OK, guys, don’t get me wrong: I’m not asking for Jim PHILLIPS’, Bill THRAILKILL’s, Rich HARBOUR’s or Bill BARNFIELD’s “secret” templates in order to copy them. I just think it would be funny to see what you and me work with in the beginning. The thing is I did some cleaning up today and gathered templates that had been piling upon each other in some dark corner of the shop, and I decided to hang them somewhere to gain room. I started by organizing them by size, then cutting holes in them so I could hang them. While they were lying there on the ground, I thought it would make a nice photo and what about a thread?
So, starting with mine, most of them made from 1/8" plywood or MDF, 10’ to 6’. (I have a few smaller ones, too, and a few 2 in 1 templates not shown here):
Ben, while I agree that cardboard is probably unbeatable cost-wise, plywood or MDF is much easier to sand to a perfect curve: whatever tool you use to cut the outline, you won’t get a perfect curve straight away and you will need to finely tune it. Which is easy to do on wood with a small planer and a sanding block.
The first two pictures is my favorite template for a 9 footer. The rest come to a grand total of 35. Four made by me and the rest a fellow named Bill Ebberwien let me copy from his quiver of templates.
