scribing for fitted furniture

[Notch7]

What do your professionals use to mark out scribing around sat skirting, plaster walls, ceiling coving etc?

Im doing a bit of installation these days and yesterday was scribing around some ogee skirting

TIA

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I've tried loads of different things over the years, but I always seem to end up with a pair of old school-type pencil compasses for a lot of scribes like the ones you've just done. These work quite well for many jobs, but they do have their limitations, such as not being much use for narrow gap scribes (such as when you are shooting a board into a bow legged door casing or scribing skirting to a floor - for which I use a Trend EasyScribe). They are also pretty useless for tasks like scribing tile or laminate round awkward skirting details (a Maco template type tool works better for that).

I recently got myself a modern equivalent of the pencil compass called a Saker scribing tool, but to date I've only used it a couple of times, so I haven't yet formed an opinion as to whether or not it is worth the £25 I paid for it

 

[Notch7]

I've tried loads of different things over the years, but I always seem to end up with a pair of old school-type pencil compasses for a lot of scribes like the ones you've just done. These work quite well for many jobs, but they do have their limitations, such as not being much use for narrow gap scribes (such as when you are shooting a board into a bow legged door casing or scribing skirting to a floor - for which I use a Trend EasyScribe). They are also pretty useless for tasks like scribing tile or laminate round awkward skirting details (a Maco template type tool works better for that).

I recently got myself a modern equivalent of the pencil compass called a Saker scribing tool, but to date I've only used it a couple of times, so I haven't yet formed an opinion as to whether or not it is worth the £25 I paid for it

many thanks for your reply.

yeah I had an old pair of compasses with me -but I found the lead would not mark the painted surface (I psrayes the units with AC lacquer and its pretty hard), mind you it was a very old lead, maybe I should get softer lead

I ended up using a small piece of wood with a sharp angle on one end and a 20mark for my scribe distance. then use a pencil to "dot" a load of points then joined them up by hand after.

the other problem I had was holding it in place whilst marking -I ended up using some frog tape to hold it in place.




Considering how rusty I am with working on the tools, I was quite happy with the result -about a 1.5mm gap max where the shape ran out in a couple of places.


I have been looking at both the Trend easy scribe and Saker tool -I might get on to play with. neither get very good reviews on amazon "fiddly" seems to be the comment!!

of course the scribing is nearly always either down near the floor or up by the ceiling!! -or tight to a radiator

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The technique I've often used to deal with lacquered surfaces is just to put some sensitive masking tape on it - it takes pencil quite well, especially a B or 2B lead. For dark surfaces I also have a couple of white lead pencils and a couple of yellow ones.

TBH I think scribing is always a fiddly task requiring more than a modicum of judgment (and patience), so someone complaining about these tools being fiddly sounds a bit like they want the job to be easy - which it isn't ever going to be. It's certainly not a task to be done when you are tired or in a rush

 

[foxhole]

For marking polished surfaces I use a chinagraph pencil .

 

[Deleted member 174758]

How do you get that off without damaging the surface or having the colour bleed into the material (sometimes a problem with white or very light laminated)?

 

[opps]

I ended up using a small piece of wood with a sharp angle on one end and a 20mark for my scribe distance. then use a pencil to "dot" a load of points then joined them up by hand after.

That is pretty much how I scribe but I cut the scrap of timber to the required length first. Sometimes I use a torpedo level to mark a series of horizontal lines to make sure that my scribing block is level as I work with it.

 

[foxhole]

How do you get that off without damaging the surface or having the colour bleed into the material (sometimes a problem with white or very light laminated)?

If you mean the chinagraph ? Then it just wipes off with tissue, never had it mark anything.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Surely the lines are a bit thick, though?

 

[foxhole]

Surely the lines are a bit thick, though?

You can get a fine tip on them with a scalpel, but requires regular sharpening.

 

[ETAF]

my dad was a cabinet maker / carpenter and did a lot of fitted furniture when i was a teenager , i often would go out and help - and he always used a compass , which i have also used in all my DIY - in fact fitted i have fitted over the years 15+ fitted wardrobes , all made myself , and now 3 fitted kitchens plus a lot of other ad-hoc jobs and used a compass for all of these jobs
interesting i purchased a saker (or at least what i found out to be a copy !!!!!!! from amazon , just on Friday , not used, but it does not lock very well, so scribing a skirting -wall-coving, for an panel to go against , i would not trust it at the moment as its so easy to move the pencil - tomorrow i will look at replacing the bolds with Slot/PZ headed bolts so i can tighten

I have also used the contour tool, which i have had for years , but only use occasionally for skirting/complicated mouldings

BUT i'm only DIY - and it is a bit of a knack with the compasses , but i have had some really good results with a cheap compass

I was going to treat myself to a Trend Scribe - but my son-in-law has one and when i used, did not see any advantage over my compasses , so saved the 20+ quid.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I was going to treat myself to a Trend Scribe - but my son-in-law has one and when i used, did not see any advantage over my compasses , so saved the 20+ quid.

I have the Trend Easy Scribe for two particular tasks - scribing skirtings to floors, where for the longer parts it is far faster than a pair of compasses, and for scribing new doors into old casings, where the casing is not straight and where compasses simply won't work (from experience I find that pencil compasses are good where you can place your material to be scribed 20 to 25mm off, but when the gap is 1 to 5mm they simply can't hack it). Other than those two instances I can't think of any task I've undertaken where it would be a "must have" tool

Thanks for the heads-up on your Saker. Mine is aluminium and the threads seem OK if a bit on the small side - is yours ally?

 

[ETAF]

I have the Trend Easy Scribe for two particular tasks -

Thanks , i will take that off my xmas list

Mine is aluminium and the threads seem OK if a bit on the small side - is yours?

I think i purchased a knockoff of the Saker , purchased from amazon, same picture , same coloured box , orange/black , that i saw on a youtube advert , cant remember which one , but an advert at the beginning, which i normally ignore - so a bit of a impulse buy, and just thought all were the same item, didn't look closely enough , as there is a review about the thumbscrews not locking very well

I checked out a youtube video on how to use the item , and posted a comment , and he has no issues either , he has the make "saker" written on the pen, mine is blank.
also the little pin doesn't screw into the hole or push through very well, i saw in the video - he held it in place on the real version

Dont want to hijack the thread, but if people see the tool mentioned, then its worth bringing to other attention that not all are the same

Update , I cut down a M4 bolt i had , and used that with a washer to lock the pencil pivot attachment in place - its all very solid now and i would use or at least try out next time i need to do some scribing - buyer beware

in contact with seller at the moment via amazon.