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myxpykalix
09-22-2010, 02:28 AM
I'm making a "Castle" bed for a little girl who has had brain surgery and the footboard and heardboard will be .75 plywood and the ends will have 3" half round "watchtowers" for posts. I'm going to duplicate the footboard for the headboard but add some more spires and a second story for the headboard.

The design here will be attached to a .75 plywood profile

My first thought was to make the watch towers from styrofoam but i got to thinking about pillows and blankets rubbing against it and thought styrofoam would just chip off and break.

The half round towers will be 3" thick X20" wide X 36" high. I will 3d carve the towers and thought i would just vcarve the brick wall field to save time after all this is a freebie.

What i'm looking for is suggestions on a lightweight, cheap, readily available material (from lowes) as an alternative. I'm trying to make this nice but not such a burdensome task.

chiloquinruss
09-22-2010, 02:26 PM
How about cutting the spires flat on 1/8th in sentra and them wrapping them around a simple wood form. I am currently doing lots of models in sentra and find it very easy to get good details. The last job I used the 1/16th ballnose from Beckworth and got great detail. The 1/8th sentra bends very easily and I've used regular construction adhesive to mount pieces. Russ

bleeth
09-22-2010, 02:38 PM
With the tapered towers wrapping could be fun!

I think I would use all poplar. It's not like any head and footboard with larger bed posts isn't heavy anyway. Sitting on the floor solves that part (tower bottoms are feet). Makes it able to stand up to abuse without worrying about making it childproof.

knight_toolworks
09-22-2010, 05:07 PM
mdf then coat with yellow glue or epoxy. that should make it nice and hard but easy to cut.

myxpykalix
09-22-2010, 09:04 PM
Steve,
I both love and hate working with mdf. Its stable and sturdy but makes such a mess even with dust collection.

You say use mdf and coat with glue. A couple questions. Should i shave off the paper face of the mdf before i coat it with glue? I am assuming you mean that i should soak it with glue BEFORE i do the carving correct?

What do i gain by applying glue before carving? Will it hold down dust?