Crowdfunding for Skin Printer Input

What do you think I should name this venture?

  • Flite Tats

    Votes: 2 8.7%
  • Flite Skins

    Votes: 6 26.1%
  • Rasterworks

    Votes: 12 52.2%
  • Skin Print

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sknz by Rasterize

    Votes: 2 8.7%
  • Plane Ink

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Flite Sknz

    Votes: 1 4.3%

  • Total voters
    23
  • Poll closed .

Seahunter

Active member
So I placed an order for a Canon imagePROGRAF iPF670 24" Large-Format Inkjet Printer on Saturday. Should be here is 5 to 7 business days. This is awesome since I just put the finishing touches on the Beta set of these and really want to test them soon.
View attachment 131144
Each skin sheet is 24X36 and the plans are a massive 24X84!

Depending on how sales go will determine if I need to do a kickstart. The printer is 12 months interest free!

ROFL! Two seconds after I posted this I saw an issue in the skins! Camo on wings are the same. Should be (and was) different. Already fixed. :)

I will order these as soon as you are ready, great work. Been there and done that with my daughter! :) Hang in there!!! Fred
 

Rasterize

Maker of skins and decals for foam board RC planes
Moderator
Mentor
Printer was ordered and arrives tomorrow...maybe. They have delayed delivery 3 times. Driving me nuts! Skins are piling up that need testing before release! That and my daughter is getting married a week from Saturday and my wife is close to recruiting me into her "Wedding Prep Army"! Good by free time till after the 1st!
 

Rasterize

Maker of skins and decals for foam board RC planes
Moderator
Mentor
Boooom!

1558664498345.png


I wonder what this button does? :)
 

Rasterize

Maker of skins and decals for foam board RC planes
Moderator
Mentor
24X12 FT P40 wing test (1/3 page test) took 1.25 min to print.

1558676229949.png

Initial ink and paper usage estimates are promising. Allowing myself to get just a we bit excited. :)
 

JTarmstr

Elite member
Have/will you posted the FT P-40 skin? I was going to build one with a skin, see how good I am with that sorta stuff.
 

GMalatrasi

Active member
I'm quite interested in this as a full-size plan printing service, I've done it at Staples/Office Depot before but I'd much rather support a fellow community member if the price + shipping is reasonable.
 

Rasterize

Maker of skins and decals for foam board RC planes
Moderator
Mentor
Have/will you posted the FT P-40 skin? I was going to build one with a skin, see how good I am with that sorta stuff.

I have not as of yet because I'm still testing setting for compression, color and detail of the print. When I do, it will probably be in the 24X36 size only. I'm going to leave tiling to a different (usually smaller) page size up to individuals. I need to make a good write up on the most current version of Acrobat Reader on how to do that.

I'm quite interested in this as a full-size plan printing service, I've done it at Staples/Office Depot before but I'd much rather support a fellow community member if the price + shipping is reasonable.

I got a lot of negative push back on printing FT plans. Folks seem to think that since the PDF's are free that printed version should be free also or that it's ok for you to print at home but you can't take it to Staples of FedEx to print. I emailed Autin Fury, Flite Test business manager for clarification and he was fine with me printing plans and selling the output. So I decided to compromise. I will include the plans for free with the purchase of the skins. You really need plans to use the skins anyway since score cut and placement indicators are not on the skins. So as for now I do not intend on offering just plans. Will that change in the future? We shall see.
 

GMalatrasi

Active member
I got a lot of negative push back on printing FT plans. Folks seem to think that since the PDF's are free that printed version should be free also or that it's ok for you to print at home but you can't take it to Staples of FedEx to print. I emailed Autin Fury, Flite Test business manager for clarification and he was fine with me printing plans and selling the output. So I decided to compromise. I will include the plans for free with the purchase of the skins. You really need plans to use the skins anyway since score cut and placement indicators are not on the skins. So as for now I do not intend on offering just plans. Will that change in the future? We shall see.

I was more thinking about my own plans... But I don't really get why people would give you trouble for providing a service FliteTest doesn't, but it's best not to try to understand the internet... It's bad for your health lol.
 

Rasterize

Maker of skins and decals for foam board RC planes
Moderator
Mentor
I was more thinking about my own plans... But I don't really get why people would give you trouble for providing a service FliteTest doesn't, but it's best not to try to understand the internet... It's bad for your health lol.

Agreed. I have no issues printing your plans sir. IM page size/number of pages etcc, zip code and I'll pop you a quote.
 

JTarmstr

Elite member
I got a lot of negative push back on printing FT plans. Folks seem to think that since the PDF's are free that printed version should be free also or that it's ok for you to print at home but you can't take it to Staples of FedEx to print. I emailed Autin Fury, Flite Test business manager for clarification and he was fine with me printing plans and selling the output.

I hope you didnt take me saying it might not be possible the wrong way, I just thought selling the plans might violate the copyright on it. If Austin Ok'd it I will probably buy some copies at some point and you can consider my criticism removed.

I have not as of yet because I'm still testing setting for compression, color and detail of the print. When I do, it will probably be in the 24X36 size only. I'm going to leave tiling to a different (usually smaller) page size up to individuals. I need to make a good write up on the most current version of Acrobat Reader on how to do that.

Ok, thanks.
 

Rasterize

Maker of skins and decals for foam board RC planes
Moderator
Mentor
I hope you didnt take me saying it might not be possible the wrong way, I just thought selling the plans might violate the copyright on it. If Austin Ok'd it I will probably buy some copies at some point and you can consider my criticism removed.

No worries. It was not your comments in particular. I have seen similar comments in other threads as well. I myself did not want to upset the community with anything I did. That's why I think I'll take the softer, safer approach and take a page out of the marketing playbooks. Provide FT plans free with purchase. :)
 

Brianna81

Active member
I was more thinking about my own plans... But I don't really get why people would give you trouble for providing a service FliteTest doesn't, but it's best not to try to understand the internet... It's bad for your health lol.
Flite test would rather sell their speed build kits as it's much more profitable for them than printing plans would be.
 

Rasterize

Maker of skins and decals for foam board RC planes
Moderator
Mentor
Speaking of plans, here is an interesting side project. A friend of mine (@mrjdstewart) wanted to build a FT Bronco but did not care for tiling a bazillion pages together and over all wanted an easier way to use the plans. So we came up with this:
1559024002576.png

All the FT bronco plans laid out into four 20X30 inch boxes outlined with a dashed line. Then printed it on a 24X126 inch sheet.
I'll be interested in hearing how this build goes....
 
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tyoho

Member
Fantastic, getting very close to what I've been waiting for.
Here's what I'd like to see.
Use the same format for the skin only mirrored, so that you could glue the plan on one side of the FB and the skin on the other.
That way when you cut out the parts they are already skinned.
Alignment would be tricky, but making the graphics slightly larger all-around would help.
You would need to add graphics to a couple of pieces on the plan side as well, but most of the plan side ends up on the inside or removed.
If the package also included a PDF of the reformatted plans I could use that to make a program for my CNC.

Thanks for all your great work!
 

Rasterize

Maker of skins and decals for foam board RC planes
Moderator
Mentor
Use the same format for the skin only mirrored, so that you could glue the plan on one side of the FB and the skin on the other.That way when you cut out the parts they are already skinned. Alignment would be tricky, but making the graphics slightly larger all-around would help.

That would be cool but I'm afraid getting the alignment front to back while glueing a sheet that size by hand would be nearly impossible. I don't even think bleed would help. One false move and you have ruined a whole sheet and maybe the foam and graphic on the other side as well. The only way that would be really feasible (IMHO) is to eliminate the human error and use a flatbed printer that can achieve that kind of front to back registration and print right on the foam. The transfer to a cutter with a registration system as well. Now we are talking big bucks and I don't think a niche market this small would support it. I've looked into having it produced by a printer but the cost was about $25 or so a sheet.
 
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rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
That would be cool but I'm afraid getting the alignment front to back while glueing a sheet that size by hand would be nearly impossible. I don't even think bleed would help. One false move and you have ruined a whole sheet and maybe the foam and graphic on the other side as well.

I tried doing this once when I was designing the skins for the Caudron C.460 - just made a huge mess and frustrated me to no end.

If someone can figure out a way to do it, I'd love to learn - but it's beyond my skilz and knowledge right now too.
 

tyoho

Member
It's doable if you have alignment marks on the plans and graphics and build a simple jig.
The same alignment features could also be used to position the board for cutting.
Still might be more work than it's worth, and the required precision might be too high if you don't have access to machine tools to make the jig.

$25 a sheet for 1 pre-printed foam board would get expensive ($100 for your friends Bronco) but I wonder how quick the price drops with quantity?
One piece of anything is always way more expensive because of set-up time.
Maybe I could get a four sheet pre-skinned kit for ~ $25 if enough other people wanted one too.
SKIN ALIGNMENT JIG ASSY -2.jpg
 
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rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
It's doable if you have alignment marks on the plans and graphics and build a simple jig.
The same alignment features could also be used to position the board for cutting.
Still might be more work than it's worth, and the required precision might be too high if you don't have access to machine tools to make the jig.

$25 a sheet for 1 pre-printed foam board would get expensive ($100 for your friends Bronco) but I wonder how quick the price drops with quantity?
One piece of anything is always way more expensive because of set-up time.
Maybe I could get a four sheet pre-skinned kit for ~ $25 if enough other people wanted one too. View attachment 132608

Give it a try and see if you can get it to work - I found it very tricky once the glue is applied - that stuff sticks immediately and permanently, not allowing for any re-positioning of the sheet. Would be great if you can find a technique that would solve it!