Originally Posted by
Edwin Santos
Hi Pat,
Here's how I would do it: First, I'd cut a story stick in length exactly the height of my case, in this example 31" but in a moment you'll see it can be anything. If the case exists, then I would make the stick with no measuring by holding the stick up to the case, marking the line and cutting. Then take a piece of the 3/4" material from the outside case and holding it, mark off that thickness at each end of the stick. This now gives us the interior space of the carcase between the two lines we just marked.
I would then take my dividers and open them up to a rough estimate of one sixth of the case by eye. Very rough. Now walk the dividers in between the two lines you made, adjust, do it again until six steps lands you precisely on the line at the other end of the stick. Yes, this is trial and error, but you shouldn't have to do more than two or three iterations, because when you adjust the dividers bigger or smaller a tiny bit it makes a big difference because the change accumulates sixfold, once for each step. Now our dividers are representing exactly 1/6 of the interior case center line to center line. Walk them one last time, pushing in the point at each step to mark the division lines, and then come back with your pencil to mark them. This entire process shouldn't take more than about 10 minutes honestly.
So what if we want to subtract out the interior partitions and illustrate the sub spaces inside the case? In the example, I said the interior partitions were 15/32" material. Take a scrap piece of that material and adjust/set the dividers to half the thickness using the walking method. Then place the dividers on each partition center line and walk once above and below that line to then mark the partition thickness. Now your story stick is a complete vertical representation of the case showing the top, bottom, each partition, and each space in between all of which which should be identical. Transfer all measurements from this stick in the course of building your piece including the drawers (height and width at least), and then label and keep it if you ever intend to build the item again. In this process you have not needed nor reached for a tape measure or ruler.
I hope this makes sense. It's one of those things that's easier to show than explain in words. Often I end up tacking a temporary hook to the end of a horizontal story stick and using it for setting up crosscutting stop blocks on the table saw sled. This is how I was taught, and if there's a better way than the method I've described, please someone let me know.
If the eye method of getting in the ballpark with the dividers sounds too rough, there are two other methods that give you a starting point that will be very close, I can share if interested.
Edwin