traising patterns

[minowevie]

Hi All . I have been tracing patterns for 3 days. 1 pattern. really. and wow what a job. This is a old pattern. back in the 18oos. all black . so i thought i would trace it to give it some lines to fallow with my saw blade. for if i did it without it . i would loose my blade. and get cross eyed. lol. skuz spelling.
is there a better way to copey a pattern? also this is a large pattern. about 2 buy 3 '. just about done. but don't know if my tracing is good enouph. took a framing square. to squre it up. i normaly go to stapels to copy my patterns. but they can't do this size. HELP> your friend Evie

[arbarnhart]

We have a regular sized copier at home and I fold and/or slide and hold big patterns to do part at a time then tape them back together. I sometimes blow them up or shrink them down. Take a look at this:



That butterfly is an ornament pattern out of SSW.

[Old Mooner]

Evie--
I don't know where you live, but the Staples where I live can copy patterns much larger than 2'X3'. I have had some done that were almost 3'X4' at that store. Maybe each store has different capabilities.
Moon

[SharonW0111]

The best and most used tool in my shop is my lazer copier.. I bought a almost new one - not a color mind you but a very good one - for $150. through our local want ads. Be sure to get one that reduces and enlarges .you can download from some of the free pattern sites and make a copy and spray adheseve that - thus saving your original. Sure is a life saver on the fingers and the time. I took a tiny doll cradle and blew it up to 26 inches and made a super 1800 fretwork cradle for my grand for Christmas... Was the best present I could have ever given her because it will last for a few generations and a lot of love and work went into it- besides the time- whew My arm and shoulders are still sore from sanding... Any who- Invest in a copier -besure it reduces and enlarges and you can't go wrong.
Sharon

[jttheclockman]

I have found that Kinkos has the best copiers and the truest. I know the Staples and Office Max by me, the copiers are not as reliable. The copies come out askewed some times. Need to pay attention to that. The Kinkos also has a Cad drawer so you can make any size copies and you can do them yourself. I found when I do take a copy and make it in sections I always draw a reference line so when I put the pieces together I match the reference lines and can't go wrong.

[CanadianScroller]

Back in my school days, we would scribble on the back of a picture just around the edges we wanted to trace. Then we flipped the original over and placed it on a plain piece of paper. When we drew along the outside edges of the original it would transfer some of the pencil lead from the back side to the plain paper.

One advantage of this was you could easily follow the original because you were drawing right on it. One disadvantage was it made a mess of the original.

Evie, I think one of the reasons you were tracing is because the original was solid black and you wanted a line to follow rather than a black blob. You could go to a sewing store and pick up some transfer paper. Place it between your original and a blank sheet then follow the patter with a stylus.
If you tape the original and the blank sheet only on the top edge you can flip the sheet to see your progress and still have everything line up.

If all you want is a photocopy of the original many print shops can handle that size, so can places that handle blueprints. I go to City Hall, it helps because I work there I still pay a pretty penny for big photocopies but it is less that buying the same pattern over and over.

[harrisg]

Evie, if you can't find any other place take it to a place that reproduces blueprints. There not blue anymore. They're like a big black and white photocopy. I'm sure you'll find some in the Yellow Pages. Good luck

Harris

[Woodbutcher68]

A few years ago I built a lighthouse from a Meisels pattern. I took the original pattern to work and had one of the engineers make me a couple of copies. I traced a couple of the parts on some plywood and started making the sub-assemblies. I started running into fit-up problems and got out the tape measure. Some of the pieces were an inch too long! I went back and measured the pieces on the original pattern and then on the copy. The copier had stretched the patterns (not enlarged), up to an inch in some areas! It wasn't noticeable unless it had stretched the lettering, then it was obvious. The engineer who had done it for me didn't have an explanation for it. (If you really want to screw things up, get an engineer involved!)
I bought some more wood and traced from the original from that point on.
Just a little something to watch out for!

[jttheclockman]

What Woodbutcher said was what I was trying to say with some copiers in these serve yourself copy places. I know the older copiers were notorias for this. I have found Kinkos to be dead on accurate with the copiers they use. To check if you are getting good copies just put the original and the copy back to back and hold it up to the light and you will see if the lines match.

[Greenfield_Bob]

I use to think the pattern makers were putting out bad patterns but I found out I was making bad copies. The copier I now use is much better.
John's idea of holding the copy up to the pattern is a good idea, wish I'd thought of that a long time ago.

Bob

[lucky788scroller]

When copying a pattern, especially for a multi piece project like a clock, make sure you get all your copies done at once, on the same machine,if you need three copys of one page do it all at once.Each copier varies a little, sometimes just enough to totally screw up your project parts.Evie, I would suggest you find a local office supply store, or perhaps an engineering firm ,they have big copiers.
That is the biggest drawback with larger projects, being on paper sizes that cant be photocopied on a home copier,and trying to fold them small and doing it in sections only ends up a disaster to piece back together.

[Neal Moore]

Enlarging patterns

I have a computer program called Photo Explosion that has a "poster" feature. It will enlarge a photograph anywhere from 1 sheet up to 12 sheets x 12 sheets on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, and maybe larger. If I need a pattern enlarged I scan it into the computer and print it as a poster. It prints reference lines on each sheet so you know where to cut the paper so the enlarged image can be taped back together. There are several inexpensive programs out there that will print posters and would pay for themselves in a short time when you consider the cost of copies and the gas burned driving to and from the copy shop.

[CanadianScroller]

Hey Neal have you tried Poster7 ?
It is a free program, you can use it 10 times before registering then it is only $18.
There is a built in algorithm that sharpens the image. It can blow them up to 100 pages by 100 pages. but not sure if your saw can handle that
there is also a draw program that will do 100 x 100 too

[Rick-H]

Pattern

That is exactly why I have redrawn many patterns. First off you may find that the pattern is not as accurate as you are used to in todays patterns. Normally I draw patterns from the small pictures in the old catalogs. But I have a few full size patterns that I have redrawn too. I find on many of those old patterns that things are not square, tabs don't fit the slots, and the most bothersome is that if the image is a mirror of one side to the other side, that they don't match. First I scan the pattern into the computer, in pieces if need be, then put it all back together in the computer so I have it like the original. I then use Corel Draw to redraw the patterns by tracing over them with the mouse. In the process I make sure the tabs are the right size, and any mirror images are the same. What I have when I am done is a fine line pattern that is easier to cut and things fit like they were suppose to on the original.This is not a one hour job. From the pattern you are describing, it may take 3-5 days to redraw, but it will be a cleaner pattern in the end. I wish there was an easier way to do it, but I sure haven't found it yet.

[minowevie]

Hi All. Gosh I just don't know what happened to this post. till now. but i sure wont to thank you all for replying. this was way back in January. I have alot more to copy of those old paterns. this projeck is in prosses now. but have put this in my memmory banks for the next one . thanks your friend Evie.