Making a pattern

[jon harriman]

Hello all,

I have a project that I am interested in doing in wood. My other hobby (besides making sawdust) is fishing. I keep my fishing rods in my SUV in spring summer and fall. I have a rack inside the vehicle for hanging the rods from the ceiling. Currently its fashioned from a couple of old hockey sticks that are mounted to the trim and clothes hangers in the back.

I want to mount the racks higher. What I'd like to do is make a wooden stringer that will match the countour of the vehicle's headliner so that it sits flush with ceiling.

How does one create a pattern to match the contour of something that large? I'd rather not remove the headliner from the vehicle. I plan on making the contoured stringer using a bentwood lamination technique.

[Steve Clardy]

I would start with a lenght of cardboard or 1/4" plywood.
Hold up to the headliner, mark the high and lows, etc.
Measure depth of high and lows.
Remove and cut with jigsaw or bandsaw.
Put it back in there, and do the final markings.
Keep repeating this till you have a good fit.
Theres your pattern.

[Dave Richards]

You could take a trick from the boatbuilder's bag of tricks and use a tick stick to transfer the profile to a piece of cardboard or plywood. Here's a link to a site that shows quickly how it is done.
http://www.shortypen.com/essays/tickstik/

You can use a ruler for the stick if you'd like but just make sure you are contacting the headliner with a corner and that you use the same two marks for all your ticks. Then you can get the proper profile when you go to transfer the pattern.

[tod evans]

jon, i find this little gizmo pretty handy for oddball curves....tod

28900

[jon harriman]

Wow, Thanks for the quick replies!!

I think I'll give the boatbuilder trick a try, as its free. If that doesn't pan out, where would I get the device pictured?

[tod evans]

i`ll ask my wife it was a gift:)