Drill templates - page properties ?

[Better Button]

Could you please post the PDF page properties of your print templats, i.e. A4 / US Letter or similar.

I'm building a Stockade drive and the printed template does not line up with the PCB; the print scale is set to 'Actual Size'.

Thanks.

Glen

 

[Lytt Effects]

Paper size should be "Letter" (8.5" x 11"). Print scale should be "Actual Size" or "Default" or something along those lines. What exactly isn't lining up? Pictures?

 

[Better Button]

Thanks for your answer. I've made quite a few basic errors here, the first of which was to assume the print template properties would be metric, which most engineering documents use.

Standard paper size in this part of the world is A4 @ 210mm x 297mm so that's how I printed the template using Affinity Design, Print Scale set to Original.

Measuring from the top left pot to the top right pot is just over 2mm and while it might be possible to massage the pot legs to get a fit, the switches are a different matter.

So it's an interesting (and expensive) learning curve: I should have checked the unpopulated board against the printed template right at the get go. Much too hard to accurately check once the PCB is populated!

"Measure twice, cut once"

There's no local stock of this size enclosure so waiting now for a new enclosure from Tayda which should take about 10 days before I can start agin.

Thanks again.
Glen

 

[swelchy]

I bet some of us here have a box slammed full of enclosures we drilled wrong that we are " going to do something with those someday"..... Guilty

 

[DeadAirMD]

I feel ya bud, sucks that happened. As @swelchy said, we have all been there before.

I'm the most backwards mf'er here for sure! I don't always fully complete and box up every board I build, since they don't always work with my style/setup. So I completely populate the entire board, switches and toggles and all. Jam with the unboxed circuit, if I dig it, box it. Print drill template and then position circuit board pot side down on top of drill template taped onto enclosure. Now of course this means that the circuit is reversed in relation to the drill template........so I use a sharpie to mark any differences in pot/toggle location on the opposite side of the board on the template (the farthest right pot is actually the farthest left pot for example), then drill with hand drill haha. Takes a little bit a fanagling to get the circuit into the enclosure, but its worked for me for almost 3 years.....

 

[jwin615]

I bet some of us here have a box slammed full of enclosures we drilled wrong that we are " going to do something with those someday"..... Guilty

Drilled 2 led holes last week...

 

[Better Button]

Thanks for all the info, very reassuring to know I'm not on my own!

So I decided I needed a simple and reproducable way to check a printed drill template against the physical PCB; this is what I did:

• Loaded the document into Infinithy Designer, paying particular attention to the document properties, i.e. US Letter @ 612 x 791 pts
• For each pot, drew a 16 mm line* south from the centre of the pot. (This should line up with the pot's centre solder pad)
• Print the template, making sure there is no 'scaling' / set to 100%
• Place the PCB on the printed template and check the alignment of the centre solder pad for each pot

* This is supposed to be the distance from the centre of a pot to the centre solder lug​

I've tried this so far with the Cobalt drive PCB and it lines up perfectly!

Hope this makes sense, and is useful to someone.

Glen

 

[PJS]

This is my process.

1. Print out the drill template with 100% sizing
2. cut it out on the lines
3. fold down the sides and tape it to the box
4. if it is not exactly the right size when taped to the box do it all again
5. carefully (with my eyes this means with a bench magnifier) centre punch the centre of each hole.
6. remove the drill template
7. drill with a drill press using the punched centre holes

 

[Better Button]

Thanks PJS. I'm with you up to and including your Point 4, and strongly agree, if this bit's not 'right' start again.

However, while I do use a drill press, I don't think I have the dexterity, or good sight to manually punch the holes, but worth thinking about.

Glen