TODAYS DRAMATIC EPISODE
I started out the day in the shop full of optimism. The first thing I did was to tape a of piece poster board paper to the back of my main workpiece. Then I started cutting out from the pattern, which in this case is the original dragon picture. After cutting out as many nonadjacent parts as I could, I removed the poster board pattern from the workpiece to be used as pattern to trace the cutouts on to the infill pieces. Here’s a picture after the cutouts are done (in black) and another the 2nd photo of the resulting paper pattern also showing what I cut out today.
WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’Ts
I tried using the paper pattern but it didn’t work well where there were pointed ends like along the back of the tail, because the paper tends to rip out on those. The flame pattern didn’t work either because it was large and unsupported in a big part of the cut which made it impossible to get an accurate trace.
That left me with only one option to get accurate traces and that was directly from the workpiece. I had to recut a little on the main workpiece, enlarging some areas to get better access with my pencil. The thicker the pattern the more difficult to get a pencil into the narrow areas. That is why I want to use a thin pattern which makes tracing easier.
Finally I was able to trace out the flames on top and the tail onto infill wood. The flames are Cocobolo and the tail is Ash like the rest of the body.
REMEDIES
I Still like my idea of thin pieces attached to the bottom of the main workpiece while cutting out to create a tracing pattern for each infill part. I still think the poster paper could work out, but I think it needs some reinforcement. I’m thinking packing tap, but masking tape would probably work too. Alternatively, if I could get hold of some very thin fiberboard, perhaps a 1/16” thick, that would be even better. First I will try reinforcing the poster board and if that doesn’t work then I will have to look around for something better (very thin fiberboard for example).
WORK ACCOMPLISHED TODAY
It went pretty slow today, but at least it seems to have come out alright and I have a solution to make the paper patterns stronger now.
I managed to get the upper flame and the tail finished as you can see in the photo below. I hope to get a lot more done tomorrow. The photo below shows how it looks now with the tail section and flames added.
