Larkfield Art SupplyStudio Kits Division
TO Engineering teams
RE 3× pantograph for the Studio Board
DUE
The ask
Our Studio Board is already on desks in art classrooms. It has a 3 × 3 in Trace Here box, a 9 × 9 in Draw Here box, and a grid of pivot holes. Teachers keep asking us for a way to blow a small sketch up to full size without a projector.
We want a pantograph kit that attaches to the board they already own. A student traces a sketch in the small box, and the machine draws it three times bigger in the big one. Design the linkage, cut it, and prove it works on our board.
What we're buying
Trace in Trace Here, and the whole copy lands inside Draw Here. Show us the measurements that prove it.
Fastened to the board. One hand on the stylus, nobody touching the pencil, and every line comes out clean.
Requirements
The kit is for one student at a desk, using one hand. It pins, clamps, or fastens to the board at a single pivot and stays put on its own. The pivot holes are made to grip a 7 mm nylon bushing, so that's one way to attach. We can't change the board. Thousands are already in schools.
Links are laser cut from 1/8 in plywood, no longer than 18 in and no wider than 1/2 in. That's what nests on our sheets and fits the kit box.
We haven't picked the joint hardware yet. That's your call: M3 nuts and bolts, nylon bushings, printed bushings, or something better. Whatever wins, we'll buy by the thousand from whoever is cheapest, and no two batches are exactly alike. Our laser is accurate, but not perfect either. Show us you measured the real parts, tested your joints, and designed for the variation, not for the number on the bag.
We test every kit with a printed insert that drops into the Trace Here box, with shapes cut as grooves. Your pantograph traces them with a stylus that rides in the grooves. The student's one hand is on that stylus, and that's the only hand on the kit. Nobody holds the pivot, and nobody touches the pencil while it draws. If you have to steer the pencil, the machine isn't doing the work. Design the stylus and the pencil holder as real parts. It holds a standard pencil or lead from our shelf.
Then tell us how accurate it is. Measure the copy against the original, work out the percent error, and bring the numbers.
CAD standards
Every part is modeled in Onshape and cut from that model. Hole spacing comes from your scale math, not trial and error. Hole sizes come from your own measurements and fit tests.
Deliver to us
- A working pantograph, tested on the board on
- A design notebook: research, brainstorm sketches, your joint choice and its measurements, the scale and pivot math, fit tests, every version, and test results
- An accuracy report: the copy from test day, your measurements of it and the original, and the percent error
- Photos to the Google Classroom assignment: brainstorms, research, Onshape screenshots, and the final product
- A presentation of your solution, 4 minutes or less, on . Skip the brief — we wrote it. Show us your brainstorms, your Onshape model, your prototypes, and your accuracy report.
The board's sizes, the scale math, fits, and how you'll be scored are all on the project page.
