Looking for large, frame-worthy blueprints

[soap]

Having a heck of a time finding nice ones online!

What I'm trying to do is get some "eye candy" on the wall over my lathe. It's a 13x40 so I have this long section of undecorated, unused, uncluttered white wall and it just looks weird.

I figured instead of the usual beer posters I'd rather have a blueprint of a significant piece of machinery, or actually several. Any ideas on where to get something like that?

 

[PETE14]

Not sure if these are exactly what you're looking for, but check them out anyway.

Under "Posters", look at Machinists, Machine Trades, and Technology's Past. A few neet ones I wouldn't mind having.

http://www.techdirections.com/products.html

Pete

 

[rsanter]

search google patents
look for patent drawings of things that interest you
print out a bunch and put them together or print a large format
single print

bob

 

[Jim Johnstone]

I have thought about doing that as well, or possibly doing a really nice print of my garage itself, 3 view, with an isometric view, and put that on the wall.

One option is hewland gearboxes. Last time I was on their website, they had all kinds of drawings of their transmissions you could download.

Jim

 

[shopnut]

Blueprints are a cool idea - we had a bunch of old drawings of past designs framed at work and they now hang in the halls for all to see. Being an engineer, they "speak" my language, but I think everyone in the office likes to look at them.

If you end up finding a large digital image (or a bunch of small ones) that you like, Walmart's website let's you upload images and create a 20x30" glossy print for about $21 delivered. Very reasonable, I thought, and takes about a week. Here's a collage I created from a past bike trip using Walmart:

 

[Carl B]

soap - did indicate that he was looking for "blueprints". That is quite a different thing from "Posters", "Mechanical Drawings" or "Digital Images" that can be printed.

Turning a mechanical drawing into a "Blueprint" is a process used in the past for a couple reasons. One -it is very hard if not impossible to make changes to the Blueprint that aren't easily apparent. Secondly blueprints could be stored for long periods of time, without image degradation.

So the questions I have at this point are:
1 - Did the "soap" really desire blueprints or not?
2 - Are blueprints still being made in this modern digital world?
3 - Anyone have a source from which to purchase old blueprints?
and maybe
4 - has the term blueprint been redefined or so commonly used to describe any mechanical drawing that it has lost its original definition?

Personally - I think that framing actual/old blueprints is a great idea.


FWIW,
Carl B.

 

[Steves32]

I have a copy from the original blueprint for a 1946 Indy car given to me by a friend (who was involved in the effort) that will be framed & hung someday.
Blurry in this pic but you get the idea.

These aren't blueprints but might be easier to come by.

 

[justanengineer]

And here I was thinking I was the only one who did that. Ive made several framed prints of things that I have designed - everything from silly little special gear trains to tools. Unfortunately, my most recent (and greatest) work is all so seriously protected by lawyers that I could not take a print home if I wanted to.

 

[larry_g]

If you enjoy trains look here

http://steamcad.railfan.net/

You need to download and print your own.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[soap]

Thanks all, for the replies and ideas. I had thought of having some of my own drawings printed to large format but wasn't sure where to do it. Have some better idea now! (If anyone has access to a large plotter and time to work with me I'd be super glad to pay for time, materials and shipping.)

I should have been more clear as to what I was looking for. Didn't realize there were so many options. Ideally I'd like BLUEprints; pre-CAD stuff done on prussian. But CAD black line drawings on white paper from a modern plotter would be perfectly fine. Aesthetically, a plotter feeding from continuous rolled paper would allow me to get a print long enough to cover the wall.

The posters on techdirections.com are interesting too - might pick up several for use in the office.

I found a few original blueprints on feeBay. I'll keep my eye on that as well, but sort of wonder if I'm a proper custodian for such historic documents.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

Soap. I own my own plotter (black and white only, 24" wide rolls), and have a full colour 42" roll plotter at work as well. If you want something done, I would be willing to help, but as I live in Canada, the shipping could be a pain in the ***, and I would be worried about the prints getting smashed in transit.

 

[eurojetta]

I know these aren't blue prints, but there are some pretty cool pictures that you can download for free and have printed.

http://www.trilon.com/bapom/posters-largeformat.htm

 

[James E]

eurojetta, those are great. Thanks for the link!

The guy also sells 20 x 30 prints, too.

 

[Kev442]

A few points to ponder.

Blueprints are not color fast. Sure, they last in a dark drawer for decades, but framing them and hanging them on the wall results in near instantaneous degradation and fading. As they were created using a chemical bonding agent on the paper that was converted using another chemical, usually ammonia, they are about as stable as a jello 2x4. It's depressing to see companies frame up historic documents and see them fade away to nothing in about 2 years flat.

Most inkjet printers are not using UV inks. Therefor prints framed from them have a shelf life of 2-3 years under glass out of direct sunlight. UV inks are expensive, so you will not get a $12 poster made on one.

That leaves the Walmart poster. I would hope they invested in a nice unit for this process, but to be safe, the link provided by eurojetta to Bapom yields a link to El-Co color labs. The machine El-co uses is what you want in the $12 world of printing.

 

[bczygan]

What brand of Lathe?

 

[rsanter]

I have a color plotter, works well

bob

 

[Stuart in MN]

They don't have blueprints, but http://www.plan59.com/main.htm has some very cool posters you can buy.

edit: I found this place: http://oldblueprints.com/catalog/about.php It looks like they mainly sell copies of architectural blueprints, but they're still pretty neat.

 

[sprkt01]

I used a plotter to make a poster of her,to hang above my welder. I have also been using old Hot Rod covers to make posters to hang in the shop.

 

[amh]