Keeping a wet kitchen towel draped over the plywood for 48 hours did indeed allow it to relax a bit more and get pulled down tighter by the two band clamps so I removed the wet towel and allowed the plywood to dry. When I removed the band clamps on Friday, I discovered that my skeleton having leading edge shapes that were only 3/4" wide was not entirely cpmpatible with band clamps that were 1 inch wide. Where the fabric straps were not supported by the poplar forms the plywood was distorted. This is shown in Image 1 below. Probably not an issue because my lense will only be 8 3/4" wide compared to the 12" width of the form, but since I had plenty of 3/32" plywood left I decided to try again - this time I would use some pine 2 x 8 to form the leading edge shape. I re-used the same template I used to draw the leading edge shape on the poplar. Image 2 shows me cutting out the new forms from 2 x 8 lumber. Just like the first time I made three shapes and will use the best two. Image 3 shows me sanding one of the 2 x 8 shapes. Something I learned was that the dirrection the disk sander is turning is important. Trying to sand on the side of the disk that was rotating up from 3 o'clock towards 12 o'clock I had to fight the machine to keep the wood on the sanding platform. Sometimes it would slip and put a gouge into the wood. On the opposide side, where the disk was rotating from 12 o'clock down to 9 o'clock was much easier.
Band Clamp Straps wer Too Wide for My Poplar Forms
Cutting Out New Leading Edge Forms from 2x8 Lumber
