Can't print McWire X and Y stage stickers

I started cutting my plywood (instead of acrylic) pieces for my McWire today and I've run into some trouble with the X and Y stages. The PDFs in the stickers folder of the McWire downloadable files are all fine except the two for the X and Y stages. When I print them with 1:1 scaling the right and bottom sides get cut off by a bit. I've tried a lot of printing manipulation using Adobe Reader's printing preferences etc, but I just can't get it to print right.

So does anyone have the relevant precise measurements or can someone split the pdfs so that they can be printed in multiple pages? Or does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm a bit stuck.

You can download the .dxf file from [reprap.svn.sourceforge.net] - look for "xy_layout.dxf". You'll need a .dxf viewer, like qcad. Those models should be correctly dimensioned.

In the end, the easiest solution may be to go to kinkos or even the public library if they have a printer that will work, and get a copy of the pdf printed.

Try setting the margins in "print setup" to zeroes. The zeroes will readjust to the smallest possible margin dimension -- just let it.

Then print on legal sized paper.

That's what I did and it worked.

As a note, the x-railing stickers didn't work for me (they were blank strips), but as I recall, the outer holes (where the aluminum angle attaches) are the same and the location is the same, so you can partially use the z-railing sticker. This will be clear once your progress a bit.

Btw, shouldn't you be posting in the "Rerapper" forum since you are building?

I downloaded Informative Graphics' free viewer [www.bravaviewer.com].

I had to calibrate the measurement tool (apparently it did not have the original scale data; is this normal?). I used the distance between big circles in the corners. The centers of these circles form a rectangle, and I calibrated using the length of the shorter side of the rectangle as 18cm, which I measured with a ruler from the printed page (that part didn't get cut off).

I then measured the dimensions of the outer rectangle, which was kind of difficult due to the fact that it has rounded corners. I got 27.35 cm (~10.8") by 20.4cm (~8.0"). This sounds about right.

The radii measurements of the circles makes sense too (though at first I was confused because I thought the tool measured diameters...).

Anything I'm missing? Or shall I charge forward tomorrow morning?


By the way, what are those little notches in each stage for?

Edit in response to Arthur's post:
I'll try that.

As to the forum placement... I didn't think that's what that forum was for. I thought that it was supposed to be more about the actual people... oh well. I probably won't have to make another post like this again, so I won't worry about it.

Edit 2: There is no margin setting in the print setup.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2008 04:28AM by Joshua Merchant.

I guess I was thinking of MS Word with the margins

So "page scaling" = "none".

And print using Legal sized paper (changing paper size may be assessable through "properties" then "advanced" -- you may need to specify another "tray" also).

Try that. Btw, test with the y-rails (not the x-rails since they are blank).

I think that's it Arthur.
He already used legal sized paper.

I he'd used A4 sized paper (wich is a bit smaller) maybe he'd found that that bit was the bit cut off

'sid

I used A4 size paper and some of the templates are designed for legal size. Over in the UK, legal size full page stickers are less regularly available.

I'm going through the stickers and making a set of templates myself to see if it's actually possible to print these at full scale on a sheet of A4. Initial tests loading the image into photoshop show that this should be possible but with only a few mm to spare.

I found the problem printing the pdf onto A4 sheet was that the image is centered for a letter size sheet (which is wider). When you go to print on A4, the edges of some of the pieces are just off of the page.

My fall back option is to see if the stages can be trimmed to make them fit on the page without compromising the available work area or changing the design (hole placement etc).

I'm going to drill the holes on my y base tomorrow and will be looking at the x and y stage templates next.