"Nick" wrote in message
...
Perhaps I'm being daft but I have yet to come up with a solution.

I want to fashion a pencil trough in the centre of a piece of beech.
Dimensions of the trough to be 16 x 1.5 x 0.5 ins. Needs to be round in
section with radiused ends. Finished item will be 21x4x1.5

I don't have a router or spindle moulder, not sure that these would help
anyway.

A router would work fine.

Something like this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...4/IMG_5311.jpg
but larger. The one in the image is 4 x 5/16. Hopefully more neatly done.

You wouldn’t get the tapering up to nothing at the ends with a router easily
tho.

My best solution so far is to drill out most of the waste and then whittle
away with gouge(s). Then abrasives with a shaped sanding block. I fear
this is not the right approach and that I am overlooking something simple.
I have seen similar before but never wondered how they were made.

With a router normally.

Ping! Possible light bulb moment. Angle grinder with arbortech (or
similar) cutter. Great deal of care required to avoid wrecking the job.
I've seen or used an arbortech cutter. Like most here, I have an angle
grinder.

A router would do a much better job. Not cheap for just that tho.

Another possibility would be to cut the length out of the board and skew
cut it to radius. Then glue the ends back on. Then shape the ends with
gouges, abrasives etc.

I don't like skew cutting and I dont have any gouges. These can be
overcome.

Any constructive thoughts please?

Use a router, bought, borrowed or hired.