I looked at a couple of ways to form the curve of the hand rails. I took measurements of the cabin top. I noticed that it seemed to form part of a very large circle. But I wansn't really confident that it was a true circle. So I decided why not use the actual cabin top as a mould.
I created a template to match the curve of the cabin and establish the position of the new handrail. It closely matches the position of the old handrails.
I then made 10 copies of the template. These served as moulds for the two strips that will make up the hand rail. I figured that the best way of holding these templates down wwas with masking tape.
At this point I did not want the wood to get wet. So I draped plastic over it while the epoxy was setting up. A squall came up about 15 minutes after I glued up the starboard side. The water pooled and further held down the plastic. The wood stayed completely dry as the epoxy cured.
The next day I removed the cured handrail. There was a little bit of springback but not too much resistance. This was a good sign that the rails would be easy to install later.
I did the port side the same way.
The dried handrails are ready to take home for finishing work.
Prev Next