Joggle Stick

[plummett]

I have been sent my father's toolbox of boat building tools and in it is a thing he used to call a Joggle stick, can anyone tell me how it works?

Chris

[DavidJ]

Is it a stepped looking thing? I believe it is for spiling templates for fitting bulkheads and other things to the hull. You place one end of the joggle stick against the hull side where you want to fit the part and then hold a piece of doorskin next to it. You then draw on the shape of the joggle stick to the doorskin, move the joggle stick down a few inches, draw its new location on the doorskin, repeat making sure to get all major points of beams, stringers, wires, etc. When you finish marking the doorskin you then lay the template(the piece of doorskin) onto the piece of wood you planned to fit. Then you put the joggle stick back into the same places you put it previously and mark where the end is on your piece of wood. Join the dots and cut your piece. If it was all done right it should fit right in.

[plummett]

Yep, it is a notched stick that is tapered to a point on one end, but what are the notches for?

hris

[DavidJ]

The notches aren't really "for" anything. It could be any shape really. The point is that the stick will only fit in one unique place. Once the shape of the joggle stick is traced on your pattern it can then only be placed in the same spot. The notches just give you more points of reference.

[Mike Holt]

Each of the teeth are numbered so when you lay the jogglestick onto the marker board, you trace the few teeth that actually pass over the marker board with a sharp pencil, then copy the numbers frfom the jogglestick to the board. This way you know which teeth are the ones traced so you can relocate the point (tip of the stick)when you recreate the pattern onto your building material.

[stevel]

The sticks that I have used have always had unevenly sized and spaced teeth so that there would not be a need to number the markings. I got my first ones from an oldtimer who made them himself, so maybe that's one of his improvements to the design. I've always copied his design whenever I've made new ones.