where to find flex batten

[Dale R. Hamilton]

So, I'm marking some lines that require a nice sweet curve. I go to the woodpile and nothing I find is supple and flrxible enough to use. What do you guys use? And don't suggest anything that Home depot does not carry.

[paladin]

Formica...cut to whatever stiffness that you need...or two or more pieces epoxied together..

[mmd]

I get scraps of plexiglass from my local auto glass shop, cut them to 1/4" wide strips and sand the cut edges flat & smooth with a longboard. Use the shiny side as the drawing edge. Different thicknesses provide different stiffnesses. I usually have on hand 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", and 3/8" thickness splines.

[Art Read]

How long? I used 16' 1/4" trim molding straight out the racks in the back of Home Depot. Couple of bucks each.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid15/pf764d69134a4ca6b9a7fc63e8bee19d8/fdebc5a7.jpg

An "eyesweet" curve, even if forced, trumps any lofted measurement or "natural" bend every time... If it "looks" right, it is.

[ 11-01-2005, 11:25 AM: Message edited by: Art Read ]

[Billy Bones]

Originally posted by mmd:
I get scraps of plexiglass from my local auto glass shop, cut them to 1/4" wide strips and sand the cut edges flat & smooth with a longboard. Use the shiny side as the drawing edge. Different thicknesses provide different stiffnesses. I usually have on hand 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", and 3/8" thickness splines.That's what I was going to suggest. I have some lexan scraps from which I get bits of batten material when I need it. I'm noodling out a jig for my fein sander and sawblade attachment to cut the traditional groove in one edge for the ducks/whales to grab.

Bob Cleek recently talked about a panel-joining moulding available from the box store which suited the purpose as well.

I like the formica idea too.

[Bob Cleek]

Just about anything that will bend uniformly will work. I recently got some panel trim strips for some construction at the house from Home Depot. It is used to finish the butted edges of 1/4" wall paneling. Just a plastic extrusion. Eight feet long by about an inch wide and a couple bucks. Good for tight bends. An old broken bandsaw blade works well for light work, if you don't slash yourself with it. Be creative. It ain't rocket science.

[chergui]

I've found straight grained pine is flexible.. white pine I think it is. I've been making battens of different sizes for lofting. I bought a 10' long by 1/2" thick x 5" wide piece of pine and just kept running it through the table saw to get different thicknesses until I got the flexibility I needed. I was able to get one tight enough do the body plan of a small 7' pram. Just take a sliver off if you need a lot of flexibility and stand it on edge.

Edited to add: I set the blade high to prevent kickback and if it still feels wrong just cut halfway, flip it over and then do the other half. Or, just leave a portion in the middle uncut and do the rest with a hand saw, and clean it up by hand. My fingers go no where near the blade.

[ 11-01-2005, 02:06 PM: Message edited by: chergui ]

[Rick Tyler]

I hate be a copycat, but I have an old piece of oak quarter-round moulding that I've used for drawing curves for several years. It works for me. I didn't buy it for this, but it was left over from some cabinet work I did.

[Keith Wilson]

For shorter battens, up to about 4 feet, try a store that sells wood for modelmaking. Model airplanes need long thin pieces of clear straight-grained spruce, which make excellent drafting battens.

[Don Kurylko]

Old bandsaw blades work well too. Hard on the knuckles though. :rolleyes:

[Jay Greer]

For drafting, "Lancewood" is the traditional batten material. I also use linoleum strips and plexyglass.
For lofting we use mahogany and spruce.

[Ron Williamson]

Vinyl extrusion used for making frames for bug sceens.
R

[merlinron]

as bob cleek said...be creative. many of the smaller sections of curves are parabolic and although a batten that's thin will work, i found that an old, fiberglass flyrod blank works good for curves that are decreasing radius like parabolics are. i found several 8 footers at rummage sails for a few bucks. cut the handle off and remove the guides. they bend over just about any cure an because they taper, you get true parabolic curves through your offset points. the only hitch is that you have watch a bit as you draw because the round shape doesn't meet the board at the intended drawn line, but it's not hard to keep the pencil at right angles to the board with a little attention.

[Denman James]

I saw one builder using a batten made up of about four thin (1/32 or so) strips about half an inch wide. They were held together with masking tape wrapped around the whole stack. The inners could slide against the outers, and the device worked really nicely. I haven't made one up myself yet, but this clearly got around some of the problems of locating a length of clear stock to make a single piece out of.

[Dale R. Hamilton]

Damn you guys are productive- sure appreciate the suggestions. I think I like Art Read's best- the 16' aluminun strip from HD. But one alteration though- instread of nailing finishing nails on each side to hold the strip into a curve- I believe I'd drill out the strip every 12 " or so- just big enough so a small finishing nail will go through it to hold your form. That way, you could run a pensil or a router base along the strip as a guide. Still like wood better, but you use what you can get.

[Art Read]

Actually Dale, I did use wood trim. Pine(?), I think. I tried pre-drilled holes in a few for some jobs, but that seemed to weaken 'em too much. Snaped more than one that way...

[ 11-02-2005, 01:37 PM: Message edited by: Art Read ]

[Billy Bones]

Here in de ilanz we don't get a lot of long stock in our hardware stores. We are amok in pvc pipe though, in 20 foot lengths-pretty cheap. I've been wondering about buying a length of 3" or 4" pipe and ripping it into strips, sawing the sides parallel and so on. Just a thought.

[chergui]

I'm going to try on of these blending curves at Lee Valley. A bit pricy but I've reached the limit of what I can do with my pine battens.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=51161&cat=1,42936,42958

[Jagermeister]

Billy Bones writes:
I've been wondering about buying a length of 3" or 4" pipe and ripping it into strips, sawing the sides parallel and so on. Billy, I've been having the same thoughts. If you do this, please post back on your experiences with the pipe, and let us know if it works. Thanks. smile.gif