Replies

1. 
   efarmer4 | Feb 20, 2003 07:49pm | #1

   Oddly enough, that is in this months Fine Woodworking, see page 22, Methods of Work, in issue #162, April 2003...

   They are making a curved stretcher for a mission style piece. They are cutting out the curve and throwing out the inside of the circle, sounds like you are cutting out the curve and throwing out the outside of the circle-- maybe you can use the waste from their project? ;) I'm sure it still sitting in the scrap pile somewhere...

   Edward
2. 
   tailsorpins | Feb 20, 2003 09:58pm | #2

   Page 20 in my copy, and I love the artists visual representation of the trammel beam.  I think I'd substitute a string and a pencil, pivoting on a tack or nail.  It reminded me of a Lufkin rule I once had ... 10 feet long, beech body was 7/16 thick and 3 1/2" wide, graduated in 16ths from one end to the other, no brass tips.  Wouldn't the rule collectors like to have that!  A fellow woodworker borrowed it from me and moved away without returning it.  Haven't heard from him since.  Three years later, I found it (had my brand stamped in it) in an antique shop in Okla City with an arc of a runaway skillsaw cut along one side, about halfway through ..... they were asking $125 ("what they'd paid a guy for it three years before, cause he was moving!").  I had paid $15 for it at a lumber yard auction perhaps five year prior.  

   Oh, got carried away. Good luck with the arc!

   John

3. 
   woodguy | Feb 21, 2003 12:26am | #3

   I too had the same question while making a large arch for the top of a bookcase. This solution came too late to help me but you can give it a try.

      Tack 3 small nails in a piece of scrapboard large enough to cover the size of your arch.

     1 at each end of the arch, (at the bottom edge of the board) ) a 1 at the top center of the arch.

     Take two narrow strips of wood long enough to reach past the tacks at the end and the tack in the middle.

     Lay one strip aganist the top edge of one end tack and the top edge of the middle tack. lay the other strip so that it is parrelell with the bottom edge of the scrapboard and one end is also resting on the top edge of the middle tack.nail or glue the two strips in that position. Now put a pencil in the inside of that angle and holding it on the top edges of the tacks scribe your arch. clear as mud?

1. 
   Remodeler | Feb 21, 2003 12:39am | #4

   Thank you for your responses.

   >clear as mud?

   I printed it out to study later.  Sometimes that stuff hurts my head trying to visualize.

   remodeler

4. 
   UncleDunc | Feb 21, 2003 01:21am | #5

   The question comes up frequently on Breaktime as well. Use the Advanced Search button near the top of the left frame and search for radius of an arch as an exact quote.