Roof arches.

I decided to make a curved roof. A flat roof seems to be missing something. Also the curved roof looks much better and gives more headroom inside. Most gypsy wagons have curved roofs. The arches needed to span a space of 7 feet and rise 12" high in the center. Also they needed to provide short rafter tails to support eaves. Here I describe the making of arches.

I ripped 3/8" strips from 2x10 SYP planks with a circular saw fitted with a board for easy positioning.

Some strips made.

Each arch required 7 strips.

I planed the strips to remove excess roughness and get to a uniform thickness.

Early I had prepared a bunch of strips and stored them in the house because the forecast of rain would put a stop to making strips. But this was a mistake. The strips dried out and curled up badly. I decided that any more than 1/2" curl over the 8 foot lenght was too much.

I put a bunch of the curved strips out by the side of the road. Someone picked them up to use to make a trellis for growing beans. I'm glad they found a good use after all.

I pre-bent strips to help get them acclimated to being curved.

I set up a table top jig to form the arches.

I used painter's tape to keep epoxy off the forms.

I clamped up strips to make an arch and let it sit for a day.

I checked that the strips fit together without much gaps. The key to success is using C clamps every 4 inches and turning them tight. About an hour after gluing go back and add epoxy to fill in any extra gaps left.

The strip is glued up and curing. I left these in for at least 48 hours in a warm room to really get a good epoxy cure.

Whiskey is posing with some arches already made. The next step is to run these through the surface planer to clean them up, then apply a thin coat of epoxy. I made a total of 12.