plasma cutter tracer (new)

[dandeman]

and as its still only in prototype stage with no patent as yet, i'd be a fool to let the world and his daughter in on it. Im sure you can understand my secrecy. what i can tell you is its a very simple idea with few moving parts and easy to use Attachment 31195

Have you checked your concept in a preliminary patent search to determine if you have a truly new idea or is an idea already covered by prior patents?

A quick Google Patent Search of "plasma cutter pattern tracer" has 585 hits...

https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts&hl=e...w=1672&bih=912

It's a tough world, especially today doing R&D and getting a new product to market.. The patent game has become more like the patent Mafia...

[Blboise]

I can do the same thing with a used overhead projector and a small pic of the subject. Just need to make poster board cutouts of the pieces, cut em out, trace em out and cut. Total cost, about $20 for the projector and .$0.50 for the poster board. Once I have a pattern, it's just busy work.

small bear.jpg

[dandeman]

I can do the same thing with a used overhead projector and a small pic of the subject. Just need to make poster board cutouts of the pieces, cut em out, trace em out and cut. Total cost, about $20 for the projector and .$0.50 for the poster board. Once I have a pattern, it's just busy work.

I've started doing pretty much the same thing..

I have a dark room enlarger I bought many years ago and has seen seldom use.. I find images I like, scale them to the 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" enlarger negative size, print the image on transparency film (normally used for presentations) with my laser printer. I use that as the negative in the enlarger and project the image onto the steel plate the size I want.

I found on a metal artists forum that aluminum or gold color sharpie pens are commonly used to trace the patterns onto the steel plate.. Just follow the image from the enlarger with the sharpie pen then cut it out..

Could not believe how good the first one a "man in the moon" turned out...

[davejavu]

Optical tracers, scanned images, etc have been done to death. Very good stuff already out there already, so unless your has a good gimmick, or is dirt cheap, then it is just another in the long line. Not sayin it is not a good idea, just don't know.

as ive pointed out, it has no electrical parts apart from the torch itself, so no optical tracers or anything using computers apart from me printing an image from the interweb. the only thing similar to it is the 'torchemate' and 'rotten leonard' in that it uses the age old swinging arm around a fixed turret, but thats where the similarity ends. hope this helps!

dave

[davejavu]

I can do the same thing with a used overhead projector and a small pic of the subject. Just need to make poster board cutouts of the pieces, cut em out, trace em out and cut. Total cost, about $20 for the projector and .$0.50 for the poster board. Once I have a pattern, it's just busy work.

small bear.jpg

looks very good dude!

mine you can use free hand (ideal for artists with a vision, because you dont need goggles as you can't actually see the the cut as you draw) or use straight from a picture (no cutting out needed) or as you do pre cut a template.

[davejavu]

Have you checked your concept in a preliminary patent search to determine if you have a truly new idea or is an idea already covered by prior patents?

A quick Google Patent Search of "plasma cutter pattern tracer" has 585 hits...

https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts&hl=e...w=1672&bih=912

It's a tough world, especially today doing R&D and getting a new product to market.. The patent game has become more like the patent Mafia...

indeed it is! i have had a quick search about a month ago, but as you say there is a lot to search through. i will spend a bit more time soon going through them all, because i really believe in my idea, and simplest ideas are always the be,st (i hope)

dave

[justracn15]

Several years back I modified an old pantograph I had to hold my plasma cutter torch and can cut anything that can be traced. Can make it any size I wish.

[davejavu]

Several years back I modified an old pantograph I had to hold my plasma cutter torch and can cut anything that can be traced. Can make it any size I wish.

nice! what sort or finish are you getting with yours? you can add a drawing pantograph if you need to resize i suppose!?