Full-size barbershop poles

[mmagliaro]

Remember, if you are doing a retro layout, you must use a slide rule....

I like that rule!  I still have two nice slide rules that my father gave me.

[Lemosteam]

For anyone who wants to draw their own stripes, a la Max's post, and make them line up after one turn around the pole, there is a simple relation between the diameter of the pole, d, the height of the stripes, h, and the pitch angle, θ, of the stripes:

    tan θ = (4 ⨉ h)/(π ⨉ d) = 1.27 ⨉ h/d

For example, if you want the stripes to be at 45 degrees (tan θ = 1), and the diameter of the pole is d, then each stripe must have a vertical height of h = d / 1.27.

EXCEPT, that the chosen pole (Peteski's center example) is tapered so this function would not work for that.

[thomasjmdavis]

EXCEPT, that the chosen pole (Peteski's center example) is tapered so this function would not work for that.

That's ok, the decal won't work for a tapered pole, either - a tapered pole would require a decal with at least one color (white, probably) tapering to compensate for the change in diameter over the length of the pole (or all 3 colors could taper slightly).  And the bottom and top of the decal would be slightly curved to get it to wrap correctly.  I will leave the math on that to Gary, since my last trig class was in high school c. spring 1970 and last time I used a "θ" it was in the Black-Scholes options pricing model 20 years ago.

In my high school days, you would have been in a lot of trouble with the rest of us- because if you had raised that point in trig class, the homework assignment for this weekend would have been designing striping for a tapered barber pole, and you would have guaranteed a quiz for Monday.

[GaryHinshaw]

Indeed, a tapered pole is more complicated.  The simplicity of the straight pole comes from the fact that the 2-d surface of a straight cylinder is geometrically flat, in the sense that two lines that are locally parallel and follow geodesic paths along the surface will never cross each other.  This is a generalization of the Euclidean rule in plane geometry that two parallel lines never intersect.

On a tapered pole, where d is a function of height, z, you would have to allow the pitch angle and/or the stripe thickness to vary with height.  I'd be happy to work out the math for any taper, d(z), that one wishes to provide.  All I ask in return is that you post a photo of your finished model. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I love this place.

[peteski]

. . .The simplicity of the straight pole . . .

I resemble that remark! 

[wazzou]

This says nothing of Peyronie's.

[John]

I love this place.

You got that right .. where else could we go from astronomical background maps and size of the universe to decaling nscale barber poles in a toothpick with the applicable math

[nkalanaga]

For a straight pole, another easy way to do the stripes, and guarantee they line up, is to make a tri-color ribbon.  Make the pole longer than needed, wrap the ribbon around at an angle, making sure the edges meet, and then cut the pole to length.  No measuring, or angle calculations, needed, and the stripes will align perfectly.

[DKS]

You can also apply the stripes individually. These are just slices of transparent tape colored with Sharpies.

[learmoia]

When the model is finished.. do you call it..

Doc Hinshaw's
Barbery - Dentistry
and Surgical Center

[davefoxx]

When the model is finished.. do you call it..

Doc Hinshaw's
Barbery - Dentistry
and Surgical Center

Yes, and they also have "Worms, Crickets, and Ice Cream." 

DFF

[nkalanaga]

DKS:  Your method might be easier than mine on a tapered pole.

[OldEastRR]

Wow ..... I posted this question, got  two answers saying basically "make it yourself" and figured, Ok, that thread is dead and over .....NOT!!!
So I come back and it's 3 pages long!!! Very cool .... maybe you guys are little too anal-retentive but it's certainly fun to read threads that go way off track (get it, "track"?)

The ideas for stripes is pretty good. I used wide UP red line decals for one I made before.

Yes the porch pillar idea sounds good, even HO, and I was looking at at the old time candle-stick N lightpoles (with a globe) as the basis. But turning one on my Dreml sounds good. So we are all on the same page, let me post a pic of what I'm looking for:



The thing looks 8+ feet tall -- and is pretty much the same kind I remember at the barbershop I went to till I was 11. This shop looks like a little 2-chair one. Same as my childhood one.

[nkalanaga]

I like that the base stripes don't match the pole stripes.