Drawing the Line...

The other day I needed to cut a piece of wood into a specific shape (which happened to be a large oval). I didn't have anything that was the exact shape I could trace on the wood. I had drawn the shape to scale on my computer, but how to transfer that image onto the wood? In the end I painstkingly drew a grid, and copied the pattern on that way. The result wasn't as accurate as I would have liked, but with a bit of patience and a lot of sanding I got something that looked pretty good.

In any case, I'm thinking that there has to be a better way. Any ideas?

John

Reply to
John Smith
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Print it out (use multiple sheets if necessary) lay it on top of your wood and use a knife or a pattern makers wheel (I forgot what the technical name is for this, but it is a handle with a little wheel with sharp points that you simply roll along the line and it pokes through the paper and leaves a trail of prick marks) to transfer the pattern.

The alternative is to use traditional geometric methods to lay it out. For a true oval, two centers and a piece of in-elastic string will allow you to draw this quite quickly.

-Jack

Reply to
JackD

take your computer printout to Kinkos..blow it to the size you need, cut it out, trace on wood..

Reply to
C Carruth

A) a pantograph B) do it 'full size' on the computer, and print it in 'posterized' form i.e., a bunch of separate pages, that you but together to make the full-size image. C) same as B, but use 'iron on tranfer' material to transfer the pattern to the wood.

Reply to
Robert Bonomi

Find the centers of the arcs for the oval. Dimension the distances and lay it out from the center. Then just draw your radii from the centers.

Reply to
Norm Underwood

Pounce wheel. Sewing supplies places.

I just adhere the pattern with spray adhesive and cut.

Reply to
George

- John Smith -

If the "oval" is actually an ellipse, you can easily draw it by driving nails at the two foci and placing a loop of string around the nails and a pencil. Position the pencil so that the loop of string is tight and forms a triangle with vertices at each nail and the pencil. Draw the ellipse by keeping the string tight and moving the pencil in an orbit around the foci.

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of curiosity, what was the application for your wood oval? A tabletop?

For complicated-shape image transfers from a computer to a flat piece of wood, you might try some type of projection system.

Reply to
Nehmo Sergheyev

Mine is made by PRYM and is called a "Tracing Wheel". Got it at Wal-Mart in the sewing section.

Reply to
SwampBug

Lowly carbon paper works well for transferring full size patterns to wood also ... even David J. Marks has been known to use it ... on TV, no less.

Reply to
Swingman

Here are a few tricks for pattern transfers. For these you have to use a photocopy or laser printer output. One way to transfer the image is to set your pattern (printed side down) on the wood piece and iron it with a very hot flat (i.e. clothes) iron. This softens the toner and allows some of it to transfer to the wood. Using the same technique but without the iron, apply the pattern to the wood (printed side down) and dampen the back of the paper with mineral spirits. This will also transfer some of the toner to the wood.

I personally have never tried these ideas but have heard they work.

Ken Gunter

CH-47D Chinook Pilot

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snipped-for-privacy@ch47.org

Reply to
47Driver

Reply to
Phisherman

George's comment refreshed my memory. When I bought one 15 years ago it was called a pounce wheel. Guess the name has become simplified.

I'm not that old, but there are starting to be words that I used to use which are becoming obsolete. Putty is one of them. I used to buy glazing putty, now I buy glazing compound. You can find all sorts of filler, caulk, sealant etc. but not much putty to be found anymore.

-Jack

Reply to
JackD

Brought to you by the inventors of "the new math", political correctness and such.

Reply to
SwampBug

Huh? I don't get this. Sounds like you are trying to slam those who you consider "politically correct". That wasn't my point. My point is that "putty" is becoming obsolete. Same with "record player" and a host of other words I used to use. This makes me feel old. Nothing political about it.

-Jack

Reply to
JackD

some things just get lost in the translation then confused in the explanation. . .forget it.

Reply to
SwampBug

Interesting to note that the word "pounce" has a history unrelated to the toothed wheel it identifies.

I still call what I'm doing now typing, but the course in school is now labeled "Keyboarding."

Reply to
George

That's what we called'em too, back in Home Ec. I guess that was somewhere in the same timeframe. Hmmm... 1984ish... Wow, almost 20 years ago.

There's always Silly Putty. :)

Reply to
Silvan

That new math is *nuts*.

I've never been that much of a math whiz to start with (more like a total moron) but I can't help my kid with his homework because I have no flippin' idea how to do that crazy nonsense they're teaching these days.

Reply to
Silvan

For those of us old enough to recall, "new math" will always be the jump into hex and octal in the sixties, when everyone figured we'd be talking to computers in their language. Political correctness never became a buzz-term until the minority began to lecture the majority. Destruction of consensus is one thing, but you should have some rational basis for it.

What is it Tom Lehrer said - "base eight is just like base ten - if you're missing two fingers."

Reply to
George

basis for it. For those of us old enough to recall, "new math" will always be the jump

Reply to
SwampBug

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