Jigs

A tick stick: copying a crooked alcove onto a board

A pointed stick and a scrap of board copy any awkward outline, like a crooked alcove, onto a new part, point by point.

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4 min

Fitting a shelf or a worktop into an alcove is rarely a matter of cutting a rectangle. Walls lean, corners aren't square, plaster bulges, and a tape only tells you the width at the two ends. Fitters copy the shape instead, with a tick stick: a straight stick with a point at one end, laid from a template to each point on the wall and recorded with a pencil mark. The template then goes onto the board, the stick goes back on each mark, and its point gives the outline. No numbers are involved at any stage, which is exactly why it works.

What you need

The template is a piece of thin, stiff board (3 mm hardboard is ideal). It has to be smaller than the alcove and stiff enough not to bend. The stick should be straight and flat, sharpened to a point at one end and cut square at the other. Make it long enough that, with the point on the furthest spot of the wall, the square end still lies on the template.

Lay the template on the floor of the alcove, or on the bearers the shelf will sit on, and tape it down so it can't move until you've finished. Keep it clear of every corner and every point you want to copy.

Recording the shape

Put the point of the stick on the first point, say the front corner by the left wall, with the stick flat and its square end on the template. Draw a pencil line along one edge of the stick and a second, short one along its square end, which gives you an L-shaped mark. Number it 1 and move on to the next point.

An alcove seen from above with slanted side walls and a wavy back wall. A thin template is taped to the floor of the alcove, clear of the walls. Seven points sit along the walls: the two front corners, the two back corners and three points on the wavy wall between them. A pointed stick lies with its point on point 2 and its square end on the template. On the template, each point has an L-shaped mark drawn along the edge and the square end of the stick, numbered 1 to 7
Point on the wall, square end on the template. Draw an L along the edge and the end of the stick, and number it.

You'll want a point at every corner and wherever the wall changes direction, and more of them on a curve, because the points are all you keep of it. The stick can lie at any angle you like, as long as the whole mark fits on the template.

Both lines matter. The long one fixes which way the stick was lying and the short one how far along it was, so the stick can only go back in one place. With the long line alone you could slide the stick along it and the point would end up somewhere else. Pick one edge of the stick (the left, say) and use it every time.

Transferring to the board

Before you lift the template out, write "top" on it with an arrow pointing to the front of the alcove. Turned over, it would give you a mirror image and a shelf that won't go in. Tape it down on the board you'll cut the shelf from, same side up, and check the board is big enough for all the points to land on it.

Then put the stick back on mark 1, edge on the long line and square end on the short one, and make a dot on the board at its point. Work through the rest of the marks the same way.

The same template taped onto the board the shelf will be cut from. The stick lies back on L mark 4, its edge and square end on the two lines, so its point lands on point 4. All seven points are marked on the board, and a dashed outline joins them: straight lines for the side walls and the front edge, a smooth curve for the wavy back wall
The stick goes back on its mark and the point shows the spot on the board. Joined up, the points give the outline of the shelf.

Along the straight walls it's just a straightedge from dot to dot. For the curve, bend a thin, springy batten through the dots and draw along it. Cut a little on the waste side and plane or sand down to the line, offering the shelf up to the alcove as you go.

When only one edge is crooked

If only one edge is out, say a worktop against a wall, it's quicker to hold the part to the wall and mark the wall's shape straight onto it. The stick and template come into their own when the part can't be tried in place before it's cut: a shelf too big to go into the alcove, or a shape that's off on several sides at once.

Boatbuilders do much the same when planking a hull. They pick off a row of points with dividers onto a thin batten, carry them over to the new plank and join them up with a flexible batten.

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