On Thu, 07 Jul 2005 16:44:20 GMT, steamer wrote:

--Thanks to all; a number of good ideas! I'll buy the material
and take a whack at this today and report back tonight. I really only
need relatively straight lengths of maybe 10ft. so I'm thinking the
slide hammer and hand drill approaches are worth a whack, so to speak.
WHat I'm aiming to make is stuff that I can bend around a form, to make
an "armature" that matches the outline of a "two decker" sail-era
warship. I've got to make a dozen that match, each about 2ft long and
maybe the same in height. I figure I'll make the form out of a hunk of
plywood with nails at corners and bandsawn bits of MDF for the curvy
parts. When I'm done these 12 will be covered with EL wire, then
positioned on a grid. The EL wire on each individual ship will run to a
separate channel on a sequencer, so that the ship appears to be
"sailing" on a "sea" which is also sequenced, but in a slightly
different scheme. I've got the "sea" done and it works pretty neat.
Ships next...

What is EL wire?