Sine Wave Stiching Template

[red3]

Does anyone know where I can get a template that will allow me to draw the sine wave pattern the you see on so many gun belts? I would like to try it on a belt or two but there is no way I'm gonna free hand it.....

Thanks for the help

[shtoink]

I have seen a ruler like tool that is made by Fiskars. Unfortunately, I can't find it on their site anymore, so I don't know how availability will be for you. I did find an online art supply store that at least had it and you can see what it looks like. I have one and had actually thought about using it for a guide to cut the edges of my leather patterns with, but the stitches sound cool, too.

[CowboyDan]

Does anyone know where I can get a template that will allow me to draw the sine wave pattern the you see on so many gun belts? I would like to try it on a belt or two but there is no way I'm gonna free hand it.....

Thanks for the help

If you have a ruler with fine markings, you can draw it out by hand.

A Sine wave is a mathematical function, so you can use a spreadsheet program to create the numbers quickly & easily.

1. Draw a long straight line on a paper.

2. Draw a line through that line. Where the lines cross is your 'zero' point.

3. Make a column of numbers, 0-4 for example. Make sure to include decimal numbers. Ideally the numbers should be even increments. This will be the distance along the long line from your 'zero' point. Label this column so you know what it is. I used X.

4. Write a number at the top of the next column, and a letter. I used Y. This is the max height of the sine wave. Let's use 2 since this is a gun belt.

5. Your math function will be: Height = Y* sin(X) where X is the number in the 1st column, and Y is the max height.

Here's what the chart looks like:

2.00

X Y

0.00 0.00

0.10 0.20

0.20 0.40

0.30 0.59

0.40 0.78

0.50 0.96

0.60 1.13

0.70 1.29

0.80 1.43

0.90 1.57

1.00 1.68

1.10 1.78

1.20 1.86

1.30 1.93

1.40 1.97

1.50 1.99

1.60 2.00

1.70 1.98

1.80 1.95

1.90 1.89

2.00 1.82

2.10 1.73

2.20 1.62

2.30 1.49

2.40 1.35

2.50 1.20

2.60 1.03

2.70 0.85

2.80 0.67

2.90 0.48

3.00 0.28

3.10 0.08

3.20 -0.12

3.30 -0.32

3.40 -0.51

3.50 -0.70

3.60 -0.89

3.70 -1.06

3.80 -1.22

3.90 -1.38

4.00 -1.51

In this case, I used inches, and it starts at 0, crests to 2 inches high (as measured up from the long line) at 1.6 inches from 0, and goes back to the long line at 3.14 inches, then it starts to go below the long line.

If you want to keep the same height but stretch the sine wave out, add a multiplier to the X value inside the equation. For instance, to stretch the wave out to twice the length, use the formula Height = Y* sin(0.5 * X).

Once you get it where you want it, you can trace over the graph onto the tracing paper and then onto the leather.

If you want to get really fancy with it, you can use other math functions. I refer you to a good highschool trig or geometry textbook for that, though.

Edited November 6, 2012 by CowboyDan

[Northmount]

You can use a spreadsheet and its graphing functions to make a paper template. See attached file. Sine Wave Double.txt Download and change the file extension to .xls so you can open it in Excel or a compatible program.

You can stretch the chart to print it out however you want. You can enter a multiplier in cell C1 to change the proportions.

Or you can use this as a guide for building your own file. It has been awhile since I used trig functions in Excel, so I had forgotten that the functions use radians as the input rather than degrees. Chart looked awful screwy. So finally I figured out, have to convert degrees to radians, so the conversion is buried in the cell formulas.

The file is safe, however you should always scan downloaded files for viruses. I run Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free and Microsoft has to keep it slim to promote fast execution using their OSs.

Tom

[shtoink]

I don't know why I never thought of using Excel...

I have used Excel to do some pretty sophisticated things and I feel so silly not thinking about using it to generate a custom shape like that.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[red3]

Thanks guys for the upper math lessons....I'm gonna give it a try......

[roys29]

I realize this is an old topic, but I have a sine wave belt pattern.

[JLSleather]

It does seem like a fella needs a radius, don't it. Too bad they don't have like hobby stores that sell circle and arc templates for a couple bucks. Ooooo... wait .....

[camano ridge]

The sine wave pattern as it is refered to in this thread is commonly refered to as the gunfighter stitch or fish tail stitch. Black River Laser has the template for both hand sewing and machine stitching.

[roys29]

I did my pattern using Corel Draw. In fact, I make all my patterns using Corel Draw because I can get nice curves instead of trying to draw them by hand.