Manual of Purpose-Made Woodworking Joinery

14 Drawings and rods

measurements and pencil marks can be made at

the relevant points. For example, if marking out the

door stile mentioned above, the first inaccurate mark

from the hooked end could be made at 40mm, to

represent the horn allowance and the outer- edge

of the top rail; the second mark could then be

made at 2 021mm (40 + 1981mm), to represent

the outer- edge of the bottom rail. The third mark,

to represent the bottom horn, would then be made

at 2 061mm (40 + 1981 + 40mm). These marks are

then squared across the stile’s edge. This technique

not only obviates the hooked- end problem, but

it avoids accumulative errors that can occur when

marks are not related to one datum point. The posi-

tion of any intermediate rails, or lock rail, could also

be marked this way – or they could be added after

the extreme marks are made, by using a flat- lying

four- fold rule (listed below).

● Tw o stainless- steel rules; one of 300mm and the

other of 600mm length (or longer). These flat,

rigid, engineering- quality rules are ideal for short

measurements on marking and setting out and for

setting up marking- and mortise- gauges, etc. They

also make excellent, short straightedges.

● An optional boxwood- or plastic- folding rule (a

so- called four- fold rule) of 1m length can be used if

preferred to a steel, retractable tape rule.

● A small pair of pencil- compasses is occasionally

useful.

● A large pair of sharp- pointed carpenter’s dividers

is also useful for setting out stair strings and other

divider- work – or for use as a pair of incisive com-

passes.

● A pair of trammel- or beam compass- heads for circu-

lar joinery work.

● Marking gauge(s), mortise gauge(s) and a cutting

gauge for marking out the partly- marked joinery

components.

● Clear plastic set squares (one of 30°/60° angles, the

other of 45° angles) are sometimes of use in setting

out.

● Straightedges of various lengths may be useful occa-

sionally, for setting out diagonal lines, etc.

When marking or setting out items of joinery, to
avoid costly mistakes try to practice the old estab-
lished woodworking rule which asserts wisely that you
should always check twice and cut once.

EXAMPLES OF SETTING OUT

AND MARKING OUT JOINERY

ITEMS

Figures 2.10(a)(b)(c)(d): Figure 2.10(a) illustrates a

simple, outline drawing of a four- panelled room- door

with section lines A- A and B- B indicating where

the imaginary cuts are made to display the setting out

detail. Note that the horizontal section A- A could

be positioned above or below the middle rail – and

the vertical section B- B could be positioned on

either side of the vertical muntins; in both cases,

the same detail would be displayed. Also note that

actual section lines are not always used on drawings

B

5

2

4

7

6

AA

B

33

Top horns × 2

Bottom horns × 2

1 = Top rail

7 = Bottom rail

2 = Top muntin

3 = Stiles × 2

4 = Middle rail

5 = Panels × 4

6 = Bottom muntin

5

55

1

(a)

Figure 2.10 (a) Section lines AA + BB indicate where

the imaginary cuts are made through a standard

(1981x762mm) four- panelled door to expose the detail

needed in the setting out/marking out views shown

below.

762

(b)

Figure 2.10 (b) Full- size

setting out rod of section A- A,

giving door- width, position of

muntin, muntin- mortise (shown

crossed) and shoulder lines of

the three rails.