Scribe-fitting Difficult Profiles

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Bob Smalser

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Seabeck, Washington USA, on Hood Canal
Ever have to scribe fit a kitchen cabinet to fit a wavy and out-of-plumb wall? How about fitting a bulkhead or partition-wall panel into the inside hull of a yacht or ship? Can you scribe fit a curve as high as 7 feet and as deep as 3 feet? And in a space where nothing is square, little is plumb and level changes constantly with payload and wind? Welcome to the world of interior ship joinery sans lasers and computers, and file away another handy but simple, old-time skill for when you may need it.

I took a half hour and got out some scaled-down panels, sticks and battens to answer a question on how to build bunkbeds into the inside curve of a yacht hull, and figured since I had the photos this may be useful to others. Now there are plenty of yachts sufficiently slab-sided for simple scribe fitting to work. But not this one. This one is a 180-ton ocean-going tug being converted to a family liveaboard. The space in question is around 7 feet high with a bulge in the outside wall around three feet deep. Time to get out some ticking sticks.

First some old-time jargon. Woodworkers “make” or “build” objects and their components. Boatbuilders and shipwrights “get out” parts as components of a boat or vessel. What y’all call a “ceiling” in a house isn’t the same thing in a boat. Boats have “overheads” instead. “Ceilings” in boats are the interior lining of the hull, in this one softwood planks. “Floors” in boats are framing members similar to the joists above your house foundation. What you walk on in a boat is it “sole”.

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A vertical template is clamped temporarily next to the curve in the ceiling your new panel has to fit. Find a distance that fits both curve and template and mark it on the ticking stick. Here I'm using 16 1/2". Draw the line and distance from several points on the curve to the template. For more complicated profiles you can use multiple distances and even make your ticking sticks from wooden yardsticks.

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Remove the template to your work area, align it to your bulkhead or bunk panel and simply transfer line and distance to marks.

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Connect the marks fairly using a flexible batten and ice picks or nails. Draw a line, cut the profile, and fit it to the ceiling.

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The hardest part often is indexing the template if the boat isn't gutted and you don't have beams and floors to clamp it to. Be prepared to screw temporary blocks to the sole and overhead to fix it in place 90 degrees to the sole. The template can be positioned at any angle to the ceiling, but is always best placed along the line the panel will lay, usually athwartships along a line equidistant from the stem, and the profile scribed is the outside of any bevel required.

Luan doorskin for templates is inexpensive. Ticking sticks and flexible battens can be got out of any straight-grained softwood like the Doug Fir you see here. Using sticks, size and depth don't matter. Get that template aligned and plumb, and with very little practice it's mark, cut, bevel if necessary and fasten regardless of size. Run the beltsander lightly over your template and run your sticks and batten thru the planer to erase the marks for the next installation. Buy a box of art gum erasers if you don't have those tools yet. ;)
 
Yes, memories came flooding back with this Bob(thanks).
I am not a qualified woodworker i'm self taught, and a few years ago
a neighbour asked if i could build a cabin on a fishing boat(cobble), i told him i had never done it before but he was'nt put off, so i "had a go".
Anyway it turned out great and he was more than happy with the work
and Bob's thread about "ticking sticks" is how i did it, i have never heard of "ticking sticks" until now, i just thought about the problem and came up
with them as an easy way to transfer the curved measurements.
So once again "Thanks Bob" for the memories. :wink:
 
I'm guessing that the hull is metal if it is a tug unless it is really ancient. If so be aware that you get serious condensation problems between the inner hull and the ceilings. 've seen converted bats that have had them rot out because of it.

Pete
 
Bodrighy":21op620q said:
I'm guessing that the hull is metal if it is a tug unless it is really ancient. If so be aware that you get serious condensation problems between the inner hull and the ceilings. 've seen converted bats that have had them rot out because of it.

Pete

Thanks, but 100-year-old Doug Fir, actually. There's probably still rock salt piled on shelves between plank and ceiling, too. ;) Today we use borates.
 
a ticking stick, that works for me.

"getting out" is a term my grandfather learnt from his dad

my great grandfather was a carpenter and you come accross the term in carpentry books at the turn of the last century, but by the 1930s it was dissapearing
 
great help but what about micro spaces.

reason i ask is that the scribing on a very small piece is quite easy, but then cutting the material, particularly hard wood like oak, is more difficult.

i am presently scribing some 3/4 high oak about 3/4 wide too, but the small the curves are quite difficult to keep clean with normal tools :?

a micro file is quite good, but the difference between correct and oh my gawd is very small. :cry:

thank god for cutting over length :lol:

paul :wink:
 
so after a couple of hours doing something else, (more boring :cry: )
i came back and have used my dremel. i had bought a couple of those
cheap sets for mini drills from lidl, and used the small rubber wheel and sleeve.

very useful for cutting ends of quadrant to shape, and very quick 8)

paul :wink:
 
engineer 1

to me

half of scribing a piece of wood is technique, getting the right shape and accurate measurement (the ticking sticks) or in my case a compass

the other half is a matter of look and feel which has nothing to do with measurement

ive seen guys use lots of tools, ive even heard of a guy using an angle grinder

personally for scribing i use a jigsaw and block plane and on occasions when i want perfection i complete with a rotary sander
 
thanks bob, but more of a problem when the wood is clear varnished :lol:

still will check it out tomorrow and see how it looks in the shadows etc.
and check with my finishing guy to see what he thinks of it so far (rubbish :lol: :twisted: )

paul :wink:
 
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