This for members new to the craft. What are the techniques, and tools, that you use? Tips for the novice. Greg Tate uses a flexible sanding device, that works well. I use block planes, sureform, and hard sanding blocks. And lots of eyeballing. What tips, and help, can you pass along to newbies, that will make the process less daunting?
Trust your eye. If you think you may see a flat spot, you see a flat spot!
Take a straight edge like a level. put your hands on the ends and rock it back and forth over the edge of the template. It will stick or clunk each time it passes over a flat spot. You can find flats very easy and use the flexible sanding board to remove them.
Even after they look right they still take time to refine. After outlining a few boards and I notice the same “spots” that needs attention I hunt them down and fix it on the template. Takes a while and work to get them all good. Tried and true templates will serve you well. I have my trusty favorites.
Clamping the masonite to fixed surface such as a bench or shaping stand and having the curved edge facing up. Then run a block plane across to smooth out all the high spots left by the bandsaw/jigsaw. Walking back and forth finding the errors.
Dave
I use the grid method to scale it up, freehand the curves until it looks right, cut it out with a flexible Japanese pull saw, and finish up with a sanding block.
Here is the flexible pad that Bill refers to. I believe I got it at an auto parts store. But they are are easily found. NOte that the pad flexes with a little effort so it can curve around the template. You clip on some 60 or 80 grit and sand away. You can feel the high and low spots.
I found this somewhere online a while back:
Why three knobs and not two?
use the tempered kind…usually a darker color and a smooth side. Makes a better template. The lighter tan stuff, not so good. low spots are worse than bumps~
I have no idea.
I liked the figure and kept it to use as a basic idea.
My guess is you get more flex using the outer handles and a stiffer shorter surface with an inner and outer handle only.
I have used Newschoolblue’s suggestion and had HD or Lowes cut a 4 x 8 sheet of masonite into 12" wide strips/sections. But I like 3/16" masonite for a little more stiffness.
http://www.swaylocks.com/comment/508804#comment-508804
Drewtang had an interesting method for making templates with fiberglass cloth:
http://www.swaylocks.com/comment/504326#comment-504326
I know what a spin template is, but what are the main considerations when laying one out as Huck does above?
Once I’ve drawn out the template, even if I’m tracing an old one I’ll go back and pull tape to establish my line. (Kind of like a pinline) - this gives a real smooth line - granted you can pull tape.
I dial it in with a sanding block and then give it a test run. Like ace said, it sometimes takes me a few boards to really dial in.
I stripped a couple of boards and found that the old glass makes great spin templates. These won’t get ruined by water damage, and they are very flexible. I also use heavy paper that is used for posters or signs, thin plywood and masonite.
This is an amazing thread! Tons of great info. I appreciate all of the input here and will put it to use on my next build and I will re-visit my old templates and see if they need any refining. That flexible sanding block looks awesome. I will be looking for one. Thanks Sway Bros.
Once I have a template dialed in and where I want it, I’ll use a router with a pattern making bit and cut out a copy that goes aside and isn’t touched. That’s so I’ll always have a rock solid temp to use and refer to. If I were doing this full time for a living, I’d get some Kydex or perhaps sheet metal and make bombproof temps. Like everyone else says here, the eye is the most important tool we have. This is why I’m down on ordering machined blanks to simply sand out. It doesn’t train a discerning eye to pick up the anomalies. If it looks good to you and turns you on, odds are the shape will work for you if done cleanly.
I forget who suggested this, but another way to make a flexy sanding thing for smoothing bumps/curves/rough-cut masonite/etc. is to get a sanding belt, cut it so it’s one long strip (you gotta pin down the ends with something because it’ll want to curl up), and epoxy several layers of fiberglass to the back side. I made a couple of these and love them.
I feel like I should be answering this, but I’m not really sure exactly what the question is! Pretty much shaped up like any template, except one side is the front half, and the other side is the back half. That probably doesn’t help, sorry.
For boards under 8 foot I will sometimes do a full length template, but for the most part I find the spinners are a handy size.
By way of reminder, to all Masonite template makers, don’t forget to ‘‘harden’’ the point of the nose and corners of the tails, with Cyanoacrylate Glue. The fancy name for Super Glue. It greatly strengthens those vulnerable areas.