Last week the flyer from Staples listed a new service — new for the (relative) boonies where we live. Technical drawings at 35 cents per square foot. Last night I had a “spare minute” 
to check it out. Max width: 36"; supposedly unlimited length; file type: PDF.
And what has that got to do with our railroads? It will come in very handy for that two dimensional station building at “Samedan” or any other background structures.
Nice - That’s a pretty good price. I can print up to 50" wide by any lenght at work for free if not too big, but they always want to give it to me on self-adhesive vinyl, claiming paper is more expensive. I’d rather pay and get paper.
I have used this service and it works well. if you have an old print they can scan it too to make a PDF that you can share.
Hans,
When you get your infinitely long printout, ask them to save the roll centers.
Just like the cardboard inside a roll of toilet paper, only 36" wide. Get the end caps, too, if they have them.
I use them for most of my drawing and blueprint storage.
Get mine from a business the duplicates plans for architects and builders. City codes often require multiple copies.
I use their facilities to blow up plans and drawings to 1:20.3 scale.
Doing that I sometimes end up with REALLY wide lines, though, so I usually use the center of the line as thinking it to be the most accurate.
I shamelessly scanned a drawing from one of the books in my library showing the station from the road side. What I need is the track side; found a picture in another book which shows that side.
First I’ll enlarge the scan to 1:22.5 scale to see what happens to the lines. Since I have to revamp the ground floor anyway I think I’ll import the scan to CorelDraw and take it from there.
@ Don
I doubt that I’ll ever need an infinite length, but it would have saved tiling the legal size segments for my turnout templates.
BTW as I confessed on more than one occasion, I still read the mags that pertain to “those” smaller scales. One of the ideas mentioned in a mag was producing stand-ins/mock-ups for structures. I guess that would work equally well in LS e.g build the basic box, apply the technical print and then add the raised detail, the recessed stuff — windows etc. In essence construct half-relief buildings to fit whatever location.
if staples doesn’t offer the service in your area, call a local architect/engineering office and see where they do their copies from, chances are there is a company they use that can do large prints…
Mark Dashnaw said:
if staples doesn’t offer the service in your area, call a local architect/engineering office and see where they do their copies from, chances are there is a company they use that can do large prints…
But since they do (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif), it’s definitely a more convenient source. I’ll report back on the print quality once I got the first print. If necessary I can still comparsion shop.
Mark Dashnaw said:
if staples doesn’t offer the service in your area, call a local architect/engineering office and see where they do their copies from, chances are there is a company they use that can do large prints…
Smaller offices may have their printing done offsite. Larger offices have their own large format printers. I used to repair those things. Fortunatly, the company I presently work for, forgot that detail on my resume.
The firm i worked for had our own bluprint machine and plotter, however for larger jobs that required several sets of drawings we would outsource the prints to a local blueprint company…
It’s just a suggestion if people don’t have a Staples store nearby…
