Replies

1. 
   BG | Dec 09, 2002 08:58pm | #1

   Scott,

   I found some pre-primed pine that I cut in strips.  The surface is easy to write on and legible..and it soft enough to get a nice sharp line.  Is that the kind of thing you were looking for?  

1. 
   ScottInMadtown | Dec 09, 2002 10:04pm | #2

   BG,

   Yes, that's the kind of idea I'm looking for.  Are you ever concerned with the stick shrinking and growing with changes in heat and humidity?

   Scott

1. 
   BG | Dec 10, 2002 01:19am | #4

   Scott,

   You can buy primed composite wood and cut in strips also.  But, no, I don't wory about shrinkage...the wood changing length wise is extremely small if at all... 

2. 
   davamoore | Dec 09, 2002 10:48pm | #3

   For story sticks, I use quarter-inch plywood.  For patterns (i.e., it's going to be used with router and a pattern bit, etc.), I use one-half or three-quarter inch plywood or MDF.

   David

   Look, I made a hat -- Where there never was a hat!

3. 
   gweisenburge | Dec 10, 2002 02:21am | #5

   Scott,

   My story pole layouts are on 1 x 1-inch rips, as long as the wall is wide or the ceiling is high. On horizontal poles, I layout base cabinet carcases on one facet, roll it 90-degrees to lay out base doors, roll it again for upper carcases, and again for upper doors. If the wall is wider than my sticks are long, I join two on the job-site, butting their ends against opposing walls and screwing them together in the middle (I just lap them). I do the same on vertical sticks, and the room generally needs only one depth stick, again using all four facets - two for base cabinets (carcase and their doors), and two for uppers. 

   For complicated corner's or multi-sided cabinetry and furniture(like islands), I layout horizontal lines on plywood.

   Although I now design and layout on Cabnetware software, I still use story poles for cabinets and furniture I can't design with the software, or to check the software's solutions. The 1 x 1 poles are good, because they contain just one wall on one stick, and it's easy to align cabinets over one another. Also, I make them from scrap. Painting would be good, but I use poles and plywood many times, sanding away old lines to layout something new.

   Boatbuilders layout all three dimensions, as well as diagonals, on a painted "loft" floor, which is often the floor above the building floor. Those "lines" can be pretty dizzying to look at.

   Gary

   
   

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   Edited 12/9/2002 6:28:44 PM ET by Gary Weisenburger

4. 
   wrick2003 | Dec 10, 2002 05:45am | #6

   1/2" x 3/4"  clear pine parting stop is a cheap moulding available almost everywhere, and can start life as a story stick and evolve into shelf edging, paint, shim stock, paint sticks and kindling.

5. 
   jako17 | Dec 10, 2002 06:10am | #7

   For kitchen cabinet layout I use 3 inch rips of 3/8 or 1/2 MDF siting uppers along top edge and corrosponding lowers along bottom edge.In 8 foot lengths it is easily portable to and from the job site.