How to Make a Wooden Engraving Pantograph

instructables How to Make a Wooden Engraving Pantograph by captainreg A pantograph is a simple series of levers of a set length that can be used to enlarge or reduce and existing shape. Very often used for drawing, this version is a small & cheap DIY version of the typically larger and more expensive engraving pantographs that can be bought. The engraving pantograph diers in design from a drawing pantograph (often used with pencils) in that for a drawing pantograph, either the tracing point or the pencil (depending on if you are enlarging or reducing) will coincide with one of the pivot locations. As we are using this for engraving with a Rotary Tool for engraving, this would make it much more complex, so to avoid this, I have moved the position of the Rotary Tool away from the pivot allowing us to use a very simple pivot. This changes the geometry of the levers slightly but makes the pivot design and mounting the Rotary Tool much simpler whilst still getting the same result. A pantograph can be used to either enlarge or reduce, for this design I have chosen to make it reduce only, for a number of reasons; 1. Due to the simple pivots I'm using, accuracy won't be as good as it could be and when enlarging and errors are magnied, which depending on how loose the pivots are, might be visible in the enlarged engraving. 2. For enlarging, the accuracy you have to move the tracing point with is also increased by the magnication factor, for reducing, any inaccuracies are halved. 3. We use mechanical advantage of the levers, by reducing we move our tracing point twice the distance that the engraver will move, this eectively doubles the force, which is important as as the engraving tool cuts, you must manually resist any cutting forces it generates. Supplies: I've listed here what I used but most of this can be adjusted to suit what you have to hand. 1. Timber 20x30mm 1.2m long 2. 4mm Wood Screw 50mm long 3. M6 Countersunk or Hexagon head bolts 4. M6 Washers 5. 3mm Hardboard 75mm x 75mm 6. TImber 75mm x 75mm x 50mm 7. A rotary tool How to Make a Wooden Engraving Pantograph: Page 1 Step 1: Step 2: Cutting the Wood How to Make a Wooden Engraving Pantograph: Page 2 Each of the four pieces of wood need to have holes Pivot number and also the distance between each pivot. drilled certain distances apart, the position and accuracy The exact length of the pieces isn't important, I chose to of these holes will aect the nal operation of the cut each to length, half the width past each pivot hole so pantograph. the the holes visually sit centrally in each end i.e. equally from all sides. I found it helpful to mark and label each piece with the So for example, looking the P1 - P4 piece, the distance P1 - P3 330mm between these two pivots is 300mm but I've added 15mm to each end, hence the cut length of 330mm P2 - P4 270mm P1 - P4 330mm P2 - P3 180mm Step 3: Drill the Holes The screws/bolts that I'm using are M6 so I drilled the pivot holes with a 6mm drill bit. These hole locations and sizes need to be as accurate as possible so I used a Pillar Drill although it would be possible to do it by hand with a hand drill. How to Make a Wooden Engraving Pantograph: Page 3 Step 4: Assemble the Pivots As the joints need to be able to pivot you can't tighten the nuts and bolts that are used to make the pivots. So I used a type of locking nut, called a Nyloc, so that I can tighten each one up just enough so it isn't oppy but not so much that the joints can't rotate. The Nyloc then stops the nuts being loose and undoing themselves as you use the pantograph. Step 5: Countersink or Counterbore Depending on the type of screws or bolts you use, you had hexagon headed bolts to hand, I had to counter will need to either countersink or counterbore the bore, which is more dicult and the tool will not underside to make the bolts/screw heads sit ush. naturally want to self-centre in the existing hole so you will have to have a drill press as a minimum. It is easier to countersink as you can do this with a common countersink bit with a handheld drill. As I only How to Make a Wooden Engraving Pantograph: Page 4 Step 6: Test This is a great time for a quick test before you carry on. tracing point (shown here at the 9 inch mark), the The pantograph should be able to move freely but engraving point should move (in my case) half what you without being to oppy. Before I drilled the hole for the move the tracing point. So if I was to move the tracing Rotary Tool, I did a quick check to make sure I had the point to be at the 10 inch mark on the ruler, the ratio that I wanted. By keeping the ruler steady at the 3 engraving point should be at 9.5 inches. inch mark, you should see that when you move the Step 7: Dust Exit When engraving, the dust created must have a way to escape otherwise it will build up around the cutting tool, eventually clogging it. I used a handsaw to cut a 'V' notch on the underside where the Rotary Tool mounts to allow and dust to escape either side. How to Make a Wooden Engraving Pantograph: Page 5 Step 8: Mounting Block This step may very depending on the type of tool you I then used a large hole saw or spade bit to drill a hole want to t. My Rotary Tool has a large plastic thread on through. For me this needed to be large enough to t the end so I made the mounting block design to suit this. the nut that normally screws onto the end of the tool. Firstly, t the engraving tool you want to use and I took a piece of 3mm hardboard and cut it to the same measure how far it sticks out of the machine, this will size as the rest of the mounting block. I drill a hole in the determine how tall (or deep) you mounting block needs centre as close to the size of the outside of thread on the to be. When the whole thing is assembled, the cutting Rotary Tool. For me this was just a bit smaller than the point of the tool needs to be able to stick out of the thread, so it actually screwed onto the tool, I then bottom of the mounting block as much as you want to screwed the normal nut back onto the end to clamp it engrave. tight. I cut a notch from a block of wood that was wide than I drilled 4 small holes in each corner so I could screw this the pieces I used to make the pantograph so that one of hardboard to the top of the mounting block. the pantograph arms ts in this slot. Step 9: Pivot Point The pantograph needs a solid point to pivot about, as I used a 'quick clamp' to rmly clamp this to my bench. this was a temporary set up I made one from an ocut Depending on the size & shape of what you want to from the same wood I used to make the pantograph engrave you might need to adjust the position of the arms. I put a Nut & Bolt through as a pivot, in the exact pivot so the hole thing is on your work bench. same way as I did for all the other joints. How to Make a Wooden Engraving Pantograph: Page 6 Step 10: Tracing Point As accurately as you can, drill a hole slightly smaller than Make sure the screw is long enough to pass through the your screw, so the screw threads can bite into the wood, wood and to just almost touch the shape to the traced. but not so small that the screw will split the wood. You You can screw the screw in or out to adjust this. must drill a pilot hole, as so close to the end of the wood, it will almost always split. I used a 4mm wood screw. Step 11: Give It a Go! How to Make a Wooden Engraving Pantograph: Page 7 I found something to hand that was about the right size and had a clear outline, turned on the tool and traced the tip of the tracing screw around the outline of the shape. I was fairly happy with the outcome for a rst test, turns out my tool was blunt, hence the black burn marks, that, and I wasn't moving it fast enough. That aside, the actual accuracy was a pleasant surprise considering how crude the pivots are. How to Make a Wooden Engraving Pantograph: Page 8.

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