quackfly

hey all, i was wondering if you can give me some help. I'm a diy tiler and my next project might well be to tile a bathroom floor the trouble is ive never laid plywood or backerboard before my question to you guys is how do i mark large curves on ply if for example i have to lay round a curved shower is there any tools out there for transfering large curces like this onto fullsheets or do you carpenters have any idiot proof way of doing this? Any advice would be much appreciated

Webster

Hi quackfly,

Tape some sheets of heavy paper together to get the size needed.
Using a compass, transfer the radius to the paper.
Cut the paper on the line.
Test fit/adjust if needed.
Transfer this template to the plywood.

Hope that helps.
Rick

quackfly

thanks webster, im still a bit confused so bear with me, say its a small bathroom, 2msquare lets say, with a curved domestic shower in one corner, could a compass help me? sorry if im being dumb

skymaster

lay the sheet of plywood on horses, measure the curved base, let just say it is one meter on each on 3 sides and the front is curved, then just get a flat stick long enuf to go beyond the front put a nail thru one end and drill a hole just big enuf to push a pencil thru thru. make the distance between those 2 points the length of the radiusTap the nail into the dquare corner and swing the pencil to draw the radius, cut on the line and poof done.
IF the shower is ez enuf to move around and lift then just put it on the darn plywood draw ur lines,

Webster

This is what I had in mind for dificult areas to copy...
I just used the toilet as an example, and it's just a quick example.

Always hold the compass at the same angle - ie noth to south, facing you (or whatever) .... not to the same distance from the object, otherwise your image will be larger than the actual area your tracing. Start at the furthest point out, and trace back to one side - again pen pointing at you always. Then back to the start at the middle and back to the other side.

Are we on the right track here?
Let me know if not.

Or as Skymaster mentioned, just do it as a radius if that will work with what you have.

Rick

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quackfly

thanks for the tips guys