Shop Made - Fairing Stick

You've seen these fairing sticks (used for drawing arches) before and they are super simple to make. I have a small one but, found a larger one would come in handy for my current project. Rip a strip of hardboard on the tablesaw so it is dead-accurate. Drill a pair of holes about 1/2" apart near each end. Cut a smaller piece to act as your locking slider and drill a hole near each end on it.



Tie a piece of line to one end, feed it through the slider, feed it through the holes at the other end of the stick and run it back to the slider. Tie the line off at the slider.



And there you go. Here's a pic of the small one so that you can see the whole thing better.



Bow the stick and take the slack up with the locking slider. Once the initial stretch is out of the cord it will retain its form for extended times when you wnt to repeat a curve layout on several pieces. The 1/4" hardboard has enough of an edge to allow clamping in place before you draw your line. Release the tension and they store almost anywhere without taking up much room.

Looks like it should work. Now lets see you make a tapered one to do oblique curves

Steve Southwood said:

Looks like it should work. Now lets see you make a tapered one to do oblique curves

Click to expand...

Oddly enough, I have made these that are 2" wide at one end an 8" wide at the other. When bent they form an asymmetrical arc. They are sort of a one-trick-pony and I needed the room so, they went in the scrap bin. This one was to allow me to layout these repeating curves. They lead me to this lift shape which should allow me to make this component.

Scrap bin, you need a bigger work area.

Glenn,

How do you "tie-off?" If you just tie around the string, it will slip. Did you use a fancy knot that only sailors and Boy Scouts know?

If there were a couple machine screws sticking up 1/4 inch, you could "Figure 8" loop around them. Or perhaps one of those miniature cleats they wrap venitian blind cords around...Then you would not need to tie.

Mom called "Snack Time." So G'bye.

Enjoy,

JimB

That isn't fair, to easy!

Jim C Bradley said:

Glenn,

How do you "tie-off?" If you just tie around the string, it will slip. Did you use a fancy knot that only sailors and Boy Scouts know?

Click to expand...

The friction on the line passing through the slider creates a lock, Bow the stick, slide the slider up to take out the slack and it says.

Glenn, that's too easy and logical. I just knew that there had to be a more difficult way.

Enjoy,

Dad

Nice piece of equipt. I like the price too.

Cool jig, Glenn.

When I was building the sailboat I needed a very long flexible batten to spring for the curves. I didn't have anything on hand that would work but I found something that worked perfectly in the local DIY store. I was able to buy a very long piece of pine screen door stop. That's the trim stuff you nail down over the edges of the screen on an old fashioned wooden screen door. Unlike a lot of the trim available, this stuff is made from a single piece of wood. It was fairly cheap and ready to use.