In this post I will describe how I recorded the shape of the front floor piece in my Argosy. A leaky window allowedd water to collect under the front water tank and rot the floor in this area. I used a large piece of corrugated cardboard as my template; it was tacked up against the back edge of the floor section during the tracing process. The story stick was a piece of shop scrap. The template & stick are not needed after the work is complete.
Here is the story stick indicating the inside wall contour at roadside front; before cutting the new floor I added an additional 2" to account for the width of the C-channel beyond the tip of the stick. Two of the heavy contours are the tracings for the corner ribs -- note that they do not need to be at the same location on the template. I was able to record the specific location of the umbilical entry and water tank drain for the floor replacement.
More pictures of multiple tracings with the story stick:
Tracing detail with notes. Cross out and ignore any tracing you don't like:
New plywood stock with template attached to back edge, just as it had been on front floor inside trailer. Note the scraps from demolition being used to give a more exact contour. The story stick is positioned inside of each tracing to establish entire perimeter.
A little jigsaw work and you have a reproduced floor section.
Such a large piece of ply will be impossible to put in location without a clamshell technique. Instead I cut this floor replacement and installed it in two pieces as discussed at
http://www.airforums.com/forum...ces-24430.html.
Any piece of work will need minor adjustment after using this technique -- rarely more than a sanding block or belt sander! This method would work very well to reproduce internal bulkheads or create new bulkheads. You would have to have some way of fixing the template in the proper plane and with desired plumbness to create a new bulkhead.
Internet references are slim on this exact usage. Other discussions of story sticks are at:
The Story of the Stick
Story Stick
Story Stick
Video: Making a Story Stick
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