I am considering building myself a work desk where I can have more space for my computers, peripherals and other junk. I am designing a gracely curved shape with a couple of wings extending to my sides. I have made a drawing you can see here. The measurements are about 77.5"x 48" so I can cut it out of a single piece of particle board or plywood. I am still working on the curves and I may make the curves at the end of the wings less elliptical and more “rectangular”. Those are true ellipses but I may go for superellipses which have a very pleasant appearance. But I am thinking that if I change the curves at the end of the wings to superellipses they may contrast with the central curve and I may have to change that to a superellipse too and make it more “rectangular”. We shall see. At any rate, while I am still working on the design, the question is, once I have finished it, how can I best transfer the scale drawing to the real size board? I can think of several ways but all seem pretty cumbersome.
I could take multiple cartesian coordinates and transfer them to the real thing. That is pretty straightforward but very cumbersome
I could superimpose a grid on the drawing and print it in real size on many sheets of paper and then join them to form a life size drawing. 21 sheets should do it ( 7x11"=77" , 3*8"= 24") but it would be quite a bit of work to print them and assemble them. As I am writing I am thinking maybe I could use continuous paper which would mean only three “prints” seven pages long each (but I don’t know if my printer will do this or how complicated it may be).
Another option may be using a pantograph which may be an interesting experiment but I am not sure of the quality of the end result. And I would have to build or acquire one.
Another option would be to use some kind of projector but I don’t have one either.
So, the question is, what is the simplest way to transfer a scale drawing to a real size?
I made myself a pantograph when I was a kid. It was rubbish, and I don’t think the problem was entirely my construction. Keeping pressure on the pens was a difficulty, and of course there was a bit of wobble in the hinges too.
Suggestion: do the drawing up using a drawing program like Adobe Illustrator, then scale it up on the computer, and do a tiled print of the full-sized object. Tape these together and there you go. This would also help you getting the ellipses right.
You can probably pick up a slide projector fairly cheaply at a thrift store or at eBay. Use slide film (“chrome” in the name, like "Kodachrome or “Fujichrome”) a 35mm camera (an SLR would be better than a pocket camera) and snap a photo of the drawing. Make sure the drawing is flat, and take the photo on the vertical axis rising from the centre of the drawing. After processing the film and putting the slide into the projector, arrange the projector and your board so that the projector is on the vertical axis of the board. Adjust the image to the proper size and just draw directly on the board.
A friend of mine did this to paint a cityscape in his studio.
You can buy 48" wide roll paper from drafting print equipment suppliers and draw it directly (by hand) on the paper. Any other method is going to involve crude magnification upsizing or a basic CAD program of some sort that will dump the drawing as a common vector graphic file to a large format CAD plotter or as a muti-sheet spanning set to a standard laser printer. You can create the file on your PC then send the file to a print shop with a CAD plotter for output.
If you want to go inexpensive IIRC most decent (even inexpensive) CAD programs have an option to print out a large format drawing as a
matrix of spanned laser/inkjet sheets to be “assembled” into a large drawing. The problem here is making sure your printer has accurate sheet to sheet calibration.
All you really need to scale up are the 3 curves on the near side. Convert to a format that scales easily (dxf, dwg, postscript) and see if there is a copy place near you with a pen plotter. I’m guessing that without the rectangular portion, you would have no troubling getting a template from a 36" width spool.
The traditional manual method of scaling is to make your original on graph paper, draw a scaled grid on your workpiece, and hand-copy the pieces of the curve square by square. To ensure symmetry, you could do one side on large paper and flip it over for the other side.
Alternatively, you could redo the drawing from scratch directly on the board. Circles are easy; make a compass from a yardstick with a pin taped to one end and a pencil taped on at the appropriate radius. You can draw ellipses by putting a pin at each focus and using a loop of string around them to guide the pencil. I don’t know of an easy way to draw superellipses manually. (Three pins might let you fake it; you’d go from one ellipse to another depending on which pair of pins are supporting the loop.)
Both of those methods are prctically free and avoid special equipment.
jjimm, yeah, I figured the pantogrph might be a fun experiment but would probably not work well enlarging. I think it would be useful for reducing though as the errors are also reduced in the process.
Johnny L.A., I think using film and projector are too much trouble for a one time project.
Ringo, I thought of finding some professional reprographics place but I figure they probably charge more than is worth to me. if it gets complicated I’d just do rectangular cuts. In fact, I need to get a jigsaw for this project.
Astro, as i say, it is a one time project and not worth investing a lot of effort or money. Just shopping around for software and then learning to use it sounds more complicated than doing it by hand. It may even be than some program I already have my be able to do the tiled printing automatically but I don’t know how to do it and I don’t want to spend hours in a search which may yield nothing.
Waverly, i think you have the best idea. I looked at the drawing and you are right that if I print tiled sheets many would be blank so I only need to print the ones which have curves. Half the curve can be done in five pages which I can glue to a large piece of paper or even cardboard and then I can turn it over and do the other half. I think this may be the easiest.
rjk, transfering a multitude of points is more boring than any other method. The central ellipse I coud draw newly by hand and I may do that but the end curves are going to be superellipses which are not easy to draw. In the end, no matter what system I use, the defects in the drawing and the cutting mean the final curve is going to require a lot of sanding and art.
sailor, before I had a plotter, I used reprographics outfits a lot. That’s been a few years, but I suspect, if you can generate the file, it won’t cost much at all.
I say go the Kinko’s route. They’ve got the printers to make huge copies.
Another way to do the projection method using any type of negative film is to find someone with an enlarger. Many can be configured to project on a wall, and you’ll be able to use negative film. Whatever you do, don’t use Kodachrome; it needs to be processed by Kodak, and can take extra time, depending upon your (and their) location.
If I were making your desk top, I’d either lay it out directly or transfer it to a piece of 1/8" hardboard. A direct layout should be pretty easy if you stick with ellipses. All you’ll need to do is to find the location of the foci, drive in some nails, get a loop of string of the appropriate circumference, and then trace the arcs. You only need to lay out half of the curves since your design is symetrical. If you get the curve printed, affix it to the hardboard with spray adhesive (I use 3M #77).
Now that the pattern has been laid out or glued to the hardboard, use a jigsaw to cut out the curve, leaving the line by about a 1/16th of an inch. Then use sandpaper to smooth out the curve to the line. Sanding hardboard is much easier than plywood or MDF.
Now you have your hardboard template, lay the curves out on your plywood/MDF, and then flip it over to do the other side. Cut out the curves with your jigsaw, again missing the line. If you have a router, temporarily affix the template to the plywood/MDF (clamps will do). Using a top bearing straight bit, trim the plywood to the exact dimentions. If you don’t have a router — consider getting one — it will result in a much nicer surface for whatever edge banding treatment you’re planning on installing. Otherwise do your best to sand to the line.
Whatever methodsyou choose: direct layout vs. printing or jigsaw + sanding vs. jigsaw + template routing, you’ll end up with a nice template for making additional desks when all your friends, neighbors, and relatives start asking for one just like yours
My first suggestion is to print your diagram onto a transparency and use an overhead projector to transfer it onto the wood to be cut.
Secondly, Adobe Illustrator will take a giant-sized drawing and automatically split it into page-sized chunks for you, then all you have to do is tape them together (although it can’t print right to the edges of the paper, so they need to overlap a little). I traced your sketch using bezier curves and took a screenshot of what I’m talking about: http://www.area.com/ntucker/stuff/sailordesk.gif
If you want the Illustrator file (which is postscript and can be dumped directly to a postscript printer if you don’t have Illustrator), it’s there also: http://www.area.com/ntucker/stuff/sailordesk.ai
John T. Conklin, I really don’t have that many tools. In fact, I don’t even have a jigsaw so I would have to buy one. This is a one time thing so I will try to do it directly on the board.
ntucker, thanks for the drawing. I am still thinking about this but I may go with less rounded, more rectangular, wings as the lower drawing here I think that would be more practical even if not so pleasing to the eye. I am inclined to draw the central ellipse directly on the board using the old two nails and a string method and then just round the four corners of the wings using a quarter circle.
Bad News Baboon, you bring up something I’ve always wanted to ask: I have seen those (old I think) big drawings done in blue (or sometimes brown I think) but I never knew how they were done. How are they done? It seems like the system was around long before photocopiers. i am very curious about this. Is the system still in use? What is it called?
I think what he is referring to are the blueprints you see in cartoons: the blue paper with the white lines.
Never during my time in architecture have I had some made. I have, however, used them in getting info from old buildings.
Bluelines, at least by today’s standards, are a whitish sheet with blue lines. (the opposite of a blueprint). Some places call these whiteprints, but not at any of the places I have worked.
Blueprints are the blue background with white ink prints. This term, however, is used generically by the general public for a set of printed plans.
Brownlines or Sepiaprints are the brown ones.
You are correct in regards to the fact that they are printed with a diazzo process.
Yes, these machines are still used. Many firms still have them. Sometimes it is easier to run off one set rather than send it off to the repro people. Sometimes, though, you are working late at night to meet a morning deadline. You then have the wonderful task of running off 15 sets in a room that quickly stinks of ammonia.
I’d use an overhead projector; print the design out onto acetate, lean the uncut board up against the wall and project the image onto it - I’ve done this before with great results.
Perhaps you could borrow the OHP from somewhere? - I suspect they aren’t actually terribly expensive to hire for a day.
I Googled “diazo” and only came up with a few office supply sites. I gather it is a chemical process (which would explain the ammonia smell). Can someone explain in simple terms how it works? Is it optical and then developed? or is it mechanical like printing? Is it still widely used or is it pretty much on the way out? When was it invented?
