Power of technology

[Mike Lyons]

I’m at the process of cutting a star inlay out of sheet silver.  With the price of sheet silver,  you don’t want to make any mistakes.  So here I am converting fractions to decimals, cross multiplying and dividing, etc.  For 30 minutes, I played with numbers.   I get the little template all centered out and still run into problems and then it hit me.  Blow it up on your phone the size you need and trace it.   Duh!!   Several people have told me this trick and I’ve used it in the past but,  it just slipped my mind.  Am I losing it??

[Stoner creek]

Nope you’re not losing it. Sometimes we try so hard to come up solutions that we overlook the simplest solutions. Welcome to the club!!

[flinchrocket]

You won't do that on my phone. I can't justify paying $800 for a phone.

[bob in the woods]

You won't do that on my phone. I can't justify paying $800 for a phone.

My phone has a cord attached to it 

[davec2]

[Lucky R A]

      If you have a printer attached to your computer you can do all kinds of things like sizing or reversing images.  I learned copying when I was in grade school and it served me well for many years ;>)

Ron

[Mike Lyons]

      If you have a printer attached to your computer you can do all kinds of things like sizing or reversing images.  I learned copying when I was in grade school and it served me well for many years ;>)

Ron

I print quite a few reference pictures when making a gun but I always struggle with printing the exact size.  I’ve found for me, sizing them on the screen and then using tracing paper over the screen works best.  Touch screens make it even easier. 

[Tim Crosby]

Nope you’re not losing it. Sometimes we try so hard to come up solutions that we overlook the simplest solutions. Welcome to the club!!

   Under the headings of "Two Heads Are Better Than One" and "There's More Than One Way To Skin A Cat"; another good reason to ask questions here.


   Tim

[john bohan]

Thats how I do carving patterns,trace it from the computer screen. I don't draw well so I like some high tech stuff.

[BarryE]

What John said.

[Mike Lyons]

It all worked out!!

[snapper]

Mike that is a nice looking inlay.   Now you just have to do a good job of inlaying it.

Fleener

[Hungry Horse]

 I recently was fooling around on Facebook, and saw an ad for a little gizmo that clips on the edge of your work station, and kind of works like a backwards overhead projector. You point it at whatever you want to make a drawing of, adjust it for size, and just trace its image projected on you paper. The first thing I thought of was elaborate inlay patterns. Oh, I won’t spend big bucks for a fancy smancy phone either, but my wife will. So I just borrow hers.

  Hungry Horse

[RAT]

I scan images from books using my printer/copier/scanner. I take the image and copy it into a word document. Use the crop tool to bracket the part, detail, whatever. You can then adjust the size to real life size. Print the document and you have your pattern.

[Justin Urbantas]

A couple other options are plugging your computer into your tv with an HDMI cord. You can open your image, adjust to size and trace it on the screen with a sharpie and parchment paper. Works great to get full size stock patterns as long as you have a couple dimensions to check. You can do a similar thing with a projector that plugs into the computer and projects onto paper on the wall.

[bob in the woods]

A couple other options are plugging your computer into your tv with an HDMI cord. You can open your image, adjust to size and trace it on the screen with a sharpie and parchment paper. Works great to get full size stock patterns as long as you have a couple dimensions to check. You can do a similar thing with a projector that plugs into the computer and projects onto paper on the wall.

All good advice, I'm sure, but we don't have a TV either      I use one of those contraptions with a pencil and a stylus.  Trace the item and the pencil will make a duplicate, or will enlarge it ...no problem.
Old technology circa Thomas Jefferson works fine.

[acorn20]

Bob, that particular contraption is called a pantograph.