transferring pattern

Any suggestions on transferring a pattern from a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper onto a piece of mild steel sheet metal?

Thanks

Oldbeaser

Reply to
oldbeaser
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Simple pantograph

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YOu can make your own easily enough..plans are all over the web. Making them out of wooden yardsticks is pretty nice.

Gunner

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."

- Proverbs 22:3

Reply to
Gunner

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Simple, no?

Gunner

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."

- Proverbs 22:3

Reply to
Gunner

--Spray glue? Are you going to plasma cut something? One trick that sometimes works if your printer uses the right kind of ink, is to flop the paper on the steel, image side down, then iron the backside; if you get the ink hot enough some of it'll transfer to the steel.

Reply to
steamer

The iron method certainly works for laser printers as laser toner is carbon mixed with a thermoplastic binder

AWEM

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

I always thought you were supposed to fix the template onto the workpiece and then prick punch through the template to translate the pattern, then remove the pattern and connect the dots.

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

Tape the paper to the metal, and trace the pattern with a Sharpie. Use a fairly heavy hand. The ink will bleed through onto the steel. If they're straight lines, punch holes in the paper at the corners, transfer them via the same method, and connect the dots on the steel.

Reply to
Tom Lawrence

I just scan it into a bmp and then import it into my CAD program and connect to the controller and it is on a sheet of steel via CNC. :-)

But if you Scan / print - then the heavy ink will iron upon the steel. If you can have your printer tool make a line with 4 pixels not 1 - or such - thicker lines - more iron ink. It would be the back side - but then once cut out, and planned for - it doesn't matter.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

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steamer wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

Don't you have a C6 pounce wheel ? Hand punching.. as needed.

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

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Grant Erw>

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

Stand your steel against the wall and use an overhead projector. I do that for a lot of stuff. If you want it the original size, just print it on clear overhead plastic and cut it with an exacto knkife while it is on your piece, it will scratch the design into the piece and you will be able to see through it to keep your alignment correct.

KIMO

Reply to
KIMO

My approach as well, I bought a very inexpensive "Magnajector" toy projector on eBay and it works fine! I frequently use it to project magazine pictures onto plywood so I can trace it and cut it on the scroll saw. Then that becomes a template for my plasma cutter. Easy-peasey...

I just looked on eBay in the toy category, and there are four of them, all with original boxes!

Reply to
Emmo

I have not seen anybody suggest using old fashioned carbon paper we used to use in typewriters and still used by my dentist to check my bite as do toolmakers in scraping bearing surfaces. I use 3M adhesive spray onto the back of my cad generated patterns, but then I drill, mill and sawcut not welding since the welding would probably burn paper well beyond the lines I'd be using as my guide.

Wayne

Reply to
Wayne Lundberg

If you can scan it, and print a mirror image using a laser printer, running an iron across the back will transfer the pattern to the steel.

Reply to
bigegg

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