They're here!!!! They're here!!!

The SJ plans are here! I got home from work today to find a box from the big brown truck and inside were some parts I ordered and my SJ plans! Needless to say, I am excited. I scurried on up to my shop to get a good look at them. They are very well done. They even include profile drawings of the braces and an alternate 'X' bracing pattern for the back. With the difficulties I had with my OM's back wanting to flatten out, and the OOO even wanting to flatten a little bit, I think I will go with the 'X' brace to see if that will help add some rigidity.

Once I got done inspecting the plans I decided to start making the side and bending molds. First, I traced the pattern on paper, then transferred that to a piece of Masonite. I cut the shape out on the band saw and sanded them so I had an inside and outside mold. The inside will be used to make the bending mold and it is a little smaller than the outside template. I traced the bending templates on some MDF, rough cut them, and then used my router to flush cut the two pieces to the template. I then screwed them together, sanded them so the edges were smooth and even, then drilled holes for the 1/2" conduit spacers. I covered the insides of the mold with silver metal tape, installed the conduits and then attached a piece of sheet metal around the outside edges of the mold to hold it all together.

Tomorrow I will make the body mold and if time permits, I will bend the sides. I still need to make a controller for the heating blanket but that will be easy. I think I have a 1000W dimmer and timer kicking around in my company storage somewhere.

I decided to post pictures of me making the bender mold for people who didn't see me make my first one at the beginning of the blog. Sorry for repeating this to all who already read about me doing this.

Woo Hoo! The plans arrived today. They are really nicely done.

Here is the MDF with the bending mold traced on it.

I made templates out of Masonite. Note the 1/8" gap between the bender size and the mold size.

I rough cut the MDF to shape.

I then attached the template to the rough cut piece, and then used my router with a flush cut bearing bit to cut the MDF to the final shape.

I drilled holes for the spacers. Both pieces of MDF are attached so I drilled the holes at the same time. That assured they lined up perfectly.

The bender side piece with foil tape.

Here is the finished mold on my bender box. You can see my OOO and OM molds on the floor below the table. I am starting to get a small collection of these!