I haven’t tried this yet, but a few people have mentioned heat guns; apparently the paper stays warm for a little while after using one. I’m not entirely sure what a heat gun is, but I’ve thought about using my hair dryer to warm the surface.

The Icarus board seems unreasonably expensive. I wonder whether a drawing board propped up over an incandescent bulb would work almost as well.

Edited to add: Here’s an idea. It’s only 6″ x 9″, but should give you some ideas.

If the drawing board/tracing box is a plastic top, incandescent lights could melt or warp the surface at the temperatures needed. I would be a bit wary of doing it after having warped a plexiglas drawing board by putting too warm a lamp behind it.

Doug

Absolutely correct. I just bought a piece of inexpensive window glass at Home Depot to use as a drawing board at home, and of course that wouldn’t be a problem.

I have a tracing box (not sure if that is what it is called) and it look a lot like the expensive item your discussing. I too have looked at using a blow dryer to warm things up and even thought to use my tracing box, but never have. This is an interesting article to me.

I seem to remember someone who created something like this… I’m thinking it was an electric heating pad (like you’d use for sore muscles) cranked up high with a piece of thin plexiglass set on top of it. If I can find the link to the thread I’ll post it…

Rosemary

[FONT="Palatino Linotype"]Rosemary (aka Tess) - [/color]
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The idea of using a heating pad covered by thin plexiglass seems good, but I would want something larger and maybe flatter than the standard size medical heating pad. In a search I ran across many references to seedling heat mats, which come in different sizes (up to 48″ x 20″) with rubberized, waterproof exteriors. Except for the largest size, most were priced under $50. Are there gardeners here who could comment on whether these items might work well for heating waxed surfaces?

Thanks for that good information, graesea. Looks like the heating capacity of seeding heat mats wouldn’t be nearly high enough to do the job we’re talking about.

I am going to Lowe’s this evening and get a thick slab of Plexiglass and lay it over top of heating pad on high. I will post results when I have time to experiment!!