My wife does gourd crafting and wanted to make a table out of one. The
gourd was flat on the bottom but the top and sides were irregular and she
needed to cut the top so it was flat. The solution I made was to put the
gourd on a shelf. On the shelf above I clamped a board with a marking pen
sticking down. Now all she had to do was rotate the gourd on the shelf and
keep bumping it gently against the marker to make a line all the way around
that was parallel to the bottom. If you don't have a shelf unit that would
work, the basic concept is to get a marker firmly fixed to a point in space
and then rotate the object against it. Take a look at a height gauge in the
metalworking section on eBay to get the idea.

Steve.



"Catherine Jo Morgan" wrote in message
...
I think a small laser level would help me a lot, but I'm not sure. Let's
say
that I have a curved surface, a rough hemisphere for example. I'd like to
cut the hemisphere in half, or at least slice it so the cut edge is
straight
and can be fitted onto a flat surface. Could a laser level lay a straight
line onto the curved surface, so I could mark it for cutting?

Perhaps there's a better way to do such marking? I know a laser level will
give me a pretty broad line at close range. Is there a way to distinguish
among the different models to find the one that will have the thinnest
line
at close range? Are the lines or dots always smaller the closer you are?

Also - would it be kind to my eyes to wear shaded glasses when using a
laser
level? I do know not to point the laser AT my eyes (or at anyone else.)
But
the line itself is pretty bright, right? So maybe shade 3 if I can find
some
clip-ons? TIA
--
Catherine Jo Morgan
http://www.cjmorgan.com
online artist journal: http://radio.weblogs.com/0120691/