transferring track plan from paper onto plywood

[markpierce]

Does anyone have suggestions for transferring a 1 to 1 scale trackplan on paper directly onto plywood subbase to locate roadbed/track locations and playwood cuts exactly? I'd appreciate your help. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

You might look at some of the comments in this discussion running currently :
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=33426

Wayne

[cwclark]

you might want to try "cookie cutter" cut's when you make the sub roadbed ...for straight track cuts ...it's obvious..just cut the plywood in 2 1/4" sections and cut off the length you'll need..... for the curves , take a small board like a 1/2" x 3/4" about 40" long ..on one side drill a hole about an 1" from the end large enough for a nail to fit through ...then measure out from the nail hole to the other end of the board and start marking the board at 15", 16" 17"... and so forth until you get to about 36" 37" or 38" (that's a plenty big radius) at each of the marks, drill a hole big enough for a pencil to fit thru...now take your drawing, and find what radius you've drawn by matching the hole in the board to the track's drawing until you fine which hole will match the drawing's radius when you make a sweeping motion withthe board over the drawing (be sure the nail end doesn't move when you make the sweep...take that radius, transfer it to a sheet of plywood, tap in the nail into the plywood so that it doesn't move out of the pivot point, and with the pencil move the board along the plywood and draw the radius on the sheet of plywood...now, measure 1 1/8" on each side of the pencil line and pencil in the "cut "line from the center of the track line you just drew... cut out both lines that are 1 1/8" from the center of track line with a jigsaw and you'll have your first piece of subroad bed for the layout..continue until all the track sub roadbed is done and the subroadbed is transferred to the layout benchwork...to fasten the ends of the sub roadbed together, use a scrap piece of plywood, and mount it about 4 inches on either side ( so the scrap plywood will be 8" x 21/4") to where the two ends of the sub roadbed join together and glue and screw it together placing the scrap underneath the two pieces of butted subroadbed..use a #8 counter sink bit so that the screw heads (you'll screw them in from the top from the top) of the subroadbed won't interfere with the track roadbed..i use ordinary drywall screws and wood glue for this...Chuck

[rrinker]

To transfer my plan (I used foam, bit this should work on plywood as well) I used a 'pounce wheel' which is a little sawtooth wheel in a handle, you can get them in the fabric section of WalMart. I taped the full-size plan into place, and traced over all the lines with the wheel. This left pin***s in the foam (and a mess of paper!). I traced lightly over the pin***s with a sharpie marker to darken the lines so I could see what I was doing.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

The pounce wheel method works with chalk, too. Just rub the chalk on your lines after making the pin holes. Use a color of chalk you can easily see against the plywood or foam. I've aslo read about, and did part of my layout, by taping the paper to the plywood and laying the track right over it. Just cut along the edges and remove the excess paper when you have the track in place.

[markpierce]

The pinwheel idea sounds good. I had thought about using a pinwheel, but hadn't yet thought the chalk. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I have used carbon paper (remember that stuff) to transfer images from paper to wood. Short of that, rubbing graphite from pencil onto BACK of paper image, turning it over and re-drawing over original image, thereby rubbing graphite onto wood.