Form Design

[Johan van Niekerk]

My current form is made from MDF and has a perfect surface. Despite this I've always added a rubber strip AND an extra strip of glass to the surface just to ensure a smooth surface and a the same pressure everywhere on the bow's surface.
I've seen a friend's form and he uses shutterply and do not have any form of additional surfacing on the form.

I'm now starting to plan a new form and was wondering how many of you also use shutterply with no additional surfacing? It seems like a lot cheaper and less labour intensive option. I'm just worried it'll have deadspots or whatever.

[monterey]

What is shutterply?

[Johan van Niekerk]

Shutterply is a relatively inexpensive 20mm thick plywood.

[jsweka]

I just use a formica strip.

[kennym]

I have made so many forms testing design that I rarely put anything on a form except wax.  That said, it wouldn't hurt to put something on it to smooth out any minor imperfections.

With the router method, I only sand with a long curved block a little and wax the heck out of it.

If I were gonna keep a form and use it more than a few times, I would put a pc of .050 glass or formica on it.

[bjansen]

I use the LVL beams and I typically put a .100 thick lam and then .050 or .040 glass on top of it to smooth it out.  

I have made several forms with nothing on top like Kenny and it works just fine (as long as you get a good router cut).  Although on occasion i will get a gouge or some other imperfection on the top of the form and I just started making all the forms with my lam + glass method.  

One other thing I do now is spray that form down with tire shine and that keeps the excess epoxy off like wax does.

[PZee]

Hey Johan,

I used 2 x 18mm plywood screwed together with 3mm MDF between to take my form to exactly 1 1/2 inches thick. I do think the MDF does router better, I struggled a bit to get a clean rouuter cut. I did loads of sanding to get out thye imperfections. Where are you based in SA?

Thanks

Pete

[Johan van Niekerk]

@ PZee I'm in PE    iWindi
@ Kenny What type of wax do you use?

I also tend to cover the entire form with clingwrap before I use it to prevent extra epoxy from sticking to it

[kennym]

Hi Johan,

Johnson paste wax right now, but saw BJansen uses tire shine spray so may try that, and try not to overspray lams!!  :D