I’m trolling for ideas to transfer curves from my track plan to the benchwork. The yardstick-compass idea would be difficult as the layout is essentially an around-the-walls footprint and therefore most if not all of the circle centers would be well inside the benchwork. I know there are the metal radius templates, but I don’t want to have to buy one for each radius, and they would be useless for the transition curves I have, anyway. The best way I’ve come up with is to transfer (somehow) a full-size printout to the benchwork, but I’m not really sure how to do that, either.
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I’ve got a 1:1 printout of my track plan, with 1" and 4" grids. I can transfer the tangents easily enough - I was just looking for an easy and accurate way to transfer the curves and transitions. After all of this design and CAD work I don’t want to have to rely on trying to sketch it by hand.
By the way, for those of us not fluent in Norwegian, what does your signature translate to?
This is a good question. On my first layout, i used templates cut from board firstly marked out with a big compass but these were at best nearly accurate.
As you say, this approach is useless where transition curves are needed.
I have used Templot in the past which can draw transition curves. You then print out all the A4 sheets full size and transfer them to your bench. they say its easy but i came to the conclusion after 6 months of staring at it on the my monitor that rocket science was an easier thing to learn!
There must be another way!
jsmaye,
Do you have a tripod or know anyone with a tripod? (I think I saw something like this in one of the MR magazine or books.) You can secure a yard stick or board to the tripod and use that as your pivoting base. Another plus is that the height is be adjustable.
Hope that helps…
Tom
What I did, was to make a template from 1/4" plywood. I used a router on a circle jig; however you could draw it with compass and cut it out with a jig saw. I only needed 18" and 20" curves, so I got both in one template. I used this. and a long straight edge, to draw center lines directly on the bench work. I just eyeballed the transitions.
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Cardboard!
Visit your local big appliance store and ask if you can have a few boxes large appliances are shipped in. Lay the box out flat and use your yardstick compass or string and pencil to draw your plan full size. You can draw your curves and transitions directly on the cardboard. Cut away the excess cardboard, leaving yourself with accurately drawn curve templates.
Simple, effective and CHEAP! Hooray!
Darrell, quiet…for now
Jsmaye,
What I do is make a L-shape jig out of 1x4 , with the long side long enough for the radius I need. And the short side of the L as thick as the bench work. Then find the center point along the edge of the bench work and clamp it to it. measure out from the edge to find the center . Then I get my compass and draw it out.
hope this is what you need
Glenn
Where it was awkward to use the tripod method that Tom describes earlier, I simply taped a piece of fishing line (Fire-line is gray, so easy to see) where I wanted my pivot point, and then drew the radius curvature with a pencil pinched to the fishing line at the desired radius. You can also use a batten for a trammel. I drove a nail through one end of the trammel, and then marked and drilled holes at several radii along its length. I countersunk the holes so that a pencil would rest in them deep enough for the graphite to meet the surface to be marked. Worked very well for me.
Second the motion! For transitions, simply draw the necessary curves on pieces of cardboard and go from there.
See my post on Dave-the-Train’s “Easy and Reliable Transition Curves” thread for one method that works for me.
Chuck (who lays out puzzle palaces of specialwork on cardboard)
I did the same thing a couple of years ago with my around-the-room layout. I drew mine with Autocad, but then needed to transfer it to the benchwork. Here’s how I did it:
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Buy some poster board and make your curves on it. I had to glue several pieces together to make the radius sections large enough for my needs. I ended up making maybe half a dozen curves out of one large “sheet” of poster board. They all ended up looking like large curved sections of track. I made them from 18" radius all the way up to 55" radius. The real large radius curves I used to help ease the curves.
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Overlay your layout drawing with a grid to help in transferring the dimensions over.
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Build your benchwork, and then cover it completely with butcher paper or similar artistic sheeting. Cover everything. Cover the entire layout with a grid to match the grid on your drawing.
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Transfer your scale drawing to the full-sized template. Concentrate on laying out the center-line of the track, and then measure off of it to get to the track edges. I drew my centerline with heavy magic marker when I was done.
I found that my full-sized drawing had a few problems that had to be tweaked. Seeing it full-sized made a real difference.
Mark in Utah
Lets see, First we got a laser to set the exact heights and make sure we where square. Then I ordered a set of plastic templates for the tutnouts and curves. Then we marked a grid on the floor to project up to the benchwork
Stopped had a coulpe and thought that we where nuts!!
Got some carboard, string, pencile and a yardstick. Made the templates from the cardboard cut the sub roadbed and built the darn thing. Worked fine.