Is there a good way to apply a pattern to a sheet of plywood so that all the
lines and marks are there for cuts and holes to drill? I have a need to cut
large shapes from a sheet of plywood and also drill holes in them. Marking
all the points by hand on each sheet will take a lot of time. Is there any
quick way to mark all the lines and points for my cuts without doing it by
hand. I think a large sheet of metal with small holes to mark critical
points would work but I don'e have any way to build such a template.
Paul D
ppdavid wrote:
> Is there a good way to apply a pattern to a sheet of plywood so that all the
> lines and marks are there for cuts and holes to drill? I have a need to cut
> large shapes from a sheet of plywood and also drill holes in them. Marking
> all the points by hand on each sheet will take a lot of time. Is there any
> quick way to mark all the lines and points for my cuts without doing it by
> hand. I think a large sheet of metal with small holes to mark critical
> points would work but I don'e have any way to build such a template.
A paper template and pounce the lines.
http://www.carvingpatterns.com/tracing/pounce.htm
R
Phisherman (in [email protected]) said:
| On Sun, 07 May 2006 02:10:44 GMT, "ppdavid"
| <[email protected]> wrote:
|
|| Is there a good way to apply a pattern to a sheet of plywood so
|| that all the lines and marks are there for cuts and holes to
|| drill?
|
| Perhaps you could make templates from hardboard or cardboard sheets?
Phisherman's suggestion is a good one. I'd narrow it down to just the
hardboard - 1/8" for limited usage or 1/4" for longer template life.
I've had a number of local cabinetmakers come to me to have hardboard
templates CNC cut for projects requiring more than usual precision -
most recently a set of templates that were used to do the decorative
inlays for the executive conference table at the Science Center of
Iowa. If the CNC approach seems appropriate for your project, I'd be
glad to hook you up with some shops in your area - but it'll be up to
you to produce a DXF file and negotiate a good price.
--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto
On Sun, 07 May 2006 02:10:44 GMT, "ppdavid"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Is there a good way to apply a pattern to a sheet of plywood so that all the
>lines and marks are there for cuts and holes to drill? I have a need to cut
>large shapes from a sheet of plywood and also drill holes in them. Marking
>all the points by hand on each sheet will take a lot of time. Is there any
>quick way to mark all the lines and points for my cuts without doing it by
>hand. I think a large sheet of metal with small holes to mark critical
>points would work but I don'e have any way to build such a template.
>Paul D
>
Perhaps you could make templates from hardboard or cardboard sheets?
There are many ways to do this but the faster ones aren't very accurate. You
didn't say how accurate your marks had to be. For instance, I once used a
film projector to project an image on a sheet of plywood and then used a
magic marker to trace the image onto the plywood. This method is great for
making cartoon cutouts at different scales, but terrible on accuracy. If
accuracy is more important than that, but still not critical, I have made
cardboard templates of parts and then traced them onto plywood. You could
also use a sheet of very thin plywood to make a template. If the template
was 1/4" thick and made of a firm material, you could also use it as a
router guide. When I do this I put a piece of 1" foam behind my wood and the
template on top, attached with double side tape. Then use a router with a
guide and down cutting spiral bit or roto-zip bit to trace around the
template. The tip of the bit is protected by the foam and the chips get
imbeded in it. The foam backer also minimizes tearout on the back side of
your part, plus it can be used over and over since the cut just leaves a
small groove in it. Once cut out this way you have a part that is slightly
larger than your template due to the differences in dimension between your
router guide and your bit. If the part needs to be exactly the size of the
template, I then switch to a top bearing mounted pattern bit and re-cut the
edges of the parts to the size of the template.
--
Charley
"ppdavid" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Is there a good way to apply a pattern to a sheet of plywood so that all
the
> lines and marks are there for cuts and holes to drill? I have a need to
cut
> large shapes from a sheet of plywood and also drill holes in them.
Marking
> all the points by hand on each sheet will take a lot of time. Is there
any
> quick way to mark all the lines and points for my cuts without doing it by
> hand. I think a large sheet of metal with small holes to mark critical
> points would work but I don'e have any way to build such a template.
> Paul D
>
>
On Sun, 07 May 2006 02:10:44 GMT, "ppdavid"
<[email protected]> wrote:
> I think a large sheet of metal with small holes to mark critical
>points would work but I don'e have any way to build such a template.
Use a large sheet of paper: You can draw it in a CAD program which
will print to scale, and you join the several sheets. Then "pounce"
the lines etc as already suggested.