Literature on Making a Story Stick

Where can I learn how to make one of these suckers? My need is especially important because I am so totally awful at drawing anything.

When I sketch plans for - say - workbenches with drawers along the walls of my shop, I can't even progress to the stage of creating a cutlist.

The books I have ( and I have a lot) just skirt over the subject of Story Sticks.

Thanks,

Gary Curtis
 
I don't know that a story stick is gonna help you with drawing or replace the ?need? of sketching out a project, and they likely won't help you with figuring out a cut list.

What they do help you with is transferring measurements for duplicating dimensions of pieces or for making a duplicate of an entire project.
 
For me, story sticks are a massive pain in the rear. Unless it is something super compicated, like recently I had to build a cabinet that fit into three holes in a wall. Its just for when I'm concerned about jumbling too many numbers.

Learning to do this stuff in your head on the fly is a really important skill to have. It makes you faster, and more familiar with all of the numbers that are needed.

Say you have a 84" base cabinet, with three evenly sized openings at 26" and all of the stiles are 1-1/2". Finished end on the left, unfinished on the right.
If you're using 3/4" material and 3/8" dado's the math is pretty simple.
To cut your deck and if you have a 1/2" pocket against the wall you subtract 1-1/4" from the total width. 7/8" on the unfinished end for a 1/2" pocket, and 3/8" for the finished end. So a 82-3/4" deck.

For your two dados in the middle of the deck, (assuming you want the partitions centered).
From the finished end, add your stile (1-1/2), plus the opening (26"), plus the pocket (3/8"). And subtract the finished end. The dado will be 27-1/2" from the edge of the deck.
For the opposite side do basically the same thing. Add the stile to the opening, (27-1/2"), plus the pocket at the partition,(3/8), and subtract 7/8" for the 1/2" pocket and the unfinished end. The dado should be 27" from that edge of the deck.

To double check yourself, you should have 26-3/4" between the two dado's.


It would take me forever to cut out a kitchen if I were to use cut lists, or story poles. I do everything off of the drawing.
 
Thanks for the suggestions and the links. I was shying away from the idea of using Sketchup. To me it represents another computer program I would have to learn. No matter how easy.

I want to work with wood, not fuss with computers. Fortunately there are enough measured drawings of furniture for sale so that I can build without the chore of designing and drawing. I love the furniture sold by Thomas Moser of Maine, and he sells a book of his plans.

It seemed to my puny brain, though, that for built-in cabinets, the Story Stick (story pole?) was the hot ticket.

Gary
 
Fastcap sells a tape measure that has one edge blank so it can be used as a story pole (then wiped clean). I've used it a few times and found it sped the process a bit especially since I didn't have to reference my drawings for each measurement. Kinda gimmicky, but it works.

Wes
 
Here's a video someone sent to me via another forum:

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-a-story-stick-7236/view/

Especially for making furniture -- such as banks of drawers -- or for building cabinets and then installing walls, the Story Stick avoids the dreadful errors of measuring. This is especially important when translating a relatively small drawing of the piece into a plan and a cutlist. When - say - a 1/4 inch on the plan translates to 3 inches on the final piece. A small error measuring of even seeing, expands into a gross error.

Again, thanks for the advice and help.

I think I've got it down now.

Gary
 
One thing that took me an awful long time to grasp in wood working was the idea of "measuring" as seldom as possible. Dimensions on plans are little more than recommendations. When ever a fit needs to be exact I try to dispose of the idea of using any sort of rule and instead rely on direct transfer of the important dimensions. This is where a story stick comes in particularly handy. Say you have a case with dados for a shelf. Rather than using a rule of some sort to measure the length of the shelf needed, set the end of the story stick into the dado on one side and use a knife or sharp pencil to mark the other end of the stick at the bottom of the dado on the other side. Then use the story stick to transfer the exact measurement to either the actual shelf or to set the stop on your miter fence.

Every time you take a measurement with a rule, there is some amount of error involved and these errors add up with each iteration.
 
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