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srb

Some of the best things I've learned so far are the simple tricks that leave me wondering why I couldnt think of that.One favorite is the development of the arch.Some of the houses we do(Did) get pretty heavy with them. Up to six years ago I used to do the tape compass thing...or 2 tapes to find the radious point then swing the arch.Then a younger guy asked if I knew how the romans did it? Here it goes.Lets say that you want a 3ft wide by 6 in. high arch.Draw a rectangle 3' x 6" on a sheet of plywood.Set a nail at the top/center of arch, and another on each end at the bottom of arch.Rest one of the sticks against both top/center nail and end nail.The other stick along the line at the top of the arc that you first made with rectangle.(parameters of the arch known or decided by you)The intersection of the two sticks will be the scribe point.looking like an inverted v.. Nail or stapple the 2 pcs where they lie. intersection of the 2 wood strips (crotch)is where you track the pencil as you ride the top and end nail with the wood strips. perfect arc everytime. Really works good on the big ones for garage doors.Draw a half arc on a full sheet of ply.Flip/trace /cut.and walla.16 ft arch drawn on horses not 100' foot tape in street!

TimelessQuality

Sounds cool, but I don't get it... somebody draw me a picture

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"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." ~ Albert Einstein

neolitic

Care to try that again,
with paragraphs and
punctuation and capital
letters and stuff?
Might be a great idea,
but pretty nearly unreadable.

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Celtic

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srb

Joe and El. Take two pieces of aluminum.One of you drill a hole in one. The other can router a slit slip? Timeless can provide the wing-nut.And last but not least. Celtic can contact the lawyers for being a smartass!Oops,neolitic can copy and edit my edit into a pamplet that goes with our arc-it.

Something like that would work for invention forum.

srb

Cannot get the drawing to upload. As soon as the lady wakes up should get it.

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neolitic

AAAh, yes!
Clever!
What you are doing is...
"describing an infinite number of chords."
The sticks form chords and sliding them around...
Neat trick. Slick.
Keep that guy around.

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neolitic

srb--
Check this out.
http://www.contractortalk.com/showth...ighlight=share
Try posting there too.

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wallmaxx

I like

Railman

SRB,
Thats pretty slick... I'm going to try it out!

I also used to do the bisecting the arc, & then trial & error until I got the radius right. At the time I didn't have to do many arches, & it worked well enough. Eventually, I had a guy show me a way with a piece of lattice, that although wasn't 100% perfect, was well within acceptable tolerance.

All you do is establish the width, height, & center of the arch, & put a nail at each point. Then bend a straight, even grained thin lattice, or rip around the three points. I was skeptical at first, & double checked his work, by it really is plenty accurate, especially if you compare the two sides to each other for height at equal points. I used this method for many years doing fireplace arches, & porch arches. They were near perfect every time.

Joe

Joe Carola

Are you talking about something like this in the pictures I have here. I did this a couple years ago with your exact measurements.

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Joe Carola

srb

Yes sir. The beauty is the simplicity.The whole point is not have to know or find the rad.,you still have to draw the arc anymatter.A big arc like garage door takes a lot of room to swing and I dont have a 80ft compass.My (Jig?)thingy tends to be more crude than yours as they get changed to find the different arches needed then tossed out.

srb

And thanks for making it alot more understandable Joe