Drawing up and marking out

[Derek Cohen]

The topic was raised elsewhere about the desirability of an Incra T-rule (the one with the million little holes to guide a 0.2 pencil - link below). I looked at this square and recalled that I've had one of these on my shelf for over 10 years, and that I had used it once or twice only ever. It looks a great idea, but in practice is too fiddly for me.


It occurred to me that perhaps I look at drawing differently to others, and so I thought that I would throw this out here for viewpoints ...


In practice, also, I do not use a scale to measure much (after drawing up to life scale, which acts as a story board). Usually, I transfer dimensions with a divider, and then run them off with a cutting gauge - which is why I have so many gauges (I'm sticking to that story! :) ).


Here is my current project, an apothecary chest - making a template for laying out the vertical and horizontal dividers. The apothecary chest is complicated by having a curved front ...


https://s19.postimg.cc/o2p1tdhtf/Template2.jpg


https://s19.postimg.cc/mnnh4n90j/Template1.jpg


This is the curved front (but not the template, which was made with a trammel to achieve a true curve) ...


https://s19.postimg.cc/t4kbugtab/Template4.jpg


Each one of these points was marked with two dividers (no rulers) ...


https://s19.postimg.cc/4kuedfslf/Template3.jpg


I draw onto 6mm MDF sheets. It is cheapish, and it durable - It will take being scraped if needed (to remove marks), a divider can leave pin marks (to which to draw), and a cutting gauge will leave clean lines. Later, the templates may be stored for another day.


Regards from Perth


Derek

Edit for Link: https://www.incra.com/measuring_marking-trules.html

[Ron Citerone]

Presently, I just make sketches (not to scale) to help with the math. When I had access to a chalk board or white board I measured out the full scale drawing to look at the proportions. I am finishing up a jelly cabinet that was my first frame and panel piece and had a lot of mortises and I made extensive drawings to make sure I had it right.

[Dan Hulbert]

The quality of my work improved dramatically when I quit using rulers and tape measures. Dividers, story sticks, direct layout, a fleet of marking and slicing gauges, a couple of marking knives etc. are my new way to go. I can rarely answer the question "What are the dimensions of that?" anymore.

[Bradley Gray]

For box shapes I like to make story sticks L,W & H on 3 sides of 1 stick. For work with curves I use 1/4" ply that i get from a surplus store.

For curves, I draw with chalk in one hand and a damp rag in the other until I get it right then I draw a pencil line through the chalk line and finally wipe off the chalk.