On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 03:07:27 -0700, ray lunder
wrote:

Ahoy, I'm hoping to make a wooden cap around the combing on my
cockpit. The combing top is about 3" wide and kind of an elongated
horseshoe shaped arc which measures 16 feet in total length. I started
by tracing flooring paper, then transferring that to eighth inch ply
scrap, then 3/8" wood in 2 foot sections checking each stage. The
curve is always off even on these short runs. Significantly off. Any
suggestions? I built two wooden curved sliding cabin hatches and the
cap rail sides and tops without any real problems but this is giving
me grief.
Thanks as always.

For templates first I use pieces of cardboard trimmed to size and
tacked to the original with dots of hot melt.

Then I glue thick cardboard on top using big blobs/lines of hot melt.
The whole lot can then be pulled off the original quite easily.

For tricky shapes and £££ material I'd use the template to cut out a
sample piece in thin hardboard to check all is well.

cheers,
Pete.