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[Nick-R]

Having returned to the hobby in my dotage and built a few kits, I am looking at attempting building something off plan.  Back in the day, in my teens my stock approach to this was to use carbon paper to get the outline onto the wood. 


Is there a better way to do this nowadays?

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

Make a scan and print, or photocopy the lines, one for each frame.
Then fold the paper along the centerline and cut out your frame, and number it with a big marker.
Spray mount, super77, or other spray adhesive will allow you to stick the paper to your plywood.
 
   

[SteamboatPhil]

Carbon Paper...ohh those were the days......I would still like to use it.....but hey.....

[ChrisF]

I've tried other methods but I use the carbon paper one. So whatever you're happiest with.

To some extent it depends on the complexity of the shapes. Umi's method is good if they are as it ensures uniformity of the two halves and also if you're working with hull lines for half of the hull. I dont have that problem as I produce my own drawings and draw the whole frames/bulkheads etc.


Chris

[grendel]

the only issue with photocopying is that it can distort the scale in either one or both directions differently, generally photocopiers are quite low tolerance to scale, ie about 5%, but that can differ on the paper type, humidity as if the paper gets damp, or is the wrong paper that may introduce another 5% and you may get stretch in the length of the paper path through the printer. if you do copy, then align the frames so they will all stretch in the same direction, ie dont rotate the parts relative to each other.

[dougal99]

I've used a variant of the photocopy method several times with no problems. I scan the plan in to a vector drawing program copy the frame then flip the copy to give the complete frame. You can also use this method to change the scale.

I've also used tracing paper and a 8h or 9h pencil on the back of the tracing and copy to wood by tracing over again. Nearly as good as carbon paper.

[Circlip]

With the photocopy method, when building toy aeroplanes, we used to place the copy face down and iron the image onto the wood. Both Umi and Chris's methods are the CORRECT way to do it but since the advent of super glue, who now has the time to waste?


 Regards  Ian.

[Nick-R]

Thanks for the replies.  Interesting the concept of ironing a photo copied image onto the wood.  I assume that must be a copy from a laser jet printer as opposed to an ink jet?

[John W E]

hi there


Two methods which may not have been mentioned (I cant see if they have been mentioned    ) is the tracing paper method which I use all the time.  Well, most of the time.   I trace the frames out and then retrace them onto building material.   One advantage of this method is you can lay the tracings on top of one another to see if there is any misalignment of frames or water lines.   The other method is pin and prick; where you place your drawing onto the material and prick through the outline of the drawing into the material below.  When you  have completed going round the frame with a pin prick, when you remove the plan off the material, it reveals a row of pin pricks which is the outline of your frame/shape and you then join the pin pricks up with a pen/pencil.   You can tell there are still a few old ones around in this game    .


John

[dodgy geezer]

I've used a variant of the photocopy method several times with no problems. I scan the plan in to a vector drawing program copy the frame then flip the copy to give the complete frame. You can also use this method to change the scale.

I've also used tracing paper and a 8h or 9h pencil on the back of the tracing and copy to wood by tracing over again. Nearly as good as carbon paper.

Interesting!  Will such a program produce a .DXF output?  What do you use?
That would mean that you could take a plan, slap it on the scanner, put the result through DFX2GCODE, and then run off a set of parts on a CNC cutter....

[dougal99]

I use a very old program that hasn't been updated in years and doesn't work on windows. A more modern program may well do what you want.

[Akira]

A pounce wheel is an alternative to the pin method.

[Kevin.Hutch]

I use an old 2D CAD program called Autosketch scanning the original PDF/JPG into it as a layer then scale and trace.


I have printed onto label paper sticking that to the timber. I find I can create finer lines for the fine scroll saw blades to follow that way.


I find sticky labels much easier to remove than glue and less fiddly than painters tape/glue/packaging tape.


I even experimented with multicolored graphite paper for darker woods.