Help! Card stock

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
I'm trying to get in to scratch building. Printing the plans on cardstock seems like it will skip a whole lot of headache. I've got an HP Deskjet 3632 and it has no setting for cardstock. Has anyone been successful with printing on other settings?
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Why not print on paper and then glue the paper to the cardstock?

Just what i would do!

Have fun!
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Understood! In my case I also have no printer capable of printing onto cardstock but an aerosol tin of spray adhesive is so very cheap. Another method is to cover the printed paper in self-adhesive clear book covering, called "Contact" here, as it adds some strength, waterproofs, and the paper can still be glued to the required plane or article.

have fun!
 

Arcfyre

Elite member
Your best bet may be taking it to a printing location, like Staples, UPS, or FedEx. In my experience, inkjet printers don't like cardstock very much. It's too thick for the rollers, and the ink tends to smear. A more industrial laser printer won't have this problem.
 

Merv

Site Moderator
Staff member
I’ve printer on card stock with a HP Laserjet, no special setting needed. Just open the paper feed so it goes straight through. You don’t want to bend it, then it will not lay flat.
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
Just for the next guy with the same question: I'm using the setting "HP Matte Presentation Paper." This particular HP doesn't have the ability to load from the back, but the curve is gentle and the cardstock comes out flat and looks like it's laser printed. I loaded and printed one page at a time and I had to nudge the cardstock in so the printer could grab it.

When printing from Google Chrome, I had issues with offset. Basically it was not printing some of the left side of the page, like it was outside of the margin or something. The printer driver does not have any options that would fix it.

I downloaded Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (make sure you get it from the official site) and was able to print at 100% scale, centered on the page.

On a side note, I picked up some Adams Readi-Board at DollarTree today. I've got plans for an airplane printed on cardstock. I've got the tools, but no skill or experience... Let the carnage begin!
 

donalson

Active member
for printing follow sp0nz info https://www.flitetest.com/articles/printing-flite-test-plans

as for onto card stock... 100% do it... sp0nz said he's been doing it for a while so I gave it a shot after doing way too many prints on paper then taped together and glued to poser board... card stock does save that extra step and I find it is easier to assemble the tiled plans than regular paper... the only downside is it's a little less firm on the outside when tracing so you need to be a little more gentle while tracing... I have a cork board that'll pin down the plans on top of then trace, I'll also do a shallow pokes to mark the score lines.
 

Arcfyre

Elite member
It'd be badass if you could print the full sized plans on a dollar tree poster board. I wonder if that's possible. I ask mainly because I'm not a fan of tiling.
 

Merv

Site Moderator
Staff member
I've found plane paper plans covered with laminate film or FB templates to work well for me. I'll trace the plan onto one piece FB, then take a stack of FB to my band saw and cut them all at once. You can make several planes at one time.
 

donalson

Active member
It'd be badass if you could print the full sized plans on a dollar tree poster board. I wonder if that's possible. I ask mainly because I'm not a fan of tiling.

you'd need a printer the right size... really the closest to that would be going to staples, officemax etc etc and have them print out the full size plans as "blueprints" you can have it done in color or B&W... then you'll want to post them to some poster board and cut out...

I think the best compromise is if you have large format printer is printing on ledger (b size tiled plans) onto cardstock... 1/2 the sheets of the standard tiled plans... but that requires you finding ledger sized cardstock and having the right size printer.
 

Keno

Well-known member
you'd need a printer the right size... really the closest to that would be going to staples, officemax etc etc and have them print out the full size plans as "blueprints" you can have it done in color or B&W... then you'll want to post them to some poster board and cut out...

I think the best compromise is if you have large format printer is printing on ledger (b size tiled plans) onto cardstock... 1/2 the sheets of the standard tiled plans... but that requires you finding ledger sized cardstock and having the right size printer.
https://www.youtube.com/user/theskewdriver the are some videos here of interest
 
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Merv

Site Moderator
Staff member
It'd be badass if you could print the full sized plans on a dollar tree poster board. I wonder if that's possible. I ask mainly because I'm not a fan of tiling.


You'd need a big printer or a CNC machine. But if I had one of those, I just cut my planes out with a needle.
 

donalson

Active member
By card stock, if you mean thick paper printing then any commercial digital printer (cardstock printer reviews) will be able to print it. If you need it one time then outsource the project. If you need it on a regular basis buy an entry-level digital printer.

any inkjet or laser printer will print cardstock... some better than others... so if you have access just use what you've got... but I'm still for fully printing out the plans on a large scale printer at staples or such and then glueing it to poster board... different steps but no tileing is nice...
 

Keno

Well-known member
It'd be badass if you could print the full sized plans on a dollar tree poster board. I wonder if that's possible. I ask mainly because I'm not a fan of tiling.
OK I am this, anyway after all said and done you can go to Staples, Office Max, UPS store, or many other office supply stores and have it printed as you like. I myself have built a MPCNC from www.v1engineering.com/ it can print, cut and carve, love this machine. There are other makes of this product such as TimeSave (sp) and Rascal (again sp). As for purchasing a large vinyl printer or a printer for foam board you are looking at a large some of money. Fly safely my friends.