married to one.

[Vic Baron]

I had the feeling it was much ado about nothing but wanted to check.

Now to work!

Thanx,

Vic

[Chris Friesen]

As discussed elsewhere, it's probably not an issue in this context. However, for future reference the best ways to deal with a curved piece that needs to be strong are probably to laminate it from thinner strips, or steam-bend it.

Chris