WCProducts MCC Question: how do you make your bumpers look so good?

[mrnoble]

I'd love to know the technique for bending the pool noodles in that nice radius. Teams who successfully do this, what are your secrets?

[DoxCoach599]

I don't know how other teams do this, but typically, we cut a single piece of noodle and have it vertical as the corner of the bumper.

In terms of ASCII art, it would look something like this

=== |

Where "=" is a horizontal stack of two noodles

[GeeTwo]

We usually do mitered corners.

Supposition, not experience: Making a tight radius in noodle and having it look good would require reducing the size of the inside corner. This could be done by removal of material (kerfs or wedges) or by heating that causes the plastic of the noodle to shrink a bit. With either method, solid noodle seems more likely to make a good tight radius without flattening than a cored noodle.

Edit:

Originally Posted by DoxCoach599

In terms of ASCII art, it would look something like this

=== |

Where "=" is a horizontal stack of two noodles

A better picture of this is in the game manual, Figure 4-8, bottom center.

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

We usually do mitered corners

So do we. But those tight, rounded corners look sooooo fresh. I want to try to figure them out.