Replies

1. 
   StanFoster | Mar 09, 2003 02:56pm | #1

   Bob:   Here is a picture from years ago when I had to help install beveled siding on an 18 foot diameter tower. You can see where we were experimenting putting these clapboards on.  As you wrap the straight siding around the building.it takes on an unhappy face profile...meaning the ends want to bow down.  We forced the siding as much as practical...then took a rabbet plane and leveled off the bottom edge of the siding.  We scribed up from the course below to keep on track..and then of course we checked occasionally with a transit to take out any accumulative error.

   
1. 
   StanFoster | Mar 09, 2003 03:04pm | #2

   Bob:  I found this picture of the tower after the siding was installed.  That is myself working on the curved handrail for the stairway I was building inside the tower.  The second picture is the stairway inside after completion. It was 14 feet floor to floor.

   
2. 
   IMERC | Mar 09, 2003 04:02pm | #3

   Saw kerf the back side. That will relieve alot of the lay up tension. (Smiley face)

   More than likely you'll have to experiment with cut depth and spacing. The tighter radius the closer the kerfs.

   Radial arm works pretty well for the cuts. A router with a long axis bit works also.

   Prime the raw cuts before installing.

1. 
   xMikeSmith | Mar 09, 2003 05:41pm | #4

   you have to make a template and rip each clapboard to the curved bottom..

    each section will form an arch.. and the bottom of the clap will have one arch and the top of the clap will have a different arch..

    each piece of clapboard is part of a conical section..

   you can demonstrate this to yourself by playing with cardboard strips wrapped around a coffee can.. don't forget.. the bottom of the clap is beveled and kicked out by lapping over the one below.. so it is in a different plane than the top of the clap.Mike Smith   Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

1. 
   UncleDunc | Mar 09, 2003 06:43pm | #5

   Or you can use shiplap, which can be bent into a cylinder, instead of beveled siding, which, as Stan and Mike have pointed out, can only be bent into a cone.

   Here's a previous discussion.

   http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages/?msg=27368.1