How do I make a template for an awkward shape?

Every fitted trade reaches for a template rather than a tape when a shape has more than about three dimensions in it. It removes measurement entirely: the template is copied from the space, and the workpiece is copied from the template, so no number is ever written down and no number can be wrong. It is how a worktop is scribed round a chimney breast and how a vinyl floor is cut round a WC.

What you'll need

• Stiff card, hardboard or thin ply
• Sharp knife or a jigsaw
• Hot glue gun, or masking tape and a stapler
• Pencil and a straight offcut for tick-sticking (optional)
• Scissors or snips (optional)

Step by step

1. Choose the template material for the job.Thick card for a one-off cut in flooring or a panel. Hardboard or 3mm ply where the template will be used against a router bearing or handled repeatedly. Card is faster; board is more accurate and survives being carried.
2. Cut the blank undersize on every edge.Deliberately smaller than the space by 20 to 30mm all round, so it drops in easily and sits flat. You are going to add the shape rather than trim it away, because adding is correctable and trimming is not.
3. Position it and hold it still.Get it exactly where the finished piece will sit, then tape or weight it so it cannot move. The whole method depends on the blank staying put while the packing pieces are added.
4. Pack out to the real edges.Cut strips of the same material, push each one out until it touches the wall, skirting or pipe, and glue or staple it to the blank. Work round the shape adding strips wherever the outline changes. When you have finished, the assembly is a physical copy of the space.
5. Or use a tick stick where a sheet will not fit.For an opening you cannot get a blank into, lay a rough panel nearby, then point a straight offcut at each corner or feature in turn, draw along the stick onto the panel and mark the stick's position. Later, lay the stick back on each drawn line and mark the point at the same distance — the points recreate the shape.
6. Mark orientation on the template.Write TOP and FRONT on it, and mark which face was upwards. A symmetrical-looking template used the wrong way round produces a mirror-image piece, and this happens far more often than it should.
7. Transfer it carefully.Lay the template on the workpiece, weight it, and trace round with a sharp pencil held vertically. A leaning pencil adds a millimetre or two all round, which on a scribed fit is the entire tolerance.
8. Cut outside the line and fit back.Leave a millimetre of waste, then take it back with a plane, rasp or sander while offering the piece up. Two or three fittings is normal and expected; the template gets you close, and the fitting closes the last millimetre.

Tips

• A hot glue gun is the right tool for assembling a template — it sets in seconds, holds well enough, and pops off if you need to adjust a strip.
• For a curved or irregular edge such as a stone hearth or a bowed wall, a contour gauge with sliding pins copies a short profile directly and can then be traced onto the template.
• Where a template will guide a router, make it from 6mm MDF and fair the edge properly — the router copies every bump exactly.
• Keep templates for anything you might repeat: a stair tread, a window board, a shelf in a standard alcove. Labelled and hung up, they turn a fiddly job into a quick one next time.

Common mistakes

• Cutting the blank to the full size and trimming it down — Every trim is irreversible, and a template trimmed too far is scrap. Building outwards from undersize keeps every step recoverable.
• Letting the blank shift while packing — The strips are then referenced to two different positions and the template is a shape that exists nowhere. Tape it down before starting.
• Not marking which face is up — A template flipped over gives a mirrored piece, and on an asymmetric shape the error is only obvious when the piece is offered up and will not go in.
• Tracing with a thick or leaning pencil — It adds a consistent offset all round, always in the direction that makes the piece too big — which is at least the recoverable direction, but it wastes a fitting cycle.

Questions people ask