getting a pattern

how do you go about getting an outline(pattern) from a receiver of a gun?
i have a marlin 30/30 stripped down, now i just need to start drawing some practice patterns.
also here is some practice bright cut engraving in steel
thanks
shawn

Shawn, I usually take a digital photo of the parts, print them out a bit oversize and make outlines from them. I always keep file copies of the outlines for future use.

thanks
i had thought that after i got a close to perfect outline of the gun i might cut that out of mild steel and practice on it.

Shawn, I asked a quite similar question some time ago.
Here is the tread.

arnaud

When I asked about it so I could try to participate in the outline swap for the Engrave-In John B. did a quick overview.

Going from what he posted and what I've learned from trying it, here's what I'm going to do on the next gun I do:

1) Break the gun down to an engravable state.
2) For each part, use an erasable whiteboard marker to smoothly cover the surface.
3) Use wide clear tape (John B has some 3" wide stuff I haven't found yet - I use the standard shipping tape and overlap as needed for large areas) you carefully cover the surface with the tape.
4) Smooth it down really well and then lift off. The erasable marker lifts right off.
5) John B. likes to put it down on something transparent, I just used regular paper.
6) Anything that's not really obvious, lable what part of the gun it is. That's where the regular paper is handy.
7) I scanned mine into the computer, along with a 6" ruler (I also drew on a 1" & 2cm line for reference).

For the next time I'll take my 'smoke print' and put it on the light box, lay another sheet over it and - using a ruler for the straight lines - trace just the outlines. In theory I could take the scan and do it on the computer but I'm a lot faster with a pen / pencil on a lightbox than with my tablet. Tracing the outline and scanning that will give me a much crisper, cleaner result.

Hi KCSteve,
Thanks for your help in answering Shawn's question quickly.
Sticking them to white paper is fine and you can print them off of that on to a transparency if you want to.
One reason to stick and store them on something transparent is that it’s easier to hold them up to the part and check the fit. Also if you have to use them on a second time to check that they are close enough to the same size.
And they are easy to print lefts and rights.
There has been a lot of talk about the ruler thing.
If you are making your own outlines you don't need it because you have the original piece.
If you are using donated outlines assume they are only close enough to use to develop design ideas and estimates, not for final transferable drawings.
They may be exact in one dimension but off in another.
Best,

thanks guys.
i will see what i can get done.

here's another trick: go online and grab an image or 2 of the gun in question if that's possible to do. download the image and bring it to a useful size. if you have a graphics program, you know the rest. if not, print the image, and just use it to trace the outline for practice layouts. not perfect, but hey, it's just practice.
i just googled a model 336, and this was the firs image i got. not good, but good enough to work from.