What do you all use? Just a stick and a tape measure? Homemade stick with adjustable legs? Purchased rocker stick? How do you then create rocker templates when you’ve shaped a board with a rocker you really like?
Also… I’m asking this while keeping in mind that rocker sticks only measure rocker down the center and don’t take rail rocker into consideration. Curious to hear how some of you take this into consideration when creating rocker templates.
I made an adjustable rocker jig, but it was really only for copying rockers. There’s a lot of info here about making those.
Lately I just use a piece of 1" square aluminum tube that is 8’ long with marks every 6" and a tape measure. With PU blanks, I work off the premade rocker and just tweak it to what I want. Get the center set them work out to the rails then add Vee or concave and so on.
For EPS boards I cut out of slabs, I have drawn out basic rockers I like on wood and use that to get the initial hot wired cut. Then it’s all eye ball, stick and tape measure or triangle square. I just blend in the curve I like to meet the rocker measurements I want at the ends. I like to keep the rocker fairly flat with more curve towards the ends. With the EPS I’ll then draw lines along the edge and top at specific intervals and I can change the rocker along the rail at that time. But most of what I do is by eye and gut feeling.
I’m not in the business of making boards for others, so it’s all what I want at that time and a lot of it is how I’m feeling it. I got a few sitting around waiting cause I’m not feeling it right now. Gotta get the Mojo back.
Some time ago, someone posted this photo of Wayne Rich during a shaping demo at Sacred Craft. Look how easily you can make your own rocker stick:
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rdj,
To account for the rail or outline rocker on boards with concaves I make shims from stir sticks and place them (with tape) along the stringer to bring the depth of the concave level with the rail. I use a 2' level across the rails to get them as close as possible using extra tape if necessary. I place them at the midpoint and at least every 1' and sometimes every 6". No shims are needed where there is vee or no concave. Then you can measure the rocker with an adjustable rocker stick or aluminum channel or other straightt edge. Measuring the center rocker is straight forward as what you see is what you get. The rail rocker is what you need to determine the blank to use or for making a hotwire profile template. I have a manual profiler so I transfer the rail rocker to a profiler template. I also transfer the measurements or the curve from the rocker stick to a template with the centerline and rail rockers on opposing sides. I reverse the nose and tails on each side to to make it less cumbersome. As I cut out the template(s) I place it on the board and fine tune it with a sanding block and curved block plane.
regards, Dave D