Hi Joe ...You say that you are going to download you rib drawing onto paper in preparation for making a rib template .
...*.Assuming *(see later ) that you " Need " a rib template ; I have found ,in my experience , that a strong material , unlikely to either deflect under handling / usage , or to move under climatic conditions , is best ..For the type of thin aerofoil that you will be using , I have used both steel , but mostly aluminium alloy / dural (Something from ? T4 up should work well )..About 12 swg ( .104" ) thick and if possible Annodized dark colour , so that scribed lines show up well .
Mark out dead strait datum and offsets and join up and draw outline using splines , then cut and smooth down with sanding splines to give a " Fair " curve .
It is not a good idea to paste a paper print onto ply as first , the ply will have to be strong enough to resist flexing , even if it is considered to be stable . Secondly , when you print out the drawing fullsize , you are very likely to find that a 60 " dimention comes out at something over this on the actual paper copy , due to the printing machine and paper stretch . Additionaly , distortion is likely to occur during fixing of paper to ply .The only way here , might be to print onto .005" foil (Velum I believe in USA ), but I doubt this will stick easily to the ply , or print directly onto thickish metal (if you just happen to work at Boeing's plant ! )
From above *Note*....
Have you planned out the whole procedure as to how you are going to proceed ," Beginning to End ", with the rib component , jigging , and assembly ...and allowing for any differing types ? sizes of ribs etc....So that the " Master rib " is most suitably layed out to the best advantage .
As against using the original Sop rib drawing , directly ,to layout the master onto ally' plate , I'd have thought that the main reason for doing it in CAD in the first place , was in order to take advantage of being able to be able to Lazer/Waterjet cut out parts directly from CAD files ,... including jigs ( and templates if required ) ,and so obviating the need to lay it out the old fashioned way , by hand scribing , cutting and filing etc.,
This way , you can get accurate parts and assembly jigs ( and templates for cutting out ply rib webs by router etc if you go this method ), Without having to layout anythig at all by hand methods .
My own way did not include use of any sort of digital / computer guidance , ( I didn't have a computer 'till recently ) , and so I "Had " to make up a " Master" for each rib type ( 4 different types for my Be2b and FE2b ) , and from which I then derivesd all the various rib component templates and jigging fixtures ....But this was the " Old Way " of doing things .
Regards John
