I need to make a cabinet door that is 24" x 18" and is curved. Think of it as a section of the wall of a vertical cylinder. The radius is about
17". The surface will be veneered.
Any suggestions or references that may be of help?
The application is for a set of base cabinets that fit in a corner of a room. The corner cabinet will have the two curved doors (opening from the middle.
Mitch You can make forms using MDF scraps. You can layer 1/8 or 1/4 inch ply to build up the thickness and then veneer it. You can also use wacky wood or Kerf cut mdf which as I remember is an MDF core with a layer of Italian poplar glued on one side and the core is slotted to bend around the radius. max
If you are talking about a slab style door, rather than a frame and panel, then it's pretty easy.
Make a form for both the inside and outside curve and lay up sheet stock of a thickness that will take the curve. Three layers of 1/4" nominal should get you close to 3/4" thk once you put on the face and back veneers.
Glue up the substrate first and let it sit clamped in the form overnight.
When you take it out of clamps you will want to check the show face under a strong light and fill and sand any imperfections before laying down the veneer.
I usually trim the edges and band with thin solid stock before applying the face veneers.
Thanks for all the suggestions. Looks like glued up layers of thin wood is the way to go. Now there's the details
1) What kind of wood. People mentioned wacky wood and bending poplar. I've never heard of these. Do you have any sources? What about pain 'ol luan 1/4" ply?
2) Is regular PVA glue OK? Or is it too "flexible", leading to more springback. I guess epoxy would be quite rigid? Polyurethane?
Do you have a table saw, a block plane and a miter saw? If you do why not make solid wood coopered doors. It's a lot easier than it seems and a lot easier than making special jigs and laminating or bending things. AND if you're careful, you can do nice continuous grain. And when it's glue up time forget clamps and jigs - some glue and some rubber bands work just fine. A router table is handy if you want to overlap the doors.
Have a look. If you have questions feel free to e-mail me or post your question here. (all one line so watch the line wrap)
doors were made from 2 layers of bending luan ply, 1 layer (outside) of
1/16" walnut and the inside is 1/8 birch plywood. I used gorilla glue on one side of each piece after dampening with a wet rag each side.
The press pictured in the link was made from the same pieces used to make the curved frame rails. It was made from scrap particle board, MDF and plywood. The curved insides were 2 layers of 1/8" birch plywood covered with cork. The cork was covered with Saran Wrap prior to glue up.
The hardest part was getting the top of the press to evenly drop onto the glued stack of pieces and still remain square. If I was to do it over again, I would put guides around the sides to insure an even initial clamping.
I made both doors as one large glue-up, cutting to size after glue-up.
Dave
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