PDA

View Full Version : Using a PC to generate templates



Wood Borer
27th June 2003, 01:59 PM
At times I need to make a template for a particular shape that needs to be reproduced several times.

Having absolutely no pattern making background I found that using a PC program called Corel Draw is helpful to make the templates. Corel Draw allows you to draw accurately dimensioned shapes on the PC and then print them out onto paper.

The template shape is not necessarily proportional to the required shape. One method used to draw the template is to use a compass to make the template outline a set distance from the edge of the shape. This method works OK but is tedious.

Corel Draw has a feature called Blend which allows a shape to fit a path. If you make the path the shape and size of the finished routing and the shape to follow the path as a circle, then the template can be drawn.

The diameter of the circle is calculated taking into account the radius of the router bit and the radius of the template guide on the router. As mentioned earlier, Corel Draw allows you to draw shapes accurate to within less than 0.1 of a millimeter so the circle and the required shape can be drawn very accurately.

If you select a large number of circles to fit the shape, the outline of the template is easy to see.

Print out the diagram and transfer it to a bit of ply. Cut it out using a bandsaw, scroll saw (I haven’t got one of those yet), coping saw, rat tail files etc. You then have a pretty good template.

Corel Draw I picked up for approx $40 about five or six years ago which was version 3.0 I think they are up to version 10 or beyond now but certainly version 3.0 does me and my templates fine.

The attached diagram shows some blob as an example of the final shape and the circles are superimposed on the blob. The first superimposing with only 20 circles is obviously not suitable but the 2nd diagram with 100 circles is far more suitable.

I stumbled across this application in Corel Draw whilst drawing diagrams for a manual I was writing and then the light bulbs started to turn on with the application of templates. Perhaps other people have a better method but I found this method works really well for me.

This is not an advertisement for Corel Draw, probably other drawing packages do the same thing but I spend my money on woodwork tools not software.

- Wood Borer