Printing plans at Staples

ToyDestroyer

Pro Crash Artist
Could someone help me with directions to get plans printed properly from Staples? I took the full size pdf plans for the mighty mini F22 to Staples to have black and white engineering prints made. I read on here that the pages should be printed with their 24x36 inch paper option. The prints came back to me and looked great but when I measured them they where off by 1/8th of an inch in scale. That means the wing span of the mini F22 I had printed up was only 18 inches instead of 20. I want to get the plans printed again and plan to have others printed as well but I don't want to waste money on prints that are not the correct size.
 

TexMechsRobot

Posted a thousand or more times
Don't specify the paper size and instead, tell they associate to print them at 100%. Measure the scale before you pay for the print as well. If it isn't correct, they will usually reprint and they only charge you for the ones you take home.
 

DharanFlyer

Active member
Tex has it spot on. Done this a few times. Always check scale. Tell them to print on 24x36 but to disable all scaling borders etc etc. It's been a while as I have gotten a little more time constrained so have been doing SBKs over the last year, but I think I started doing engineering printing option and that helped solve the problem as well.
 

nhk750

Aviation Enthusiast
The last plans I had printed cost $20! The time before that it was $7? I am not sure the employees know what they are doing sometimes. A speedbuild kit would be cheaper in the long run sometimes...
 

SlingShot

Maneuvering With Purpose
The last plans I had printed cost $20! The time before that it was $7? I am not sure the employees know what they are doing sometimes. A speedbuild kit would be cheaper in the long run sometimes...

Color copies? They cost more...
 

ToyDestroyer

Pro Crash Artist
I ordered the prints online for in store pick up and selected a page size because it was required. I also selected fit to page because the print preview they displayed had the plans as a very small portion of the page. I will head into the store to see it I can get them printed correctly. Thanks for the input. I will also make sure I check the scale before I pay for them.

The last plans I had printed cost $20! The time before that it was $7? I am not sure the employees know what they are doing sometimes. A speedbuild kit would be cheaper in the long run sometimes...
The plans I had printed up were about $7. I had them done in black and white. They would of been much more expensive had I done them in color or with a heavier weight paper.

I printed these plans because I have three kids that all wanted to build one. Figured plans would be cheaper than three kits and I very much expect the kids will be rebuilding them multiple times. The kids are using a tiny trainer to learn to fly but they wanted to try the build side of things as well. The mini F22 has a lot of straight lines so cutting seemed doable for them and it seemed simple enough for them to assemble. I have a 9 and a 14 year old son that are interested and a 10 year old daughter who is even more interested than her brothers.
 

nhk750

Aviation Enthusiast
Ahh, yes, I had color copies made, that explains the high price. Oh well, I had fun scratch building and got the satisfaction of making nice planes from Dollar Tree board!
 

ToyDestroyer

Pro Crash Artist
That'll probably still fly just fine - even more so if you just 'free hand' the wings back a little bigger. :)
My biggest concern with extending the wing a bit is getting the CG correct. The nose will be about 3/4 of an inch shorter and the plans measure the CG from the front of the plane. Either way I won't be able to get to Staples until next week to get new plans printed so I just might go ahead and extend the wing an inch out on each side and an inch forward. That should fix the wing dimensions. The nose and tail will be a bit smaller than they should but what's the worst that can happen, I crash and destroy $2 worth of foam? I'll try and get some time tonight to cut it out and see how it looks.
 

JimCR120

Got Lobstah?
Site Moderator
Going the extra price might also be desirable if you print with graphics (skins) where you're getting more for your money.
 

doc_mat

Member
Exactly!! :applause:

And you'll learn something if it flys, or if it doesn't too!


And THAT RIGHT THERE, is why I LOVE the FliteTest Community! My daughter and I have pretty much destroyed at least 4-6 Explorer Fuselages... For Science of course. lol
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
LOL!! Yes!! :applause:

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