Transfering printed plans to foam board
- Thread starter janast
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- plans scratchbuild
Sorry that you are having issues. Every printer is slightly different so there is no way for me to guarantee that they will work with all the different hardware out there. What software are you using to view/print the plans. I would recommend that you use Adobe Reader for printing. The following screenshot illustrates the settings that I have found that work best for printing the tiled plans. Give that a try.
That has always been my plan, yes. If you check my plans index, there is a mix of new FT designs and some of the older back catalog stuff mixed in there. I believe the Tiny Trainer is in there too. Some of them were done with a slightly older version of the template format, but they should still be an improvement over the originals. The link to the plans index is in my signature below.
AltxF4
Junior Member
Oh, Very nice! bookmarked your page for future builds! That would have made life a bit easier on my TT!
60 cents a sheet for B & W....9.5 x 11.0 card stock. Still have to tape'm together but they match up good. I've never asked about full size plans.
Jim
King Theodin88
Junior Member
done been doing EXACTLY all of that and it doesnt print right STILL. thanks for the suggestion though. if i print it the 97% scaled down, will the firewall/motor mount be too small for the motor to bolt up?
If you're scratch building the firewall you may have to move the motor mount screw holes to fit your motor, but the rest should fit nice and snug. Considering we're only talking a 3mm difference over 10cm (metric to make the math easy) or roughly 3/16" over 4" the size difference is negligible.
King Theodin88
Junior Member
awesome. thanks for the answer. my wife just left me yesterday so i suppose to keep my mind off of my life falling apart ill build my mini arrow! =D im also making $125 tomorrow for detailing a couple cars so ill be buying my motor esc and servos and battery also. i was thinking the RCtimer FR2205 2300kv racing motor and like a 20 to 30 amp esc with a 5v reg built in. would that be a suitable motor for an arrow?
woodycarson
Junior Member
+1 for printing to card stock. Forget about printing to regular weight printer paper. With card stock you can hold the template down with one hand and let your knife glide along the edge, tracing out the template. Card stock is stiff enough where you can get away with doing that. Once you've gone over everything, I place the template aside and cut all the way through where needed. I've reused my plans for a few planes several times now and they still look great.
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King Theodin88
Junior Member
yeah im gonna second that^^^^ just got done using that spray adhesive to glue the plans down to poster board and holy crap that was a pain in the arse. glue all over my hands and the templates look like crap and all wrinkled up and wavy. gonna buy me some cardstock TOMORROW lol
planebreaker2000
Active member
One other thing you can check is in the print screen click on the poster tab above the scaling so that it turns blue and then wait for it to redraw the preview before you print. I have only printed on regular 8.5x11 paper and have reused plans a couple of times. I cut the parts out from the plan with a little bit 1/4"more or less then I use scotch tape 3-6 pieces to hold it down to the foamboard. Then cut the lines on the paper all the way through the foamboard. Then when I need to make a replacement part or a new plane I can still use the same plan, just cut outside the plan.
King Theodin88
Junior Member
Well, after some thought and a few weeks, ive got my arrow cut out and im building it but the idea i came up with for the corsair i wanted to build was, taking the poster board sheets, and cutting them down to 8.5" x 13" and set the paper size on the printer properties to 8.5" x 14" legal paper size. VOILA!! 100% actual size beautiful plans ALREADY on posterboard no cutting and spray adhesing to other stuff. it took literally 5 minutes to cut the 3 sheets of posterboard down to the 8.5x13" size sheets. I did this cuz the cardstock at staples wasnt the thickness i wanted....too flimsy IMO. yaayy im gonna be building the heck outta these planes even though i have no electronics yet lol.
King Theodin88
Junior Member
yes! much easier and cleaner using the thicker paper products. now my problem is cutting out the foamboard pieces. its a pain in the arse and very hard to get the edges nice and even and not at an angle. and getting in tight spots and cutting curves. im getting the hang of it sorta i think. Ive got my mini arrow all cut out but say if i built it without the center electronics pod and just glued the wings together to make the pointed nose, the edges are horribly un-even. itll need alot of trimming. is that normal? or does it just get better with practice? i almost wanna say eff it and buy the speed build kits for the clean edges and accurate lines. my wife likes the planes and says if i make them nice enough looking i can hang them up for decoration in the computer room. so hopefully ill get better at cutting them out.
Jugsy
New member
It's just a practice thing King Theodin88. The Arrow should line up perfectly but from what I've seen not many people get it spot on.
As far as general cutting goes, make sure to do your cuts in a few passes, don't try and push through paper and foam in one go. I'll usually pass over each cut at least 3-4 times before I go right through. Make sure your blades are sharp and held at an acute angle to the foamboard. For cutting corners and curves, don't try and follow the curve around. Cut straight lines past the curve, like so:
See how straight lines can make a curve? This technique HUGELY increased the neatness of my cuts. Good luck!
As far as general cutting goes, make sure to do your cuts in a few passes, don't try and push through paper and foam in one go. I'll usually pass over each cut at least 3-4 times before I go right through. Make sure your blades are sharp and held at an acute angle to the foamboard. For cutting corners and curves, don't try and follow the curve around. Cut straight lines past the curve, like so:
See how straight lines can make a curve? This technique HUGELY increased the neatness of my cuts. Good luck!
King Theodin88
Junior Member
yeah thats a good tip but what about the inside curves? thats what i have trouble with.
