Technical Need some ideas for an 8' contor gauge

For down a car body's side
It doesn't need a million pins though - 1 every 3" or so
Needs to be cheap, easy, fast to make, should be relatively accurate and I need 3 of them.


Best I can come up with is a 2x4 with 3/8 dowl rods that slide thru holes drilled holes thru it.

 

Your idea sounds about the easiest, maybe with some way of locking the dowels to stop them moving. Thin wall tubing/ aluminum extrusion with nuts welded on/tapped for thumbscrews...?
Holding it in postion while you adjust/tighten is likely the hardest thing if you work alone - I always seem to need a third hand for tasks like that

 

2x4, box of 4" deck screws, cordless drill with a driver bit.

Drive a locating screw through each end of the 2x4 until it touches the car body. This will set the ends.
Then drive screws every 3", slowly, until they make contact with the body surface.

 

I made something like that with some recycled sign post material 1.5in sq. tube with a 3/8 hole every inch on all 4 sides . I welded nuts on the holes I used to lock the rods in place. It is pretty handy I use it for all kinds of fab work .

 

Great, thanks for your input guys.
The dowels aren't cheap, and since there's about 4" to 0 back to 4" of change I'm trying to pick up that's a lot of linear feet of that stuff. About 80 feet for 3 of them I guessed.

 

Great, thanks for your input guys.
The dowels aren't cheap, and since there's about 4" to 0 back to 4" of change that I'm trying to pick up & that's a lot of linear feet of that stuff. About 80 feet for 3 of them I guessed.

 

Anybody else ?

 

I don't know if 1/4'' all-thread thru a 2x2 with some kinda base might work.

 

I have no experience using this but it seems like it might work. Not sure if its worth the money to you or if its long enough (107")

http://www.trick-tools.com/107_inch_Curve_Template_148456_364#.U0bdqNuF9tI

 

I have no idea what you are trying to do, but if it is what I think, I would go at it different.

I would fix up a low bench or table the length of the car and put a piece of thick paper or cardboard down. Make a device with a pencil on a stick. Draw one end of the stick along the side of the car while the pencil end traced a line on the cardboard. Voila, you have a contour of the car. Cut out the profile, slide the bench a little closer, and see how tight it fits. Trim until it is perfect.

 

How about a 2" square tube, length of wood, plastic, etc. for the bar placed on stands? Then you could screw mount a string of small alligator or paper binding clips to the bar and then use short lengths of welding rod or chopped-up coat hangers in the clamps to set your distances. When all of them are set, mark the clips / rods with spray paint so if they get bumped out of adjustment you can see it that easily and reset them. Or just glue them all up so that nothing moves. That's about as an inexpensive way as I could think of. Gary

 

is there a reason you don't want to buy one? Eastwood sells them. now that you have brought it up, I think I am going to buy one.


http://www.eastwood.com/adjustable-profile-gauges-5-10-15-inch.html

 

Come on Rat, I need an 8 foot long one.

 

Yes that's sort of what I did and that led to why I want to make an adjustable unit x3. Every adjustment to the car, seems to throw another area out. With the cardboard (& I actually used Masonite) every time you adjust the car the template you just made isn't any good.

 

I'm not sure that would help me this week, but I'm going to need that thing next week in the roof. Thanks for that one.

 

Instead of dowels maybe straws would lighten it up. For added length straws can be slipped inside each other. To fix them in place a dab of glue will do.

A piece of tape on each side of the hole will keep them from sliding out of adjustment.

For a straight edge you could use corrugated plastic sign board. When working with an eight foot length you need lightness.

 

guess I should start reading the question before I answer.

 

How about 6" wide strips of 3/4 ply for the longitudinal pieces and some 1 1/2" strips of 1/2" plywood with a radiused or pointed end and a routed slot, placed perpendicular to the long piece and held in place with some pan head screws and washers, allowing the 1/2" pieces to slide in and out. If the dimensions are tweaked a little I think you would end up with a male and female pattern. Does that make sense? Kinda like the top half of a picket fence, but adjustable.

 

A 2x4 stud & some deck screws is about the cheapest thing that long you can buy. You can counterbore for the heads or weld a wire on the screws where you need longer ones, as your adjustment will be limited. Pre-drill the holes and wax the screws before installing.

But if you have a welder then I'd use electrical conduit and weld 12 Ga wires to it every couple inches. Snip them roughly to length then bend them all back a bit so they're adjustable in and out by bending with a pliers or fingers. If you want to profile a 3D area, you can weld some wires at an angle each way like legs on a spider, so one conduit covers maybe a 8' x 1' area of the body with perhaps 60-70 "legs" on one piece of conduit.

It would be easy to make and hugely adjustable, but perhaps a pain to actually adjust

 

Here, you inspired me. Cheep, easy to handle, easy to make. Sign board straws and black tape.



Made between posts. Lengthen straws as per last post. This one is four ft. long. Attach two for eight feet.

 

I've given this some thought and I'd use an old cabinetmakers trick of scribing a pattern onto cardboard. You'll need 3 pieces of tough cardboard (refrigerator boxes) 8 feet by 24 inches for each pattern. Laminate them for strength. Elmer's glue will work just fine.

Now for the scribe, 2 sticks of 3/4 x 2 wood. One about 12 inches (with a V cut end) another about 36 inches. joined at 90 degrees. Holes drilled in the short piece so that you can force fit a pencil or felt tip pen. The long handle allows more accuracy in holding it parallel to the body thus assuring that the short scribe end remains at or about perpendicular to the body couture.

The pattern boards are placed at the height that you choose and you should make many notes on each pattern as to the height and any references as to body features (door edge here, etc.
My 2$, inflation ya know.

 

I can grab 1/2 of this setup at lunch wink wink
Not familiar with "sign board", will that hold itself on an 8' span or go saggy?

 

Yep it'll go saggy which ever you use. A pair of straight 2x4 s is used to support it. mark the 2x4s up side so that you can reproduce the patterns.

 

How about gas welding rod through a 2x2? Drill the holes undersize and tap the rod through till it touches.
Make an adjustment, tap back the rods that are too long and reset.

 

You could call it the MacGuage.

Doubled up it is fairly sturdy. Home Depot or Lowes will have sign board. It's like cardboard only plastic. Strength is relative to the direction you cut it. You can get a 4X8 sheet at a sign shop.

 

2x4 with t nuts, then you can thread in bolts whatever length needed and adjust them as you need. http://m.lowes.com/Hardware/Fasteners/Nuts/Standard-SAE-Tee-Nuts/_/N-1z0yk2d/pl. Heavy MDF will be straighter than 2x4's, but its, uh, heavy.

 

I like the t-nut idea. Easy to do & you can use cheap ungraded bolts (or all-thread,) but it'll still be expensive for the 75 bolts & nuts.

 

faro arm
sadsack

 

Faro = big $$$

 

Put the crack pipe down and step away from the keyboard.
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