Mekon wrote:

I have the bandsaw, cutting and shaping isn't the problem, how do I get
the irregular shapes of the plan transposed from the paper to the wood?

If the plans aren't already full size, it's generally easiest to re-draw
them full-size on newspaper or wrapping paper. On occasion I've taken a
digital photo of a plan sheet, imported it to my CAD package and used
its drawing tools to trace outlines, deleted the photo image from the
CAD drawing, scaled the drawing to the size I wanted, and printed it out
1:1 on as many printer pages as needed, and taped the pages together to
produce the full-size plan.

If you print the plan with a laser printer, you may be able to use a
clothes iron to transfer the image (if you take this approach you'll
want to print a mirror image of the plan).

If you don't print with a laser printer, or if you already have
full-size plans, you can perforate the lines to be copied and then,
after laying paper on wood, use a "powder puff" with chalk dust to pat
marking dust through the perforations.

Nowdays I cheat - once I've captured the plan for a complex part in my
CAD package, I export it to my one of my CNC lash-ups and let the CNC do
all the rest of the work. :-)

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/