Subject: Re: Shrink rule prices: Yikes!!!

From: [email-masked] (Paolo Zini)
Date: 20 May 1996 16:45:16 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Edward Haas) says:
>
>        Well, I just ordered a 24 in. shrink rule from Pattern Supply 
>for-- get this-- $122.-!!! Egads! for this price it should have been 
>supplied in a mink-lined mahogany case, with gold lettering, but it came 
>taped to a board...
>         Isn't there a cheaper place to buy this kind of thing??? 
>Fortunately it's about the only patternmaking item that 
>can't be fabricated at home, but an alternative supplier would be 
>appreciated.. Anyone got any favourite stores for this sort of thing??
>-- 
>        "Steamboat Ed" Haas     :       What would happen if.....
>        COMING SOON             :       Superman farted??
>        http://www.west.net/~steamer    
>                ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---
>  

question: 24" is the actual size of the rule or the scale to be written 
in?
I have a Myford lathe and it's bed is only 20" long, but if disregard this
problem my solution would be:
Taking into account the leadscrew pitch (mine is 8 TPI) and the requested
division, using a bit of math, I can find a set of gears to be mounted
on the lathe and to be used like a dividing head.
Once mounted the gears I can mount a strip of metal on the lathe and use
a tool has scriber.

Hope my idea is clear, my english do not help me to explain it....

But, if I can make a 0.5 mm screw (about 50 TPI..) on the lathe I can scribe
lines on a ruler and obtain one equivalent accuracy...

Paolo Zini      

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From: Andrew Mawson <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 May 1996 21:49:04 +0100

In article <[email-masked]>, Edward Haas <[email-masked]>
writes
>appreciated.. Anyone got any favourite stores for this sort of thing??

Ed,

Why can you not draw the scale in Autocad or some other CAD package,
print onto acetate sheet, and phot0-lith onto a strip of suitable brass.

I never cease to be amazed how accurate the printed o/p from a basic
laser printer is.
Andrew Mawson ------> [email-masked]
Bromley, Kent, UK 0181-466-5582

<-------------Happiness is a fully ticked off list------------->

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From: [email-masked] (Edward Haas)
Date: 19 May 1996 08:21:45 -0700

Andrew Mawson ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Why can you not draw the scale in Autocad or some other CAD package,
: print onto acetate sheet, and phot0-lith onto a strip of suitable brass.
	--Hey, if I had the bucks to buy Autocad I wouldn't be bitchin' 
about $122.- ....
-- 
	"Steamboat Ed" Haas	:	What would happen if.....
	COMING SOON		:	Superman farted??
	http://www.west.net/~steamer  	
		---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

---

From: Steve Wellcome <[email-masked]>
Date: 20 May 1996 12:42:13 GMT

Well...thanks to the magic of CAD, it shouldn't be too hard to
fabricate a shrink rule at home.  Draw a ruler, then scale it
up by the appropriate factor, print it out, and glue the paper
scale to an old ruler with a coat of varnish over it to protect
it.  It ought to be plenty accurate.  I've tried measuring some
AutoCAD LT drawings printed out at allegedly 1:1 scale, and they
seem to be right on the money.

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From: [email-masked] (Spehro Pefhany)
Date: 20 May 1996 16:39:34 GMT

Steve Wellcome ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Well...thanks to the magic of CAD, it shouldn't be too hard to
: fabricate a shrink rule at home.  Draw a ruler, then scale it
: up by the appropriate factor, print it out, and glue the paper
: scale to an old ruler with a coat of varnish over it to protect
: it.  It ought to be plenty accurate.  I've tried measuring some
: AutoCAD LT drawings printed out at allegedly 1:1 scale, and they
: seem to be right on the money.

If you really want to make an accurate rule, just do it in Acad,
(for example), shrink it, then use PSOUT to get a Postscript file,
take that to your local service bureau and get paper (or film, which
would be more accurate, but less convenient to use), and then work
with that- laminate it as Steve suggests. You can get several 
onto a letter size page, perhaps with different shrink factors or
whatever. The output costs around US$6-7 per page around here depending 
on whether you want film or paper etc. 

Do try it out on a Postscript laser printer before you waste time 
trucking it off, though, just in case. 

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Spehro Pefhany                                  "The Journey is the reward"
[email-masked]                          -------------------------------------
Fax:(905) 332-4270                    (small micro system devt hw/sw + mfg)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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From: [email-masked] (David William Jenkins)
Date: Sun, 19 May 1996 20:09:06 GMT

>       --Hey, if I had the bucks to buy Autocad I wouldn't be bitchin' 

..or how about a ruler, black ink, and letraset? Draw it to exact
size, or maybe twice the size and reduce it.  Then copy onto
acetate sheet, etc. Slow, but sure.

David Jenkins              -- aka --             Lathyrus Computers Ltd
***********************************************************************
* All incorrect spelling and grammar is intentional.  Corrections are *
* superfluous and will be ignored.  So there.                         *

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From: Jeffrey Prothero <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 20:36:02 -0700

How about just making a copy of a machinists ruler on a Xerox machine with
the right amount of zoom.........
				Cheers,

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From: [email-masked] (Edward Haas)
Date: 21 May 1996 08:04:09 -0700

Jeffrey Prothero ([email-masked]) wrote:
: How about just making a copy of a machinists ruler on a Xerox machine with
: the right amount of zoom.........
	--The trouble with using a copier to expand the image is that the 
scribed lines grow fatter, yielding less accuracy. The parts I am working 
on are greater than the length of the standard 14in. page, too, so I'd 
have to do it twice and splice two pages together, yielding more 
inaccuracies. 
	--I bit the bullet and bought the damned thing, but if someone sees 
one at a swapmeet cheap, remember yer old pal: I'd like to acquire a 
complete set of shrink rules some day, but preferably on the cheap ;-)
-- 
	"Steamboat Ed" Haas	:	What would happen if.....
	COMING SOON		:	Superman farted??
	http://www.west.net/~steamer  	
		---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

---

From: [email-masked] (Jon Winlund)
Date: 20 May 1996 21:35:25 -0700

In article <[email-masked]>,
>>appreciated.. Anyone got any favourite stores for this sort of thing??

Try a photo lithographers. Scale a common ruler with film, tape it to a 
piece of metal, and there you are!

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From: [email-masked] (Greg Lewis)
Date: 22 May 1996 11:40:32 -0700

>have to do it twice and splice two pages together, yielding more 
[snip]

Blueprint shops have copy machines that can make nearly any size from
nearly any size. I reduced a 6-foot-long drawing to three feet, and a
4-foot one to 11 inches this way. Accuracy of the copy is as good as
one would need for sand casting. Precison die casting is another
matter.

___________________________________________________________________
[email-masked]      	   	     They don't
Photojournalism sequence      	   	     Call this place
Department of Mass Communication   	     An institution
     and Journalism 	      	   	     For nothing
CSU Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740-0010

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From: Steve Wellcome <[email-masked]>
Date: 21 May 1996 12:22:24 GMT

Full AutoCAD is pretty pricey, but I've seen AutoCAD LT advertised 
for around $390 or less, new, and I was fortunate enough to get a 
used, licensed copy for $100.  Deals can be had, if one looks.

AutoCAD LT doesn't have Lisp programming capability and it has very 
limited 3D capability, but its 2D support is equivalent, or nearly 
so, to full AutoCAD.  It certainly does everything I'm going to want
to do, for quite a while.