Using tick sticks to scribe odd shaped areas

Discussion in 'Wooden Boat Building and Restoration' started by troy2000, Feb 13, 2013.

  1. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    I'm sure this is old stuff to most of the experienced hands here, but it might help new boatbuilders.

    There are probably almost as many methods of scribing odd shaped areas as there are people doing the scribing... a lot of the time I strike a center line, and a line at right angles across it somewhere in the middle. Then I measure to each point twice, like I'm on a graph: one measurement up or down, one measurement left or right to each coordinate. I strike a pair of axes on whatever I'm cutting and mark the coordinates, connect the dots, and cut.

    But sometimes it's easier to just use tick sticks. That's what I did while laying a new floor in my motor home's bathroom, where everything is old and nothing is square. Don't look at me; I got from my father-in-law like that. And since it was free, I don't spend a lot of time complaining about the trifles.... :)

    First I cut a yardstick in two and sharpened one end of each piece for the tick sticks, making sure the point of each stick was on the side with the numbers. Obviously I could have used just about anything, but the yardstick was pre-marked with all those cool red numbers.

    Does anyone remember when lumberyards gave yardsticks away for free, and the wood was strong enough for paddling kids' bottoms? Boy, do I remember....:(). this one cost me a couple of bucks with tax, and it feels like it's made of balsa wood. I also had to do some sorting to find a reasonably straight one. I should also have blunted the points a little, because they crushed the first time I touched something with them.

    Anyway, I lined one side of a piece of cardboard up with the front edge of the floor, and taped it down. You don't have to fill the whole area with cardboard, but the bigger the piece the more accurate your scribing will be.... and being able to line up one side of the cardboard made it easier to position it on the plywood without waste.

    Then I stuck the point of a scribe stick in each corner, and against any other point where the floor changed shape or direction, and drew a line. On each line I made a tick mark at one of the inch marks, and wrote the number beside the mark (for example, the 10" mark, 14" mark, etc.).

    After that, it was just a matter of taping the marked cardboard to the plywood, laying the tick sticks on the lines with the tick marks lined up on the right numbers, and marking the plywood at the pointy ends.

    A little connecting the dots and cutting, and it fit fine the first time.

    [​IMG]

    A shot of the finished floor. I haven't cleaned up yet, or added anything for a threshold. It's beer:30....

    [​IMG]
     
  2. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    It looks good to me. :)
     
  3. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    A variation is a "joggle" stick. Similar to a tick stick but several V-shaped notches are cut at irregular intervals along the sides of the stick. Use is same as the tick stick except the V-shaped notch locations are marked instead of graduations. Since the notches are irregularly spaced the stick will only match up in the original position.
     
  4. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    OK, that makes sense. Especially if you don't have a tick stick with pretty red numbers already marked on it....:)

    Sounds like something a professional boat shop would keep on hand for regular use, along with other tools of the trade.
     
  5. michael pierzga
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    michael pierzga Senior Member

    I use thin ply 3mm cut to about the dimensions of your yard stick. Get a sheet of ply and rip a stack of sticks out of it.

    A staple gun and hot melt glue holds together large templates made of sticks. With care these 3 meter long templates are very accurate.
     
  6. waikikin
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    waikikin Senior Member

    The variation I was shown as a boy has a V, a half circle & a square cut out in one strait edge, where I worked it was known as a spiletto, probably because you were essentially spiling the shape, like using a spiling block & the spiletto device was a pointy knife like stiletto shape............... hence spile-etto, the Tradesmen I worked with often came from non english speaking backgrounds so there may be a pidgin style adaptation in the word. Also very good to make one to mark up fastening holes that your planking over but wish to find again. The one strait edge is very handy & some Shipwright scribble often accompanied the marking out.... L for a line or step & P for a point... or both, it's a good idea to mark up the panel from your spiling right away because there's sometimes details to forget over lunch like back bevels & the like. These days on simple shapes a steel rule works well, the hole in the end helps to index by means of a center reference irrespective of pencil sharpness, I often mark out with a ballpoint depending on material. Regards from Jeff.

    PS: nice job Troy
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2013
  7. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    Troy, your plans include a Goggle stick explanation and diagram.
     
  8. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    I missed that -- or more likely, read it when I first got the plans, and forgot it was in there.

    By the way, I'm planning to enclose the boatshop this coming week; I took some vacation time to get it done. My son is home on leave from Korea and he's volunteered to help, but I'm not holding my breath. He has a good-looking girlfriend, and in his place I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time hanging out with dear old dad.:p
     
  9. SamSam
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    SamSam Senior Member

    It's easiest to place the stick and then mark along the long edge and the back end of the stick at each point needed. You only need 1 stick.
     
  10. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    That works fine, too. It's a matter of personal preferences, I guess; I like to have the mark somewhere in the middle of the line. It seems a more convenient place to eyeball while I'm positioning the stick....
     
  11. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    Included with your plans, Troy . . .
     

    Attached Files:

  12. Landlubber
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    Landlubber Senior Member

    I seem to use thin strips of "cover sheets", the 3mm plywood that comes with good ply from the yard to protect the surface of the good wood.

    Cut into 25mm wide strips and a stapler and glue pot (I use tomato sauce squeeze bottles), you can make incredibly accurate templates of multi point areas, but the old ziggle stick certainly works very well.

    My advantage to using plywood stick and staples and glue is that you take it directly to the plywood sheet when ready to mark out, and it is all done, no need to "join the dots" so to speak.
     
  13. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    I don't see how I could have overlooked or forgotten that, Paul. But I guess stranger things have happened...

    I have a copy of my plans at the other house, and I'm headed there tomorrow. I'll take a look.
     
  14. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    I use the same technique on fairly simple shapes as that Lubber. A hot glue gun works well, but drywall screws seem the most common thing to grab for tacking them together.

    The joggle stick's biggest advantage is on complex and curved shapes such as shown in the drawing. It was developed, like many of the traditional tools used in boat building, for illiterate builders. Usually, only a few at the yard could actual read, so a measuring stick wouldn't particularly useful. The tick stick or joggle stick can be used by anyone with great accuracy.

    The other nice thing about the joggle is portability in tight spaces. You might be able to tack a wooden template together with fine accuracy, but can't get it up through the companionway or out of an engine room, to place it on the stock to be cut. A joggle lets you use a fairly small marking board and transfer the marks to much larger stock.
     

  15. waikikin
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    waikikin Senior Member



    Thats also the nice thing about the close fitting batten template- it "proves" the panel can exit/enter the space. Jeff.
     
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