Hercules by vaddoc - 1:64 - Steam Tugboat

[Jim Lad]

Vaddoc, it's great to see that you're pushing ahead in spite of the multitude of difficulties you're currently experiencing!

 

John

[Mark Pearse]

On 2/2/2025 at 8:54 AM, vaddoc said:

Strangely, the main pattern it is also off by a millimetre or so.

Hi Vaddoc,

 

If it is a print that you are talking about, one possible reason for a small error is that some printers slightly shrink to fit the page, without telling you. If you drafted in CAD to a certain size virtual page (eg A3), then when you print, you print to A3 paper size, but the virtual A3 is slightly reduced by the edge margin of the paper that the printer can't print on. The solution is to find the option in the print dialogue window that allows you to set the printing to 100% scale. 

[KeithAug]

On 1/12/2025 at 10:26 PM, vaddoc said:

I could have actually done more but the temperatures have been consistently subzero so my garage is a rather unhospitable place to be in.

Snap - and it is still cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey in my workshop!🙂.

 

Thank you for the catch up - great work.

[KeithAug]

On 2/1/2025 at 9:54 PM, vaddoc said:

I ve had difficulties with lofting, difficulties printing the patterns, difficulties gluing them. My laminates that usually come dead straight are bent. My computer died and now, my disk sander started playing up and is in for repair under warranty.

Yeh! I feel for you - and the whole world seems to be going to hell in a hand cart. Maybe we should just hibernate until 2026.

[wefalck]

5 hours ago, Mark Pearse said:

Hi Vaddoc,

 

If it is a print that you are talking about, one possible reason for a small error is that some printers slightly shrink to fit the page, without telling you. If you drafted in CAD to a certain size virtual page (eg A3), then when you print, you print to A3 paper size, but the virtual A3 is slightly reduced by the edge margin of the paper that the printer can't print on. The solution is to find the option in the print dialogue window that allows you to set the printing to 100% scale. 

I have had a similar experience (albeit at a much smaller scale and physical size). I found that the prints came out 0.5% too small in x and y. So I am now creating a duplicate layer in my 2D-CAD in which I place the items to be printed and scale them at 100.5%. You can always check the measure of the printout with the theoretical value in the CAD-drawing.

[Dr PR]

I always put a ruler scale in my drawings that need to be printed at an accurate scale.

 

Some printers just do not print at the desired scale, so setting the size to 100% doesn't help. I had a HP printer that always printed undersize so I printed some test sheets to determine the error. After that I set the scale to 1.094 % and the prints came out correctly. On the other hand I have a Brother printer that prints exactly 100% when I disable the "fit to paper" option in the driver.

[KeithAug]

4 hours ago, Dr PR said:

I printed some test sheets to determine the error.

I agree - I draw X and Y scales on the item to be printed. I then scan and print the sheet, measure the result and correct the print scale accordingly. Seems to work.