Stumbled onto a trick for scribing cabinet uppers to wavy ceilings

Been fighting wavy ceilings for years, and I finally tried tracing the wall with a scrap of 1/4 ply and a pencil instead of using a compass on every damn cabinet... saved me almost an hour on a kitchen I started in Portland last Tuesday. Problem was the scribe line kept drifting when I moved the cabinet, but pinning the ply to the top edge and sliding it along the wall made a perfect transfer every time. Anyone else got a weird method for dealing with crown and ceiling gaps that beats the old pencil-on-a-block routine?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewf404d ago

Pin the ply tighter next time, or clamp it, because the drift is usually from the pencil angle changing as you slide. You got the right idea, just need to keep that pencil at a fixed tilt.

jason_kelly83d ago

...and honestly, even with a clamped piece, the pencil will still walk on you if you're not keeping your body square to the cut. I've started marking my cut lines on the front edge of the ply right where the pencil tip meets the wood, and then I check that spot every few inches. That way, if I feel the angle shift even a little, I stop and reset my hand instead of trying to correct mid-line. The drift is way less about the wood moving and way more about your shoulder dropping as you go, so locking your elbow against your ribs helps a ton too.