Posted by Willy-N [108.162.216.61] on Friday, February 19, 2016 at 22:22:18 :
In Reply to: Re: Not Done Yet? Putting a Tarp over Bed. posted by Mark D. [173.245.54.56] on Friday, February 19, 2016 at 19:53:33 :
Read a lot about bending wood. One problem I ran into was getting the right wood long enough and a little longer then needed over 10 ft per bow. Good oak is hard to get that long. I like the idea of wood bows so I decided if I notched a bit of wood off the side on the end I could bend steel for the curve and recess it into the 3 sections on the outside. Only need to do this 2 times for each of the 4 bows. Then for the inside it would not matter to place the inside steel curve on the surface of the wood. Drill the steel in 2 places at each end. Counter sink the top side for flat head bolts to hold the curved steel onto the wood sandwiched between them. Could also put a ladder type spacer in between the 2 pieces of steel to stop twisting or shifting. I could make all the curved steel parts the same 75 degree angle drill them out and then just drill the holes in the wood to match. The steel that goes in the side pockets could be bent to the 15 degrees and drilled to bolt to the wood also with a plate on the back side for more strength. That way if it gets damaged you only need to get another short piece of strait oak to fix it and it would be strong and much lighter then all steel bows. Thanks for making me think more on this. Wood would also be more old school too plus cheaper!! Now this is starting to sound like more fun to build.