scribing panel up to ceiling

Hold the proposed panel(s) square to the wardrobe and push it up to the ceiling. If there are no gaps, no need to scribe.

If there are gaps, you can can scribe with a compass and pencil in the usual manner. There are special scribe compasses for this very purposes available at many woodworking supply houses.

Better yet, find you a flush trim or pattern router bit, take off the round bearing, put a pencil though it and, with panel square to the ceiling, run the bearing along the ceiling with the pencil point against the panel, cut to the resulting line.

Dang, that's a good tip. I'll have to keep that one someone in the back of my mind. Sounds more accurate that using a compass.

I was thinking of offering up the panel to the ceiling and taking a small block of wood move it along the ceiling panel jointand mark it at say inch intervals, that should give you the ceiling contour.

As far as attachment goes I would do it to one of the other but not both .Probably the wardrobe ,just in case you want to move it ...mjh

This makes so much sense it's just stupid.

I don't think scribing could be any easier than you method, and with a round spacer, such as the bearing, it's impossible to screw up. You can't tilt the compass, you can't have a bump that a block bridges, etc...

I think I'm simply going to dedicate a bearing to the marking / measuring kit and be done with it!

Thanks, Barry

Well, I _am_ too stupid for it to be an original. First time I saw it, probably twenty years or more ago, it was a sheet metal worker "trick of the trade", with a washer and grease pencil. Unfortunately, there have been hundreds of similar 'elegant solutions' lost with the decline of the master craftsman.

That's one thing the 'net can help slow down. If we all share gems like this one, the ideas can re-propagate much faster than if we shared them one on one.

I've seen it in r/c airplanes, music, bicycling, and of course, woodworking. Many are often slow to accept a simple idea, because someone is marketing an expensive, electronic or anodized specialty item to accomplish the same thing. If it costs more, it must be better! Even when a really good idea for a specialty item comes along, it has to push through the mess of the junk!

Barry