Printed Scales draft

[Chris Schumann]

Hey all,

I've been thinking of making a jig, and thinking it would be handy for it to have a calibrated scale. I know I could buy a scale, but it seemed like a bit of a waste to buy two six-foot long scales to use only 10 inches or so.

So I made a PDF that has a ten inch set of scales - one increases to the right and one increases to the left, and it has six pairs of six inch scales, since there was a lot of paper left over.

I purchased some full-sheet sticker stock that goes in my printer, and I plan to print a couple of sheets once I have the best image to print, but I'd like help tweaking this from y'all. (Or is it "all y'all"?)

So take a look at this, print it on your printer, compare it to your best scale, and tell me how to make it better:

On this version, the ten inch scales are divided into 64ths, and the 6 inch scales are divided into 32nds. Is that overkill?
Is the font readable?
Do the lines print correctly? Are they legible? Too fine? Too coarse?
Is the scale accurate?

I only have a laser printer, so let me know what kind of printer you printed on if you would be so kind.

Any tips would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

[David Keller NC]

This is a neat idea, but unfortunately my Acrobat reader returns an error - illegal operation inside a path - that will not allow me to view/print the whole thing. What I'd say that might improve things is to ditch the smallest graduations. They're difficult to see, and it's unlikely someone will build a wooden jig that would be accurate enough to be adjusted to a 1/64th of an inch - to say nothing of placing the stickers that accurately.

If you can do this easily (i.e., just editing the file), making a version that only goes down to 1/16ths, and then another that goes down to 1/32nds would be useful.

You might have intended this as a power-tool jig aid (such as for a cross-cut sled), but I think this is going to be quite useful for a couple of hand-tool jigs in my shop - my bench-hook, where placing it across the top of the hook will allow me to cross-cut small parts to length without having measure and mark them, and my donkey's ear shooting board, where I'd be able to see how long the mitered part is going to be after I remove a bunch of shavings off of it to get the miter correct.

[Chris Schumann]

Thank you for the notes, David. I'm using a small Ruby program to generate the PDF, and testing in Linux using Document Viewer, but I'll be sure to test with Adobe Reader before I consider it done.

I have to make the lines very thin to draw 64ths, and they don't show up well on screen, but I had hoped they would print. I'm not sure why, other than it was pretty easy to add them, and I thought it might be useful. But those lines would really only be useful with a cursor of some sort, and those are not often found on home made jigs. Changing to 16ths was very easy, and I made the lines a tiny bit thicker too.

I will also add a note to show the smallest division (like 1/16").

I plan to use it on a resaw sled from a Wood Magazine article, but hand tool jigs are a great idea.

For anyone (including David):
Would separate sheets of 10-inch and 6-inch rules be better, or is this a good compromise, or would 7-inch (7.5"?) rules be more useful?

These rules are 1/2" wide. Is that a good size?

I haven't printed any yet, but I'm wondering if having space between sets is useful (leaving space to make a clean edge if needed), or just wasteful.

(If 11x17 stickers exist, I could make 16-inch scales. Hmm.)

[Ralph Barhorst]

I am running Acrobat 9 that I just downloaded the other day. I printed out two different versions on my HP Deskjet 7350. The first version was in "NORMAL - 600 dpi". It looked pretty good, but the second version in "BEST - 600 dpi" was the best. Both were scaled perfectly, but the lines were sharper on the second version.

The only problem that I had was that the bottom 3/32" did not print out because of the margins. Don't ask me how I know it was 3/32".

Thanks for the file. I will use it myself.

[Chris Schumann]

Thank you, Ralph.

Good to know the scale is correct. I haven't been out to the shop to get my combination square for calibration yet.

My old inkjet (HP DeskJet 560C) had a bottom margin of 0.67". Nothing could print closer than that to the bottom. Makes it impossible to print a 10" scale. I could try to sneak the whole scale up the page, but then it might not print the top on some other printers, so I think it's best just to let that go.

[Mike Henderson]

I printed using Acrobat 8 and a LaserJet 4 printer and it printed fine. The lines all printed and are distinct. I didn't check the rules against any standard to see if the printer did any scaling.

However, the 64ths are overkill - you just can't see the lines well enough to use them. I'd recommend doing a couple of rules only down to 16ths because you can eyeball a 16th rule to 32nds and the 16ths are easier to read.

Interesting project.

Mike

[David Keller NC]

Chris - I took a look at the version I'm using - since I have Adobe Creative Suite 2, I've got Acrobat Professional version 7.0. It may be necessary for me to download and install the latest reader, and the error I'm generating may be specific to my situation.

Regarding the sizes - longer is better in this case. In fact, you might consider making a version that's 15" long, as a lot of printers can print legal-size papers. Whatever's left over can just be cut off. I would leave a bit of space between the rules, because an accurate cut along the outside lines could serve as a pretty good straight-edge along the jig that it's applied to.

[Bill Huber]

I made the same thing in Visio and then printed them out on high end photo paper. Then I use spray glue to attach them to the jig or what ever I am using them for.

Yours is a bet more detailed then I made mine so I will keep your handy.

Nice job....

[Daniel Thompson]

It prints clearly and the lines are very distinct on my Dell laser printer but unfortunately it doesn't scale correctly. It's off by about 1/32" per inch.

[Chris Schumann]

It prints clearly and the lines are very distinct on my Dell laser printer but unfortunately it doesn't scale correctly. It's off by about 1/32" per inch.

I just printed with evince in Linux and Adobe Reader 6.0.2 from Windows Vista, and the scales look identical and look perfect compared to my combination square.

Please note that Adobe Reader defaults to set the Print Scaling to Shrink to Printable Area, but you should set it to None to print properly. I'll guess that you'll lose a bit off the bottom of the page too. Let me know how that works for you.

[Jerry White]

It prints accurately and distiinctly on my printer, an Epson CX11F laser printer. Good job!

I printed using no scaling....I am using Adobe Reader 9.

[Chris Schumann]

Thanks for the test report, Jerry.

I started a new thread and put four new documents in it. No longer a draft, these are ready to go, thanks to you guys.