Who needs plans? My questions are: What do you mean by 'full size drawings'? And, do you mean 'your' plans, that you drew; or plans made by someone else, that you bought? If you already have plans, why would you feel the need to print them? Or, do you mean print them the actual size of the finished product?
Not being the smartass many of you will feel I am, questions like this puzzle me. I consider any plans I may draw out, full size, as is - regardless of how large, or small, they are. Unless you're selling, or planning on selling, plans - but you didn't say that.
I draw all of my own stuff. I start with a pencil and paper to flush out the general shapes and sizes. If I think that I might make additional pieces later I will usually redraw it using a 2D CAD system so that it can be easily modified.
There are many different reasons to print on material larger than the letter, or legal, sizes that fit into my printers. The reason for this job might seem silly to most people, but the client asked me to. I guess that they want to show friends/family that it is truly a custom piece and they want something bigger that 8.5" x 11".
... snip certain of the calibration of the printer.
Not surprisingly, paper like wood, expands and contracts with changes in moisture content. Since paper is thinner than your typical board, these changes can happen in minutes. I have seen errors in drawings over 3/16ths of an inch across a 36 inch piece of paper. If you are concerned about the calibration of the printer then you probably also need to be concerned about the media that you are drawing upon.
I worked for 13 years for a company called CalComp that first made pen plotters and then large format electrostatic and inkjet printers. I did software development including the software for the positioning servos and calibration handling for several of CalComp's products.
The pen plotters had the ability to be calibrated in both the x and y axis. This was done as part of the final stage of manufacturing. The specified accuracy and repeatability was 0.005 inch for any position on an E size (or A0 size) piece of media. The limiting factors for accuracy were primarily friction effects and the fact that paper is not a perfectly stiff media.
The electrostatic and inkjets only had a calibration for the media travel path. The other axis was fixed by the manufacture of the print head on the electrostatics or a linear encoder on the ink jets. The accuracy for the media travel path was also 0.005 inch over a 44 inch E size piece of media. (I do not remember the accuracy specification for the other axis. It has been over 9 years.)
As I said earlier, paper like wood, is subject to expansion and contraction with changes in moisture content. CalComp always specified accuracy with a mylar (instead of paper) media to avoid expansion issues.
Since paper is so much thinner than the typical board, the size can change in only a few minutes when the paper's environment is changed. For best accuracy paper needed to taken out of its package or off of its roll and allowed to stabilized for 15 to 30 minutes before it is used. This is NOT going to happen at your local Kinko's.
We had a drawing on one wall of our lab that was a 12 feet long of a locomotive. This was drawn on a pen plotter that would do the image in multiple sections. It would pull off 44 inches of paper off the roll and then draw one section. It would then pull off another 44 inches and draw the next section. This plotter had a user selectable time delay to allow the media to stabilize before drawing the next section. Lines that crossed section boundaries were a very sensitive indicator of alignment and accuracy issues. The locomotive was drawn with no time delay between sections. As a result, the paper was changing as the drawing was being made. Lines at the section boundaries that were drawn at the start of a section would align with their mates in the previous section. Lines that were drawn later in a section had errors as large as
Sat, Sep 29, 2007, 12:23pm (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Frank=A0Drackman) doth sayeth: The reason for this job might seem silly to most people, but the client asked me to.
Well, if you're making a living at it, that's a very valid reason for doing it. Answers my questions.
Hmm, if any of you guys want to make LARGE enlargements, I recall reading about a guy doing just that. Takes a B&W picture of whatever. Lays out a square (20 or 30' or so) of photographic papers on a floor. Then projects the negative on it. Develops the picture(s), puts them together in one large picture. Believe it took him some tries before he was able to get the pictures in focus, being as the projector was so far from the paper. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the basics.
JOAT What is life without challenge and a constant stream of new humiliations?
I use an HP 36" plotter. Acquired from a company I worked for that went bankrupt, and had me get rid of millions of dollars of equipment by throwing it in a dumpster. Don's ask who they were, but a very reputable company.
I was able to save 2 items, a large format 24" color laser printer and the
36" plotter. Both came with enough supplies to last me 3 years!
I print full size plans only when model making as I can glue the drawing onto the wood and cut to the lines, it works really well with cog wheels and smaller parts.
Kind of test that you can't really do with a raster plotter. I can see where that would be useful. Now I find myself wondering if Kinkos can print on film.
Sat, Sep 29, 2007, 3:04pm (EDT-1) snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net (Jon) doth sayeth: I print full size plans only when model making as I can glue the drawing onto the wood and cut to the lines, it works really well with cog wheels and smaller parts.
Been awhile since I've done it, so almost forgot. At times I make things with full size patterns glued on to the wood. The way I do it is print the pattern in sections, usually 3 to 5 sheets, depending on the project, on a standard Xero=D7 machine. Trim them down, carefully align them, glue down. Some are going on 4 foot long. For what I do, works very well indeed - and have to travel no further than the nearest copy machine. I'd tell you all the fine details, but I don't want to.
JOAT What is life without challenge and a constant stream of new humiliations?
The simple CAD program I have had around for years (AutoSketch) will print a large drawing tiled across as many standard sheets of paper you want. It will print registration marks to make the alignment easy to do. I have used this method occasionally to make patterns for the bandsaw. Usually I find a 1 to 1 print to be accurate enough for most of my uses. However the scale is totally adjustable in both x and y so it would be simplt to make a test print, measure and correct scale. John
Kinko's is fine. They have a printer plug in that converts your file to Kinko's version of a PDF and sends your file to whatever Kinko's you want for printing. If you don't print all that much it's a good way to go.
Sun, Sep 30, 2007, 12:51am (EDT+4) snipped-for-privacy@worldnet.att.net (John=A0Siegel) doth sayeth: The simple CAD program I have had around for years (AutoSketch) will print a large drawing tiled across as many standard sheets of paper you want. It will print registration marks to make the alignment easy to do. I have used this method occasionally to make patterns for the bandsaw. Usually I find a 1 to 1 print to be accurate enough for most of my uses. However the scale is totally adjustable in both x and y so it would be simplt to make a test print, measure and correct scale. John
I don't have a CAD program, I don't need one for income, so just another expensive toy I don't need. Instead I use a Xerox to "scale" my pattern up or down. I take a ruler, and have an idea of what % up or down to go. Start there, measure, go up or down as needed, remeasure. Usually right on within about 4 copies, so make all copies I want. AND write down the setting on the master, so I don't have to do it again next time. Inexpensive, works.
JOAT "I'm an Igor, thur. We don't athk quethtionth." "Really? Why not?" "I don't know, thur. I didn't athk."
Sun, Sep 30, 2007, 11:17am (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Ferd=A0Farkel) doth sayeth: Butcher paper and #2 pencil inspire creativity better and will never go obsolete.
Totally agree. Except I seldom use butcher paper. And I use the inexpensive plastic Pentel type mechanical pencils - about 10-12 for just a buck or two. Paper and pencil do seem to make the mind more creative somehow.
JOAT "I'm an Igor, thur. We don't athk quethtionth." "Really? Why not?" "I don't know, thur. I didn't athk."
Sun, Sep 30, 2007, 11:21am (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Ferd=A0Farkel) doth sayeth: Wet paper stretches. Try solvent-based spray glue. A light, dusting coat will hold fine.
Not a problem with what i do. I use Titebond II thinned half and half. Position the pattern on the wood, lift one edge, brush on the thinned glue, use the same brush to brush the paper smooth on the glue, lift the unglued half, repeat. Then brush on some more thinned glue over the top, taking care to brush out any air bubbles. Let it dry overnight, then cut it out when ready. Of course, if you don't want the paper to stay on the wood, this would probably be a major PITA to get it off, unless you planed it off, or were willing to spend the time sanding. There are only one or two type of projects I do this with (no, no pukey ducks, at least not yet), including labels. You can make some nifty, and intricate, hand-colored labels, IF you color them before you glue, it's not as easy after..
JOAT "I'm an Igor, thur. We don't athk quethtionth." "Really? Why not?" "I don't know, thur. I didn't athk."
Yeah, the mechanics of the software get in the way unless you've been using it so long that it's transparent to you.
Now if you want to see something really cool try Corel Painter with Wacom Cintiq. But you can buy a lot of paper and pencils for the price of that setup.
Easier to convey a sense of space and weight with a pencil than a monitor. CAD is unbeatable for precision, but precision is unnecessary (and a drag) for design work.
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