Struggling New Builder

[mbarker]

I would appreciate any help with the following. I'm trying to replicate R & L fuselage halves for an old glider kit called the cat that I messed up.
I have tried to retrace the sides from the plans and then cut them out on my band saw using light-ply but i'm not happy with the result. The long continuous edges of the fuselage are not straight and true etc. Any help with proper technique would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks !

Mike Barker
breadman@bvu.net

[Rodneh]

For long straight cuts, I have reasonable good luck cutting slightly outside the lines the using a long straight edged object with sandpaper attached to sand the edge down to the line. If you have a large flat table or bench. stick sandpaper to that with double sided tape and then push-pull the part over the sandpaper to straighten out the edges.

[mbarker]

Thanks Rodneh. What is the best way to transfer the drawing to the part being cut ? I've read a few very different approaches.
Tks,
Mike

[Bill G]

Originally Posted by mbarker

Thanks Rodneh. What is the best way to transfer the drawing to the part being cut ? I've read a few very different approaches.
Tks,
Mike

I've never got any takers on this one, but I've used this method for my past 15 builds or so. I locate the wood under the plan and score the lines with a dull exacto blade. It doesn't cut through the plan when applying reasonably light pressure, but will create an ample imprint on the wood to use as a guide for your cut line. Saves considerable time, as well as not needing to print out individual part templates. When cutting large parts such as full length fuselage keels, you would otherwise need a second print of the plan, if you were to glue the paper to the parts.

[pmullen503]

If the parts are small enough, you can photocopy a section of the plans with the parts you need, cut out the part images from the copy (a bit oversized) and stick it to wood or foam using a glue stick. Then you can cut through the copy on the lines. The paper will peel right off if you use the "repositionable" type glue stick.

Check that your photocopier is accurate by comparing measurements of the copy and the original.

You can also use a scanner and print the copy with your printer.

[mbarker]

Thanks everyone ! Very helpful ! I'll try these suggestions. The local surveyor's supply wants about $12.50 to scan and print a copy of plans so I won't mess up my original. Sounds like a fair price.

Thanks again to all !
Mike Barker

[slipstick]

And for reasonably small parts don't forget good old-fashioned carbon paper. It still works very well and you can still buy it (though I've got a stash from years ago that will probably see me out) .

Steve

[Mojo]

I lay drafting paper over the plans and use a straightedge to trace it.
I then cut out the tracing and glue stick it to the wood. If I am cutting out fuse sides, I will blue tape two sheets of wood together and then glue the tracing to one side.

I get pretty good results with the scroll saw, but there is always sanding involved to some extent.

[road king 97]

I put tracing paper under my plan and poster board or cardboard under that . I pin every thing down so nothing can move then i trace the part out on my print and its tranfered to the cardboard. When tracing you can use a straight edge or other curved things to go over the lines. I then cut the carboard out for a nice templet to use over and over again. If you are building with foam i hit the edge of the cardboard with ca and my razer knife slides around it smooth to cut foam parts out. Its been hard to find black tracing paper at a good price so the craft store hobby lobby sells 6 sheets of graghite copy paper for around 5 bucks and i buy the cardboard at a dollar tree store for 2 sheets for a buck. Hope this helps and good luck . joe

[mbarker]

Thanks guys ! I'll try the tracing/drafting paper approach. Also nice to hear about sources for these things. Thanks again !

Mike Barker

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by mbarker

Thanks guys ! I'll try the tracing/drafting paper approach. Also nice to hear about sources for these things. Thanks again !

Mike Barker

Just take your time and like others have said, cut it little big and then sand it till its a match . Building is not a race and taking some time building will give you a better finish and a better flying plane as well. joe

[FlyWheel]

As long as there are no protrusions (that should be there, I mean) on those supposed-to-be-straight sections, you can usually "plane" them back to straight using a file.

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