Alternatives To Tandy Tracing Film?

[TexasLady]

6/3/12

WildRose! A girl after my own heart! Today, thinking that I was Christopher Columbus, I discovered that I could use the plastic bag that holds cereal, inside the cereal box as my 'tracing film'. So far, so good. I drew out a copy of a checkbook wallet on one 'page' the size of copy paper. I used the rest of it to copy a pattern for a cell phone cover. This was 'oversized',... larger than the size of a piece of copy paper. What I really liked was that the plastic accepted ink from my fine lined permanent marker. And, its plastic, so moisture from the leather shouldn't hurt it. What I'd like to know from you is, how re-usable is it? Will going over the design with my stylus cause it to have more of a groove than would occur with the Tandy Tracing Film?

To all purests here, let me assure you that I do have a whole role of Tandy Tracing Film which I love to use. It's great. But, I'm trying to put together a leatherworking class and to make materials as cheap for my students as possible. I'm delighted to find that, by saving some plastic bags from cereal, we can all make a few small patterns for leatherworking. - TexasLady

[IndianHorseSpirit]

Hi,

you can go to offce max or Office Depot and get the printable sheets, or sheets for an overhead projector

[Chief31794]

I too use the Tandy tracing film. Works great, but was tought to trace my patterns with a pencil which will "rub" off of the film, then I have to redo my pattern. Any suggestions other than a pencil to trace the patterns?

I trace my patterns onto Tandy tracing film with a No. 2 pencil, I reuse the patterns 8-10 times with no problem. The pencil lines guide you for the first transfer, after that the lines are there whether the pencil marks stay or not. The stylus will leave impressions in the tracing paper that, to me, are better than the pencil lines.

Chief

[lightningad]

came up with an ultra cheap way of transfering a computer printout onto leather...

simply print your design on normal printer paper, then turn it over and cover the rear side with strips of wide packing tape. I also put a layer on the front side, but thats probably overkill.

Then you case the leather and trace over the design as normal...works a treat, and the tape helps prevent your pen from piercing the paper. The design is also re-useable.

adam

Edited January 10, 2013 by lightningad

[Doc Reaper]

Use that painters plastic, it's thin. Comes in 4x12 sheets, make a copy on your printer, place plastic sheet over cased leather, tape plastic to table, then tape copy of pattern to plastic. Works well and it works better than tracing paper, more accurate too

[Spartan]

I second the freezer paper. It is even waterproof on one side so it makes transferring your image to cased or damp leather easy!

[raysouth]

Many interesting products to use. DickBlick.com has a number of very reasonably priced tracing materials on rolls or individual sheets. Speedball tracing paper 20 yard roll x 18" wide is @ $6.14, 50 yard roll x 12" wide is $9.26 and 18" wide x 50 yard is 11.97.

In addition, something I use is called Sally's graphite paper. Composition is not same as found in pencil lead and is easily, with art eraser, removed if not heavily forced into leather. My primary use is when I am using pyrography on leather and most of it is burned away during the process. Great product for me but perhaps not for everyone.

Hope this is useful for someone.

God Bless.

Ray

[Cyberthrasher]

I just stick to the CHEAP $2 pad of tracing paper from walmart with really cheap packing tape on the back. I use an HB pencil (hard and fine line) to transfer my design to the paper, back it with packing tape (keeps moisture off and stops me from pressing into the leather too hard), then line it up and trace with my stylus. A lot of people do the same with a plain sheet of paper, but I prefer to have transparency so I can see where I'm placing my work better. Also, backing it with tape means I'm not going to tear it up, leaving it available to reuse over and over if I'm doing a run of items with the same design on them.

[bizbeblu]

3M "Transparency Film for Copiers" PP2500 or Universal "Laser Printer Transparency Film" 65125. Either or both available cheap at any big box office supply store. From the days of overhead projects (back when the world wasn't run by yet another powerpoint presentation If working from an existing paper pattern just copy the original onto the clear acetate (using the copy function of your all in one printer or a regular copier). Shrink or expand to desired size. If creating from a computer graphics program just print direct to the acetate.

With transparency in hand I use a very small ball point modeling tool to trace pattern onto leather (works best if leather is cased). Always keep the printed side up as the ink will transfer to the leather. (The line of tracing scraps the ink off.) Drawbacks: generally single use, though I've done as many as four on one transparency. Size limited to 8.5x11. For bigger work one would have to section the pattern into smaller chunks.

Never understood the value or reason for Tandy's way over price "tracing paper."

Robert

[olds cool]

I use the same method as bizbelbu. I always print a mirror image so that the text comes out correct when flipped over. I have used a few other methods as well when I'm out of trans film. I've printed on regular paper and slipped it into a Ziploc bag or layed down a piece of saran wrap and tape the paper on top of it.