n2585722

In case some of you are intrested in how I made the outer frames I posted some photos of the devices used. These were made from scrap wood and MDF. I made 2 templates out of MDF. I also made a frame out of wood to help in placing the templates down onto the part that needs the 1/4" pattern cut into it. The top part in the first photo is a section of wood that needs the pattern cut into it. The two parts at the bottom are the actual templates. In the second photo the section has been placed in the frame so the templates can be placed in the proper places. It is recessed a little to help with this. Now it is a matter of placing some double sided tape on both templates as shown in the third photo. After removing the cover from the tape just place the template on the section that requires the cut using the frame as a guide (photo 4). Now do the same with the other template as in (photo 5).Both templates are used on the top frame of the stand only. The top frame of the canopy has a straight inner cut and used a straight peice of wood as a template. The template at the bottom of the the first photo is not used on the bottom frame of either the canopy or the stand. The sections for those are not as wide. They are only 1 15/16" wide. The tops start at 3 1/2 inches wide. The stand top sections are trimmed down to 2 1/4" after the cut has been made. The short side of the section is the side that is trimmed. All of the frames have the same outer measurements.In photo 6 the section has been removed from the frame and is ready for the cut. The last photo has the router bit that was used to make all the cuts in the outer frames for this project. It was also used for all the other cuts that required the bearings at the base of the bit. The templates were made by cutting two sections of the frame in 1/2" MDF. I used double sided tape to tape sections of wood that were cut seperatly to make the pattern. Three pieces of wood on the inner template. Five pieces of wood on the outer template. I used a different bit for making the templates. It had the bearing at the top of the bit. It would have been hard to do this without the templates since there were 24 sections that had to have these cuts. The MDF seems to make a lot better template than actual wood.