drawing tip needed?

[Craig]

I need to cut a 1m curved section from an MDF sheet, has anybody any tips on how to draw an accurate curve, other than a peice of string and a pencil, I'm not too good at freehand either.

[AlexW]

Bend something flexible and trace round it?

[Dave Jones]

A big compass?!

Or get a piece of hardboard thin enough to bend and not break!

Place a nail at the top of the curve, and one either end about 25mm in from the edge, bend the board placing over the centre nail and under the 2 end nails

Take a pencil and draw curve!

[Magician]

Do you mean a half circle? Or just a curve, if so, what kinda curve?

Dave

[mike ring]

"Craig" wrote in news:ta2Zd.55259$ [e-mail]:

You can get an elliptical curve with 2 pins, and a loop of string round them with a bit of slack in it.

Put your pencil in the string loop and pull to make a triangle, and move pencil, keeping the string taut.

Try it and you'll see what I mean (I hope)

Get the nails the right distance apart (from the edges?) the string the right length and you can get a smooth curve from one edge to the other, if that's what you want, and as deep as you want.

mike

[The Natural Philosopher]

Accurate to what? Curvature of te earth? parabiloic section? Ellipse? your wifes naked torso? Pre-existent wall?

There are a million ways to do this, but unless you say what you mean, its impossible to recommend one.

[Rob Morley]

What sort of curve? If it's a simple arc I'd use a router attached to a strip of thin ply or similar secured with a screw at the other end.

[Rick]

I bit of plastic bent round nails ......

You have to mess a bit to get the right curve, like them bendy rulers we had in "Technical Drawing" at school

[Craig]

thanks guys, some good tips.