Hi all, I am looking to create a coffee table for my wife. She found a look that she really likes and seems doable to recreate. Essentially it is a large cylinder 36-48" diameter wrapped with several dozen ½ round trim pieces and topped with a flat top. I am trying to source the base to wrap. She has seen it done with metal custom fire pit style bases, but that seems needlessly heavy and not ideal to attach the ½ round too. I have seen plywood and fiberboard cylinders online, but was not having luck with a local (50ish mile radius to the DFW area) source. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I have been trying to find her inspiration picture with no luck, I will get it from her and post it asap.
Would bendyply work?
There is the Plywood Company in Fort Worth
http://www.plywoodcompany.com/MainSite/Store1/Store/CategoryHome/12
How are you going to bend the round into that tight of a radius?
Thank you, I’ll look Into it. I was hoping to find a preformed tune and not have to bend it, from what I have seen though people who do bend their own for other projects can get much tighter than an 18” radius without too much trouble.
Here is a picture of the end goal.
Early this year I needed to make some display stands for a trade show.
I CNC cut some frame members, connected them with longitudinal framing pieces made from strips of pine, then covered in 1/8” plywood that I turned into “bendyboard” using a living hinge pattern and the laser.
Your radius is going to be much larger so you wouldn’t need such a tight hinge pattern. Living hinge generators for any size project are easy to find. I think I used an Inkscape plugin.
What I would do if I needed to build your table:
CNC cut (or use a router with a circle jig - or just a jigsaw) a solid circle for the top and an annulus with same outer diameter for the bottom. The only reason I’m replying is because I wanted to say annulus.
Connect the two with vertical members spaced every 20 degrees or so. Create bendyboard with that inexpensive 1/8” plywood at Depot and wrap it up. Cover with your wood strips.
Note that the living hinge is remarkably stiff in one direction but very bendable in the other. See also that I routed a rabbet in the edges of my D-shaped framing pieces to catch the edges of the skins and bendyboard - kept things clean.
If you decide to go this route (living hinge), PM me for some important details.
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The living hinge is a clever idea to achieve the shape!
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Search the web for sonotube
They are made as forms for pouring concrete pilings.
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Yes. That was my thought as well. You can then veneer them or glue on dowels cut in half (like the picture above).
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i have used sonotubes before for a telescope I made. I didn’t realize they came in large enough sizes. I will give it a look.
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honestly, in terms of making a form to bend wood around, cardboard works perfectly fine. Just glue a few pieces in alternating directional layers together to get a single sheet that’s 36"-48" across if you don’t have access to one of the big 4x8 sheets.