Transfering Plans to Balsa

What method do you like?

Depends on the part, the materials, etc. Often I make a photocopy of the pattern, rubber cement it to the wood, and cut around it. For ribs, I use two plywood patterns, bolts, and stack sand. Measure, mark, and saw square parts like firewalls. I don't care for transferring patterns to the wood to make printwood. Feels like I lose too much accuracy.

I agree.

When I tried to transfer from laser printer images by placing the printed image against balsa and saturating with acetone, there were three problems:

1) The image had to be adjusted in my picture publisher program to get the precisely correct printed size from my lazer printer (true for all techniques).

2) The image generally was not quite as sharp as I wanted, due to dispersion of the toner into the adjacent wood (amount rubbed or brushed on must be monitored carefully).

3) While the first-day print transfer looked "nice", week-old prints would no longer transfer (at least with solvents I tried). As the week passed, more solvent exposure time was necessary, leading to fuzzier images on the wood.

When I used photocopies from Office Max with the same technique, the initial transference was easier, but the same three problems arose, ESPECIALLY in getting the right size, and re-sizing varied from machine to machine - which more than compensated for the easier transference.

I tried ironing them on, but perhaps lacking enough finesse, I scorched and warped some nice wood before I got it to transfer. I probably can improve here by working immediately with fresh printouts.

I didn't think that I'd like rubber cementing the printout to balsa, but it worked really well. The paper allowed an initial shallow cut that then served as a stable guide for cutting and shaping with a #11 blade. I found that I could cut accurately and quickly along the edge of a line. Then I had the choice of leaving base lines or rib center lines on temporarily for positioning, or immediately pealing back the paper and rubbing off the residual rubber cement. Leaving the pattern attached for long periods of time made removal more difficult, but they were always removable dry by pulling back directly along the surface.

With this technique you also have the choice of cutting finely along the perimeter with scissors before cementing to balsa (facilitates skirting the line with your knife blade and/or fine sanding of part to template edge) or cutting along the outline through the paper into the balsa. Using Profili generated sections, this technique allowed me to make ribs that lined up very accurately.

For large pieces like spars and fuselage sides, I most often measure the plan and draw the parts out on the balsa. Then, cutting slightly oversize or just on the outer edge of the lines, I get pieces that can be fine sanded to fit over the plan image.

In all techniques, I found that printout or copy size changed with temperature and humidity.

Then I put the parts together beautifully - until its time to warp the H--- out of the almost finished product through faulty building techniques. I must just have the talent!

Anyway, I really like the rubber cement method.

You can get C-temp from Tom Morris and make part patterns from that, then outline onto the balsa and cut the part. You cut the C-Temp patterns out with your scissors.

I've used C Temp for years. It's biggest advantage is that you can trace directly on top of the plans and when cut you have a permanent durable pattern to save for the next copy of the model with no damage to your plan set.
The ply method for cutting a stack of ribs is almost a universal thing and is really the most effective method for getting a stack of ribs that are uniform.
Once you learn the easiest methods of fabricating a kit for yourself scratch building becomes preferable to a kit as you can control the quality of your wood and parts. No one to blame but yourself if you have a lousy kit.
The only cavat to that is the modern kit makers are really making high quality, laser or machine cut kits that are in many cases better then you can do in your shop.If they make a kit of something that you want and you know that their quality is good then go for the kit and enjoy the time saved .
Dennis

If it's a part that doesn't need .005 accuracy I make a photocopy of the part off the plans then use acetone to transfer the copy to the wood. If it is something that needs to be exact, I redraw it in AutoCAD, print it on a laser printer then transfer it to the wood with acetone.

Me, too. I usually use MEK, which might be a little easier to work with than acetone, but I haven't any experimental evidence of the difference.

>If it's a part that doesn't need .005 accuracy I make a
>photocopy of the part off the plans then use acetone to
>transfer the copy to the wood. If it is something that needs
>to be exact, I redraw it in AutoCAD, print it on a laser
>printer then transfer it to the wood with acetone.

What do you do exactly with the acetone or Mek?Do you just put the ink side down on the wood and lightly wet the back side of the paper?
Thanks Dennis

Sorry, I should have included the details. You can use either a xerographic copy or a drawing made by a laser printer. Either method leaves a line that's soluble in acetone or MEK (methyl ethyl ketone). Put the drawing face down on the balsa and rub the lines to be transfered pretty hard with a piece of paper towel or Kleenex dampened with the solvent. Too much solvent will smear the line; too little won't transfer the line. You'll learn how much it takes in a couple of attempts. Works a treat.

I love scratch building and have used three methods. One, make a copy, cut it out, rubber cement it to the balsa or ply, cut out the part(s). Two, measure twice, cut once. Three, I have used see temp for ever it seems. Got my first and only roll in the 70's. Mkaes great templates. I have also used aluminum and plywood templates. Only problem with my See Temp, is thaty after being rolled up for years, will not uncurl. I have tried everything. In smaller pieces, no problem. But the larger ones still curl.
Another method of making parts is, of course, the most obvious, use the original kit parts as templates, only on better balsa.
Scratch builders unite!!!

I use CorelDraw to design and or copy existing models. I like to print out the ribs and attach them to balsa with spray on glue. Then I make stacks of balsa and gang cut them with a scroll saw. CorelDraw is a high end program and I'm sure I would have never bought it just for the hobby but I have it from an earlier life as a graphic artist so It works well for me. I am able to import and export .dxf files. If I find I need to make a larger print out than the 11 x 17 I can do now, a trip to the local copier place can usually solve the problem for me.

I us the straight pin through the plan into the balsa method to mark out the parts. For constant cord wings I use a balsa block with a 1/16 ply template tack glued to one side. I then cut the block out to the template on my band saw. Then I use an angle iron fence clamped to the table on the band saw, measuring the distance between the angle iron and the saw blade for the thickness of the ribs I want. Then turn the block rib on it's side and slice the ribs off like balogne. Very fast to get a set of very good ribs.

Like Jim, I use a pin to punch through on the big parts. Other parts I will measure and draw on the wood, or cut up a set of plans that I copied for the purpose and rubber cement them to the wood. Just depends.
Bill <><

I use C-Temp from Tom Morris, scoring it with an X-acto. Once scored, it will usually just break along the score lines when flexed.

>I use C-Temp from Tom Morris, scoring it with an X-acto.
>Once scored, it will usually just break along the score
>lines when flexed.
>
>Al

Duh, what is C-Temp?????

Ted (out in indian country) Fancher

My preferred method is to go to Kinkos and make a copy of the plans. I then spray glue the various pieces onto thin posterboard. I cut the parts out carefully with and X-acto blade to make reuseable templates. I also use large outline templates of the fuse side view, wing and tail made the same way on which I draw and cut out paint scheme templates. I put these directly on the airplane and sketch in the scheme with a soft lead pencil for masking. For complex shapes they can also be used to cut masks from frisket paper.

Ted,

C-Temp is a brittle plastic sheet. Score it and flex it and the templates just pop out. the plastic is fairly thick. It makes good, reusable templates. I use it for full size fuselage sides and flaps, and anything else I want to transfer from the plans to a reusable template. It is a good value. I'm told it can be found at art supply stores. Tom's is about .015" thick, can be glued with CA and will accept permanent markings from a Sharpie pen. It works better than I thought it would when I ordered it, on a whim, from Tom. There are more difficult, time consuming ways to make templates, but if you just want to get a usable temp, right now, and get on with building, it is hard to beat. And I do save them for possible future use.

Beat me to it, Ted. Must be some type of Mylar????

Just Joe

I'm not sure if you're are kidding with Al, or really don't know what See Temp is. It is a thick (about .020) plastic sheet that is translucent, not totally clear and is just rough enough on the surface to write on. The way it snaps after being scored as Al stated, reminds me of vinyl plastic like that sold by "Plastrut" for model railroading, cars, boats, etc. You can see through it quite well and by taping a section on the plans, you can trace the part onto it. I still prefer the Kinkos method. Too bad they didn't
exist 35 years ago.

I use carbon paper between the plan and the wood. A friend gave me two new boxes rather than throw it out. I carefully trace around the part with a #2 pencil sharpened fairly sharp. I've also used the pin-through-the-plan method.

I started using See-Temp back in the 80's. It works pretty well, but you should be very careful when scoring it. It would be easy to make a bunch of small errors that could add up causing potential problems when building.

Since I started doing CAD work in the early 90's, I've always put together a pattern sheet. This has all the parts that need to be cut out on it. I cut the patterns out with about 1/8" of excess paper about the edges.

A very light misting of 3M, just a spray aimed about a foot over the patterns, gives enough tack to stick them to the wood well. I can also lay out the parts for best usage of the balsa, which helps.

I use either the jig saw, or the band saw, depending on the part. Leave the line showing, and use the sanding disk to finish the part up. Makes very accurate parts, almost, depending on your skill and tools, as good as laser cut.

If you use a copy of the plans, from, say Kinkos, make sure the machine is adjusted properly so there is no stretch in either the X or Y direction. You'll get good parts.

Yet another method.

For templates, x-ray film works great. You can trace directly through it, cut it like you want. Very durable, easy to store. Really don't know how easy it is to get for the average person, I got mine from from the x-ray techs on the carrier. Really havn't seen any since...

My main method is to just trace the part from the plans right through cheap printer paper and cut it out, then trace around it. Could spray adhesive it right to the balsa I guess. It's really slow and low tech, but I rarely build more than one of anything and havn't had any problems with parts not being the right size or shape, so I guess it's accurate enough.

For larger pieces, I trace through on onion skin (wife was a art major and I have a 36" wide roll) or the 12" wide (and half a million feet long) paper sold at home improvement centers for masking windows and such when you paint. It's fairly thin and easy to see through.

HI Mike. I went to Huntsville Hospital and asked an Xray tech for two sheets of exposed but RUINED film. Explained I was building a model airplane and used the film for canopies. They will not give you film that is exposed with someones name on it (all do), so the ruined film is black or a funny brown color. Soak it in Clorox for a few minutes and out comes a neat blue tinted film. Great for tinted canopies like the Barnstormer or other OTS planes, as well as templates.
Nice thing about ships of the USN, they are floating hardware stores. Nuts, bolts, aluminum stock, leather fillets, some types of wood, steel rods (piano wire), solder, electronic parts, wood shop, electrical shop, etc. Too bad they still don't use balsa life rafts. (Mid watch, snatch one and cut it up for next plane.) Just don't get caught. Or it is port yardarm time!!

Mike, me again. I have used onion skin to cover the wings and fuselage of indoor rubber powered models. Lighter than Japanese tissue and easier to use than micro film. Just a thought, if you ever succumb to indoor free flight.

I use the same method as Howard but with a kicker. I tried thinner, acetone and MEK all worked but there was a very fine line between no / to light a transfer and a runnier blob. I saw a video of transferring patterns for a peanut scale model and he was using a chartpak blender pen. It seamed to be much more user friendly. I got one from the wife, the artist, and found that it was filled with xylene. I went to home depot and got a quart and that works much better. I have been told that the fumes are worse for you than acetone but I just move out side when I transfer the patterns.

I usually use computer plans, but you can also photo copy parts, then I use a glue stick and glue the pages to a piece of poster board, cut them out with scissors, now you have a set of templates you can trace on the wood over and over. I'm terrible with the see-temp, seems I don't trace very well, but I have used that also. but gluing to poster board and cutting out with scissors is easy. I trace kit parts onto poster board also, then cut out the poster board parts, and throw the templates into the kit box, if I like the plane, I can build another from scratch.

Amen.
That is is how I cut almost all of my small parts. Ribs, wingtips, rudder and fin. Cut the pieces out with the jigsaw and then use my sanding wheel to finish them off. I also stack the sheets so that if I make parts from a plan I make about six sets of parts. Six sets of ribs, wing tips, etc. (six is about the number of ribs I can fit on a 3 by 36 plank) That way I don't really need to re-use my plans, the five other kits are my templates. I also have an adjusto jig, which once it's set up for the initial wing, the next one is a CINCH to put together.
Same thing with flying, If I crash the first one, I find I can quickly crash the other six by doing exactly the same thing!!!

Print a copy on a Laser Printer. Then Iron the pattern onto the balsa. No fuzzies, no dispersion, just a clean copy. Works with some InkJet printers, too.

If there's parity, you DO get a reversed image, unless you reverse it in the print process, too . . .

Could have just picked up the phone Iceman. I use 3m77 spray adheasive on a copy, lay it on the balsa and cut it out. If I'm going to make several copies I put it on something more substantial and go from there. I have a copy of George Liebs fuselage on a piece of cabinet laminate for quick tracing. John Bender uses Drafting Mylar. Here it's like the SeeTemp, you lay it over the plan, transfer it and cut it out, real slick either way.

Tooooo cold to fly till maybe Friday, will keep you advised. Spent the weekend either sitting or going to the stores. I did get some more lights for the building room and I do have the wing for the new racer layed up ready for Fiberglass. Also, we ordered a Sleep Number bed after going in for a laydown tryout and falling asleep a couple times during the demo. Dang woman wouldn't stop talking! Anyways, it was a real blast flying the Scale Racers last time. I'm still a bit dizy.

Well, Dizzyer than normal!

When I hear of people punching pin holes in plans, I cringe. I have a very large collection of pristine Classic plans, that would not have survived if that method was used.

I once lent a copy of a rare plan to someone (a well known flyer and accomplished builder) who cut up my plan to make patterns.. I was horrified.. the plans are gone forever.

Machine copies per H.Rush will work fine provided there is no distortion in the copy.

I also use my CAD drawings, but not everyone can do this.

C-Temp is a very good method.

But have we forgotten that there is always tracing paper? This is available almost anywhere.. Office Depot, Wal Mart.. etc. etc.
This is not the best method, but it also works!.

But please don't destroy your plans!

Just for the sake of curiosity, what were the plans? Did you ever aquire another set? Contact me on the secret net here on Stuka, I have some old plans and may have a set you need. Ty