Norvin (remove SPAM) wrote:

I have a project where I need to copy some turned legs from a table and
since the table cannot be brought to the workshop, I need to make a
pattern and after looking in several catalogs, I cannot find that little
tool (?) with all the needles to match a turned pattern. I cannot even
come up with the name of the tool. Any suggestion to steer my in the
right direction.
TIA
Norvin

Norvin

The way I would do this is to draw the profile on a piece of cardboard,
cut it out with an exacto knife, and then measure with a ruler and
calipers, as others have said, then write these measurements on the
pattern.

I prefer cardboard the consistency of boxes for Priority mail. I'd take
a piece of cardboard wider than your table leg and thumbtack it to a
piece of plywood, clamp this to your table leg with half of the
cardboard off the side of the leg. I take a thin block of wood the same
length as the width of the table leg, and a little wider than the
deepest recess, tape a pencil to one edge, so the lead is just past the
bottom. Now holding the bottom of the block of wood on the cardboard,
slowly move it along with the edge opposite the pencil touching your
table leg. You can do this with a compass but I find making a marking
gauge with a piece of wood easier to control. It's not near as hard as
it sounds. After you cut it out with an exacto knife, you can try it to
the table leg to get a good fit. I then hang it above and behind my
lathe so I can see it while I'm working, I can take it down for marking
my pieces, and I can use it to try my pieces at the end.

Don