How to Match a Curve?

[flysci]

Originally Posted by bewitched

Get someone to hold the board you are about to cut against the curve of the hull.

Take a block of wood a bit longer than the largest gap between the hull and the board

Run the block along the hull while holding a pencil against the other end - the pencil drawing a line on your board.

cut along the pencil line

Sonrisa,
For a simple shelf this seems the best way. I've seen it done with dividers set to a width just wider than the widest gap, then drag it along following the curve with one point, and scribe the shelf with the other - best if divider has a pencil for one leg.
Margo

[forsailbyowner]

mount a straight edge to where you want the edge. Mark where it will meet the hull. Then use a piece of builders plastic taped to the straight edge then pulled up tight to your marks on hull. Works very well. I replaced a bunch of rotten wood this way without having to go back and forth to saw table. I do my canvas patterning the same way.

[SabreKai]

Ok I am assuming you are using the plastic as a flexible template material here? Pulling it out taut til it hits the marks and then making a tic mark with marker? Remove the plastic and joint the tics in a smooth curve, then mark the wood?

Sounds like a pretty neat way of doing it. Sounds simpler than the method I used. I'll give it a try on the opposite side of the galley top.

Sabre

[forsailbyowner]

You described process exactly.

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by flysci

Sonrisa,
For a simple shelf this seems the best way. I've seen it done with dividers set to a width just wider than the widest gap, then drag it along following the curve with one point, and scribe the shelf with the other - best if divider has a pencil for one leg.
Margo

As an alternative to dividers, I use the plastic top from margarine tub or peanuts can, or whatever is available. Place the top at close intervals against the hull, and draw the perimeter circles on the template. Overlap the circles as closely as the hull shape requires. This also works when you are transferring compound or "S" shapes, such as turn of the bilge areas on bulkheads. Lay the template on your stock, place top on the template circles, and transfer remainder of the circle back to the stock. Connect the arcs and you have your shape. This is how I did it when replacing all the bulkheads in Bluestocking. Scribed the circles on the old bulkheads, cut them away from the hull with recip saw, and used them as the templates.

[barnakiel]

Easy - use a length of copper or alu fine rod or anything that will bend easily and keep the shape. Lay it along the cure, shape, and then just put it on a piece of cardboard and transfer the shape.

b.