In yesterday's blog I mentioned that I had made the first of many arches for the hood. Since 6 of the 9 required arches are layered one in front of the other, I have decided that it would be best to cut them all at the same time. By that I mean set the distance for the top of the arch on the jig and cut each of the blanks; then, set the distance for the bottom of the arch and again cut each of the pieces. In this way, I should be ensuring that ALL of the arch layers will have precisely identical radii and thus will stack, or layer, as if one continuous piece. Anyway, that's my theory. So the piece I cut yesterday will form the back arch. And the 6 pieces I will cut, as described above, will form the layered front arches. Why so many front arch layers? Here is the breakdown [not counting the mask and the door]:
- layer 1 is a front support that joins the sides and gives the hood strength. It sits behind and above the dial.
- layer 2 is a narrow layer that sits atop the mask and provides a spacer [between the dial and the hood door] to allow for the clock hands.
- layer 3 is above the door.
- layer 4 is to give the hood door a landing to fasten the hood door hinge.
- layer 5 is moulding.
- layer 6 is moulding and sits in front of and on layer 5.