Is There An Appropriate Material For Template Making?

[woodferret]

edit: and for the love of god, don't use carpet tape.  Intertape 591https://www.itape.com/product/591/ which can be grabbed from amazon for expensive, or any industrial supply store for cheap.

Why not carpet tape specifically?  Too sticky? Too thick?

Both.  But primarily the thickness, but also the fact that it's designed to give lateral strain relief.  Not the type of thing one would want when templating.  That said, you could probably find a 'carpet tape' that's thin and rigid, but I'd never point anyone towards it as a term/class because it's 80/20 whether they get the wrong type for this application.

Fun fact, IPG 591's one listed application is carpet installation  

 

[Packard]

I’ve always used 3M’s Adhesive Transfer Tape.  A misnomer as there is no tape involved, just the adhesive is left on the surface. The material thickness, as I recall, is about 0.0010” to 0.0015”.

Cleans with alcohol.  Strong hold, easy application with an adhesive transfer gun, or manually.  For wood to wood, I would double up on the tape application.

3M Video (and it is just that easy):

 

[jeffinsgf]

I like SpecTape ST-501. It's thin paper, rather than fabric. Sticks well, but separates relatively easily.

 

[Packard]

Thank you all for your thoughts. Guess I will make the trip down to the sheet goods guy once next week's predicted snowfall passes.

[member=74278]Packard[/member] - Not sure just yet, still trying to plan and figure out how I will do what I would like to do. The first project will be to recreate this chair that I was originally refinishing and thought it would make a good project to learn on. The plan is to disassemble it, trace the form onto the board, cut it out and sand the template to the finished dimension.

From there I figure I would trace the pattern onto the wood and rough cut it with a band saw, reattach the pattern and use it with a trim router bit and then shape. But since I have not yet done any of this, I'm still open to best practices.

[…]

I just came home from the eye doctor’s office and the eye drops have not worn off.  Everything is still blurry, so please excuse any typos until I rR-read this post tomorrow.

A bringing-it-back-down-to-earth observation:

A number of years ago I read that the average number of hours to build a Craftsman-style chair is 30 to 50 hours per chair. 

The average for a Windsor style chair is 40 to 60 hours. 

I’ve never built a chair so I cannot evaluate those numbers, but I’m sure there is a FOG member or two that could comment. 

So I am just saying that some simpler projects might be tried first…

I personally have built simple stools  using pre-fabricated steel legs and woven cane seating.  But that is about how ambitious I might be.  I am planning on making a similar bench for the foot of my bed. 

Before tackling chairs, I would try to assess the scope of the work involved.

I don’t keep track of hours when building stuff.  I am trying to reconstruct my hours for this simple stool now.

Prepare the maple boards for the woven cane:

Mill groove for splines
Round over ( x 4)

2 - 4 hours.

Miter + 3 dowels, glue and clamp:  3 - 4 hours.

7 coats of wipe on poly. 2 - 3 hours over several days.

Soak cane in water, glue and insert spline — one stressful hour.  Working against the clock as the cane dries it shrinks, so haste is the game.

Attach legs, less than 30 minutes. 

So the simplest imaginable chair is 5-1/2 to 7-1/2 hours. 

Not trying to discourage you, just trying to add a dash of reality.  Chairs, well-made have to have exemplary joinery as. The joints are generally quite small and the demands on those joints are generally quite large. 

If it were me, I would try something simpler.

Re-reading my estimated hours, I could be off by 100% plus or minus.  Looks like less work, seemed like more while I was doing it.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I usually use a bushing and bit combination, rather than a template bit, is because of the depth of cut problems that can come up. You are kind of stuck with the bit length as the controlling factor. On a thin part, where you are just duplicating parts, it might be ok. However, if you are trying to cut some kind of pocket, the bit length matters a lot.
Festool also follows that shape. All of the "copy rings" are short enough to use with 1/4" MDF.

I just checked the metric set, that I bought a little while ago, since they all appeared to be that way too. They are not. It's only a tiny amount (.025) but that is enough, so I'll have to trim them too.