Does anyone know how to use a pantograph from the front of a longarm? thanks for your help..Linda

Panto's are done from the rear of the machine. the panto is laid on the table and you run the laser light on that from the back.

I have seen a way to do this, but I can't remember where. I have searched and searched and can't find it, so maybe it was a flop and was removed from the website where I saw it. I know some of the short arm machine frames have a shelf and use the light from the front. Oh well, I tried.

the panto from the front is not a long sheet. it is a smaller paper that repeats and you have to keep moving it along as you quilt. the quilter that i saw doing it could move the laser light to either side of the machine so the paper could be put on either side. the paper laid right on the quilt.

QuiltnNan is correct. I belong to a yahoo group tinlizzie longarm and we have ladies on there who do pantographs from the front....

I just saw on of these machines today and it is real neat but can't be of any help on how to do it. Sorry

Deloa Jones sells a table to use the laser from the front of your computer. I was thinking of having my husband see what he could do about building me one. I'd like to use my laser to do small pantos from the front too. It would be great for baby quilts that don't take up the entire frame for the quilt.

http://www.deloasquiltshop.com/deloa...asertable.html

Wow! I've never heard of this, but it sure sounds like a good idea.

Thank You!!!! I have been searching and searching for something like this that will fit my small Handiquilter 5' frame - hopefully this one will work!!!!]

Hmmm, I like the idea of laying the design down on the front of the quilt but don't know how well that would work for me. I have proportionally short arms and legs on a long torso. Standing at a long arm, I really can only work in about a foot area maybe six inches in front of me, despite the machine and set-up having a deeper throat. So, for a narrow repeat like 6", this could be a great solution but for a larger design I just don't have the reach.

With my vision issues and the long arm I've been using doesn't have back controls although the frame is set up to use pantos, what I've been doing is copying the design onto parchment paper I buy at the dollar store, $1 for a 25' x 1' roll. I just sew through it and I can see the quilting pattern on all colors of fabric. Yes, the downside is that I have to first copy and then have to take off all that paper. Fortunately for me I do like rather larger designs and thicker batts than are currently popular and it gives me results I am happier with than I could otherwise do.

I lay out my pantograph on the back table and use a small camera to be able to see the laser light on a monitor that is mounted on the front. I love this system. It saves me a lot of walking back and forth and is a bit easier on my back. I can even sit down if it is a fairly easy design.

I got a 404 error when I clicked on the link.

I'm not sure that describing it as doing a panto from the front is very accurate as you can only do a small area when working with the laser light on the front. I will sometimes take a single design drawing and either pin to the quilt or use the clear acrylic DeLoa Jones table on the frame and make the one design. Then you have to move everything and repeat or change to new design. I only do it when I' wanting an involved motif since it's a tedious way to do a quilt--if I want a repeating design I will just FMQ from the front (I rarely do pantos)

I got that, too, but you can still find it with the menu at the left. There is a video of her demonstrating use of the table. It would not work on my Gammill because it needs to lay flat (level) and I don't have a dead bar, only a take up bar. If it's not level the image will be distorted when you stitch it out.

I only quilt with pantos and place the paper on the shelf above my quilt and stand at the front of the quilt. My laser light follows the pattern and I do an edge-to-edge repeat. I have only a 9" throat on my machine, so I make sure that each line of pattern is no more than 3 inches so that when the pick-up roll gets too big, I can still continue to quilt.

Can you give more details about your camera and monitor setup? I am very interested in trying this. The cables, type of camera, and type of monitor are details that would be greatly appreciated. I would love to make it work with my iPad so that I could just take it to the quilter when I'm ready to do a panto. Thanks for your help.

Here is the info for Deloas' pantograph table, with video

https://www.deloasquiltshop.com/coll...ts/laser-table

Could you post a picture of your setup, particularly the connections from camera to monitor (or tablet). What type of camera did you buy. Thanks for your help! I am trying to decide what to buy to do this myself.

I too, would love to know what camera and how you hooked it all up! A picture would be great, thanks!

I have a hard time doing panto's from the backside. My first row is always ok, but lining up to start additional rows has always been a problem for me...my spacing is never right. Maybe this front side panto would be better??