Tips for leaving lip on curved stage

I just temporarily screwed down the plywood on the top of the stage overhanging more than you need for your overhang. Got a block the size I wanted the overhang. Grabbed a pencil, held it against the block, and just slid the block along the face of the stage under the plywood to trace a line that follows the the curve of the stage. Took the plywood back off. Cut the plywood with a jigsaw along the traced line, and screwed it back down. Easy as pie. Hope that wasn't confusing.

You can also just trace the edge of the stage, flip the plywood and add the size of the lip to the fist line.

Jigsaw, then a round over bit in a router.

You can also just attach some 2x2's around the lip it doesnt have to be a continous piece as it gets mat & carpet it will not be noticeable

do you even need to router the edge if it gets carpet/pad?...also are then any how to's for curved risers? I've got 2 rows of berkline seats in the curved configuration and can't find much on how to do a curved riser.

Like many others who have responded, I cut the plywood pieces for the bottom layer, tacked it down using a few screws, then traced the line for the lip from below using a compass set to the correct width of the lip.

After I cut that line with a jigsaw, I used a roundover bit in my router to round the bottom edge of the lip. I proceeded to use this as the pattern for the second layer, then routed the top layer with a roundover bit. I did use a router with a flush cut bit to true up the two layers.

The rounded edges of the lips are to allow the carpet to hug the curve more closely.

As for "how to's" for curved stages, there are a welth of builds documenting this...mine is one of many.

CJ

I suggest rounding over the lips just for the long term durability of the carpet. Obviously more important for the riser or steps.

On curving the riser the first challenge is to identify the required curve for your chairs. If you already have them then it is a piece of cake. If not, good luck finding the exact data.

Then you approach it just like a stage. You cut all the framing members to the required curve and then attach the front facing.

One method that I used to determine the curvature of the stage and the resulting length of the material used to build that curve was to use Visio. I put my scaled room plan into Visio, then I played with the sizes of circles thatt I needed to get the curve design that I was looking for. Once I had a plan drawn, a little math was required to determine the length of the chord of the circle that I would need to get the curve I wanted. This chord became the length of the wood that I needed to cut for the curve. The diameter of the circle that I used was 42.5'.

Here's a photo of the plan that I was using.

More detail on my thread.

CJ

Can you take the drawing of the model of the chairs that you are using as a guide to determine the radius of the circle that the back of the chairs are? With that info, you should be able to easly determine what wood length and depth is required for the riser.

To figure this out, I'd use the drawing of the chairs from the vendor's website, paste it into Visio, then draw a cirle around the chairs, using the back as a guide for lining up with the drawing. Visio will tell you the radius of the circle, and then you can determine the appropriate length of the chord.

CJ

I'd position the first row in place than hold something flexible against the backs and the floor and trace the arc. Easy. Then just cut your framing to match the arc less the lip and the thickness of the face.

Here is an example of cutting framing to match an arc drawn on the floor.

i just laid a piece of plywood down and traced it by hand. It doesnt have to be perfect. Dont forget that you will have padding and carpet being stretched over it and it wont be able to mold to any imperfections in your cut. As long as it is even and shows a curve, you will be fine. Slap a piece of plywood down, figure out the lip you want (i used 1" because with the carper and pad it ended up being about 1.5"), mark where it will end on both sides, mark the middle, mark between those two, then between those two, etc... all at your determined distance then just connect the dots. I even used a jigsaw to cut mine...no router needed.

I used a compass that has a pencil on it

I just used my belt sander to smooth out my ragged jig saw cut then rounded over the lip with a 1/2 round over bit on my router