# New Yankee Workshop PLANS--HOW TO COPY



## alanealane (Oct 1, 2007)

I have a plan for Norm's Adirondack Chair and all the drawings are shown on a grid. The plan says the grid layout is on 1" squares, but I don't really have a way to blow this up on my copy machine. Unless I find someone with an architectural plotter, I can't make copies. The plan shows the grid at I think 1/4" squares.

How do you all do it?

Alex


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## ShannonRogers (Jan 11, 2008)

I would be curious to hear from the community on this one as well. I built these chairs a while back and at first I used a piece of 1/4" mdf. I laid out a 1"x1" grid across the entire piece and used the plans to mark intersections. This quickly got very hairy and I stopped thinking there must be a better way. In the end, I took it to a local copy shop that could do oversize copies. It took some work to get it right because blowing it up increases the grid line size as well, but I was able to come to a percentage that got the final dimensions of the pieces within 1/4". All told I only spent about $11 in copy services. I still have to belive there is a better way to do this. What does everyone else say?


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## motthunter (Dec 31, 2007)

If you go to a place like Kinkos, they can blow it up for you. Make 2 copies so that you can have a spare for later.

The other way it to get large graph paper and do it by hand. I prefer the copies.


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## Dadoo (Jun 23, 2007)

Norm recently recreated this Adirondak set (with a female accomplice too!) and he referred to these original plans and the grids being sized to fit. What he did was to create a piece of 1" graph paper and transfer the project lines accordingly. It's not as exact as copying the plans at Kinko's but will get you into the proverbial ballpark quicker and cheaper.

Another thing to try is using your computers "printer" or "scanner" programs to resize photos of scaled plans.


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## steve3604 (Feb 28, 2008)

There is a most excellent book, Practical Shop Math and companion book Pocket Shop Reference by Tom Bengal. The first book actually has a chapter on enlarging grid patterns, there's a formula and a chart that you use. these books are awesome in many other ways also. I would look for these books or build yourself a pantograph. just my .02$ worth. as stated previously you can make your own grid paper with a ruler and transfer the design good luck.


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## tigger959 (Mar 10, 2008)

Whenever I want to do anything using graph paper, I use Excel and then re-define the columns and rows. Print a page and then measure to ensure size. Hope it helps.


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## FatherHooligan (Mar 27, 2008)

Hmmm, I have access to a 42" plotter and the budget for the paper and ink…but it would be wrong to use this for non work related stuff…right? Seriously though, often community colleges or some universities have these large plotters and maybe can print the things off for you…you are probably looking for a blueprint copier or large scanner/plotter combo. Perhaps a nice desk organizer in the right direction could get you access to these tools in the off academic season?

In Winnipeg there are two places called Mondrian and Lewis Instruments that will blow things up, they usually do architectural or survey type things. I am sure there are similar vendors across the continent that can help. I'm not related to these organizations except as a satisfied customer.

Another solution I've seen is those opaque projector things where you place it over the material to be scaled and project the image on paper taped to the wall. Hey presto a big image. I think Lee Valley sells one, I am sure there are others… I know the elementary schools used to have them in the arts classes.

One other suggestion is a pantograph, a series of interlocked arms that allow you to scale up or down just about any line work. I just googled panotgraph and there are many available. Is googled really a word? Just checked out LV for this, they have one also.


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## teenagewoodworker (Jan 31, 2008)

at Staples you can get a poster board with the 1" graph squares on it. Thats what I do to blow up the templates and make my own templates.


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## ChicoWoodnut (Dec 15, 2007)

I have done this with an Adirondak chair plan. I got some big graph paper at the local engineering/drafting store. Then I just put points on the big graph paper where they intersect lines corresponding to the ones on the original. Then draw the curve (connect the dots). It is fairly straight forward really (although not as high tech as a gigantic plotter)


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

This may help solve your problem, although it will take some work to get large enough sheets of paper. This web site has a program that prints graph paper to your specifications. While you are there checkout the wood cutting software.

Graph paper

Lew


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## edp (Jul 23, 2007)

Can anyone say…..pantograph? A seldom used but invaluable drawing tool for enlarging existing drawings in perfect scale.

Ed


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## tooldad (Mar 24, 2008)

It wont save you much $, but definitely some time. Rockler sells a plan and dvd for adirondack chairs that is just about an exact copy of norm's. Video is downright boring though, but gets the job done. This set costs about $10-15, but comes with cardboard templates for both an adult size and a child size. I just traced over to masonite and made ridgid patterns for kids to use. We built 78 of those chairs last year as a fund raiser project for teachers and parents. This year I am limiting to $50 and raising the price $10. Kids enjoyed the first 50-60 or so, but they started to get burned out on seeing treated lumber around the shop.

Another thing I am creating is some assembly jigs. But if you are only building 2, then maybe not worth the time. I personally built 6 over the summer for a neighbor of inlaws. It sure would have made putting them together by yourself alot easier.


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## bayspt (Apr 4, 2008)

ditto on the pantograph. you could use a scale rule for smaller projects. It would take some fiddling but the overhead projector would also work. just print on clear projector paper. you could also scan the pic and resize then print through an on line printing service for large prints.


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## Slacker (Apr 7, 2008)

I saw the NYW episode in which Norm teaches his young assistant (Sarah, I think, a producer on NYW) how to build the Adirondack chair from his plans. He showed the scaled down drawing and how to solve the upsizing problem. To make a real-size template, he cut a piece of MDF to approximate size. Then, starting in one corner, he drew the squares in the pattern to size on the MDF. Then he counted squares and put the curves in the right places (more or less; there is a slop factor to this). Then he cut the MDF to size, and voila, a template that can be reused.


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

you should be able to gat a blow up from any architects office or small newspaper printers or simply bnuy a big block book they come big of grid paper or if you don't mind the work make yourown I did this dfor my rocking horse whaen I made it


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## KRAIG (May 24, 2007)

THEY HAVE SOME PLANS HALF OFF NOW. THEY ARE VHS & PLANS. 11.95. GOOD DEAL. I GOT MINE ON ORDER.


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## Blukey (Feb 20, 2012)

I make full size plans from pictures in a .pdf file using MS Publisher…
First I took a screenshot of the back leg using "FastStone Capture" (free tool) and selecting only the one part.

Next I opened MS Publisher and made a custom blank page that was 6.5 inches wide and 37 inches high with .5 inch margin this gave me a useable area of 5.5×36 , the size of the back leg

Then I zoomed out to see the whole page on my screen, and imported the 3 inch image, pulled the corner out to full the page keeping the ratio so not to distort it. (I lined up the drawing to the page not the image edge).

Then I printed, Publisher asked me if I wanted to print to 8×11, I clicked yes, Publisher asked me if I wanted to print all pages, I clicked yes….

and then 5 pages printed out that I could over lap the edges and tape and cut out the pattern, worked like a charm and took me only 8 mins! I repeated with the arm rests and there was no need to do the rest of the parts because they were st right cuts.

Hope that helps!


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## Vrtigo1 (Mar 18, 2010)

I have had this problem as well. Using the graph paper method works, but it is not exact. If you have a picture of what you're trying to create a template of, you can take it to office depot, staples, kinkos, etc and have them print it on a large format printer. I have done this a few times and was surprised at how inexpensive it is. If you can fit what you want to print onto a 24"x36" sheet of paper, I think the price is something like $4 per page. Definitely dirt cheap if you are a person that gets frustrated with the impreciseness of the graph paper method.


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## buckeyetd (May 26, 2012)

Recently downloaded these plans in 1" scale so I guess I got lucky. I know this is an old post but maybe it can help someone just checking it out. Anyways here goes. I would print out the scale you have currently and place it on 1" template paper from staples. Find the center on your print out and center it on the 1" template. Measure out the overall piece your working on using the center as a reference point. Use a compass to calculate the difference and simply trace out the new piece.


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## ssnvet (Jan 10, 2012)

Kinkos is your friend….


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## Oldelm (Jun 11, 2012)

I may be missing the point here. Most of the calculations are a simple mater of counting squares. The arc can get a little hairy but most of it can be done with rafter square a compass an/or trammel points. There is a great book called "The Steel Square" by H.H. Siegele in 1957 that is a great reference for using a rafter square, sometimes called a carpenters square that I use when I get stuck on layouts and such. In the mean time just count the squares. If you have 14 squares then it's 14" since you know the original is on a 1" grid it doesn't mater what scale the copy is.i hope this helps. The book shows you how to layout almost anything with a square, circles ellipses.compound mitres.almost anything.


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