3D STL file sizing 1911 grips

Easel 3D in Easel Pro
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I’m new to attempting a 3D carve, but not Xcarve/easel itself.

I downloaded a stl file for 1911 grips and imported to Easel. They look good in easel and I started setting up the machine. The cut time seemed a little long but I figured it was because of the 3D-ness of it all. Then I looked at the scale in easel. These grips should only be about 4-5" tall and maybe 1.5-2" wide and 0.3" thick. Once imported to Easel, they show to be around 10" tall and about 3.5" wide and 0.55" thick… approximately double in all aspects.

I thought maybe it was a bad file or designed for some oversized replica. So I downloaded a few other variations from multiple sites. I checked comments on the sites and they were receiving plenty of praise from people that had successfully used the files previously. I am assuming that most of these people are using other CNC machines and other software to operate the machine. I didn’t see xcarve/easel mentioned in the comments. I figured the stl file contained the dimensions and the machine/software used shouldn’t make a difference.

Once imported into easel, they all have roughly the same dimensional shift. About double in all aspects. I was going to try and lock the axis together and resize the Z to see how it affected the x/y sizing. Not sure if it would all scale how I need it to.

It feels like an import problem with easel but I wanted to ask if anyone else had run into this.

The files uploaded are the first ones I tried to setup. I may have found a file set that looks correct too.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

1911Rfree.stl (6.1 MB)
1911Lfree2.stl (5.8 MB)

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Hi John,

STL files themselves do not include physical dimensions - think of them more as co-ordinates between lines/triangles that map a surface area - so it’s perfectly normal to scale to your requirements in Easel.

The file should scale just fine if you lock X,Y and Z.

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One issue I run into frequently is the whole metric/SAE insanity. So you might have a model made in cm and you load it in inches and so you end up with 2.54x scaling (sounds exactly like what you got). I like that in PrusaSlicer a dialog pops up when it guesses it’s happening and asks if you want to change the units of measurement.

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This seems to be the case.

I divided one axis by 2.54 and it reduced the height of the grip from 10.8" to 4.25" and the the thickness down from 0.633 to 0.249. Those dimensions seem to be closer to what I need. My plan is to cut some out of some scrap and test fit before trying a more expensive wood.

Thanks for the insight.

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did you ever get it figured out? any tips for us newbies?
thanks