Hello guys and gals, I have had quite a few PM's about making stretching boards and just wanted to put a little how to together and show people just how easy it is.

This is how to make each side perfectly symmetrical to the other.

Tools needed:
Jig saw
Belt sander

You will need a router with a flush trim bit and a 1/4" round over bit for making the stretching boards after you get your template made. But I'm not going to get into that right now.

This is a template for a large Coyote, but will apply to all.


The first thing you will do is cut your board to the correct length, and draw a line right down the center of it





You will need the correct dimensions on where to make your marks.





Next start making marks the correct measurement down and I always put the width that they need to be.




Next take a square and draw a 90 degree line across your mark measuring down the board.






Next take your width measurement and cut them in half and measure on your 90 degree marks from the center line and make a mark.




Now you want to try to connect all your lines while keeping a nice and smooth taper with no abrupt dips or humps.





Mark all laid out ready for cutting.




Board rough cut out and ready for a belt sander.





You might not need a helper, but I prefer to have one, she helped me clamp the wood on the side of my table saw for the belt sanding.





I use an old school belt sander that weights a ton, 80 grit papers works well for removing material fast.




You can clearly see the line here, I try and sand until you just make the line disappear.






All sanded nice and smooth.


Now for the tricky part, making the uncut side exactly the same as the other side. I have a big long roll of paper that we got from the school. They were going to throw it out, so we grabbed it, but you can just tape a bunch of pieces together.



Take the piece of paper and tape it right down your center line.




Rough cut your paper so its not flopping everywhere.




Take your piece of wood with the paper tapped onto it and flip it over and lay it on something flat.(I just used my floor)
Draw a line on your paper with the sharpest pencil you can find.





Now you have a template of the other side that is an exact match.




You want to take a pair of scissors and just cut your pencil mark off, this should leave you with a nice clean edge.





You will want to tape your template down so it doesn't move on you, this picture doesn't show it tapped but you get the idea.




With your template tapped down you want to draw a line right on the edge of your paper template.

Now you have your board marked and it is perfectly symmetrical.





Board marked out ready to be cut.







I have been taking my paper template off and saving it just in case I ever run out of boards and I'm desprate I would be able to use my template board and still be able to make another one off of it.




The board rough cut out ready for sanding down to the line.






All sanded down to the line and a nice template for making boards quick.





This is the large coyote board sitting next to the small coyote board.


I hope you guys get some info out of this and this is one of my first How To's so go easy on me.

Just hoping to help some of you to try and return the favor for all the info you guys have given me.

Thanks for everything guys, Chris

Very nice, I see you did not use the Trapperman feature to up load your pictures...that may make it unable to make the archives, that is a shame after all the work you have done. It is a well done post. Thank You. I would find it hard to do with out a good helper like you had. Tom

The only problem I see is the knotty pine. The only reason I say that is those knots right on the edge of the boards. They will sometimes fall out and ruin all that hard work. Be very selective with your boards when using pine. Other than that, awesome job and method. Thanks.

I am very careful not to select any boards with loose knots. I would love to make these without any knots in the wood, but instead of the wood costing 7.50 a board to make it would cost me around 20.00 a board for clear pine.

Pine is the only cost effective option around here. That is why I used it.

Excellent tutorial. If the knot on the edge of the board falls out , fill it with wood fibre paste/glue and sand when dry and the board will again be usable.

Tom, I didn't know they had an upload feature. If I find time I will try and edit it and upload the pictures on this site, but before I do that I will wait to see what the Big Boss says.

Thank you for the kind words Tom, Chris

Thank you for the how to, It was very good.

Ok Chris, If I can be of any help let me know. Tom

Boostin ............ awesome demo ...... so glad you took the time to share ....... i did one years back here too but my pics weren't archivable for some reason so paul didn't archive my demo on beaver boards or stretcher boards ........ i make my boards similar except to save some time once I have all my lines and intersections I put a 6 penny finish nail on the center line at the top and at each point of width and snap chalk lines on each side ....... fast ..... then I screw multiple pieces together and jigsaw cut through 3 boards at a time ........... after that I run em thru a surface planer for the ones that need different thicknesses ........ great work by you thanks again

Boostin ........ i went back and looked at your pic ......... basically to sum up my speed approach put a nail at the top center and everywhere you have a dot circled ....... hook your string line to top nail and outside all other nails pulling to final length and width mark at bottom and snap ......... repeat to both sides and cut out with jigsaw no paper needed ........ I then just make lauan templates of all and make notes of them with sharpie and keep in shed

Wow, pics all changed over to T-man format, that took forever and won't be using photobucket for posts like that anymore.

Lesson learned.

Nice tutorial!

How do you guys post your pic's