3D printed FT Simple Scout fusalage

[JGplanes]

On the forums a while back someone asked about combining foam board and 3D printing. I thought about it, and came to the conclusion that if you could replace the fuselage, you would eliminate half the work of building a traditional FT foamy. So, I started working on a 3D printed fuselage for the simple scout. I finished gluing it together tonight, and installing the electronics, which took all of 15 minutes, since the servos snap-in and there's no power pod or firewall to mess with. My son built the wing already, and it fits ok. It could be a little better fit, but it's just fine for my purposes. I have not come up with a good solution for the gear yet, so I'll be designing some 3D printed gear for it soon. They'll probably just glue/screw on.

Let me know what you think, and if this works, what you think the next design should be.

JG

 

[Gazoo]

Looks nice...but heavy. How much does it weigh? I love the snap in servo concept!

 

[JGplanes]

Looks nice...but heavy. How much does it weigh? I love the snap in servo concept!

I weighed the main fuselage but not the cover, and it was 127gm. I would guess the top cover to be around 35gm since there isn't as much reinforcement. I could have printed it with a thinner outer shell, but on my test print it only saved about 1/4 the weight, and was MUCH weaker.

JGplanes

 

[Geeto67]

That's a little over 1/3 of a lb before the electronics are added.

Do you have a completed FT simple scout in foam board? I would be curious what the final flying weight is of your 3d printed one vs the foamboard one.

 

[agentkbl]

I just realized, for those who don't want to print the whole fuselage, they could only print the turtle deck, I always hate applying those.

 

[JGplanes]

I’ve finished building, but was unable to maiden due to weather. Maybe next Monday...

Here’s a short vlog introduction with more details.
https://youtu.be/DQEMamBTrwQ

JGplanes

 

[JGplanes]

I finally was able to edit and upload a video of the first flight. It was a very short flight since it was soooooo cold. This is what happens when you maiden a plane in temperatures in the low teens.

https://youtu.be/4f8iPpb1fV0

JGplanes

 

[Michael9865]

Congratulations!

 

[Ricci]

Nice!

 

[PsyBorg]

Not bad mate. :applause: Along with moving the wing a touch maybe even scale it up just a touch to compensate for the added Fuselage weight. Lighten the load a bit more. Looks like it has plenty of power on the c pack. Good luck on the next version with what ever changes you decide.

 

[JGplanes]

Little update... It's cooooold! I haven't been able to do anything else with this.

I've had a lot of time to think about how I would change the design.
1. The rounded edges mess with the printing settings. I think I will refrain from my love of the fillet command.
2. I think I've finally mastered thin wall settings in simplify 3D, which will help keep the weight down on future designs. Stay tuned...
3. The turtle deck option is the wrong way to go for strength and rigidity. If I ever redesign this, I would put a large hatch in the top of the fuselage at the front.
4. The scout, with the wing going through the fuselage is the wrong plane to try and combine 3D printing and foamboard. It can be done, but it's not the best. THE SIMPLE CUB IS... I've already managed to knock out the fuselage design in one day, and it's printing now. More to come!

JG

 

[Uncle Manuel]

Nice! But I agree the closed fuselage with a hatch would be a better solution. How did you construct it? Hollow structure with honeycomb or grid infill? I'm experimenting with CURA right now and there's a ton of settings for everything! Wall thickness, infill percentage, infill pattern, overlap - you name it. It's a bit overwhelming when you activate all options and the drop down menus are going for miles...

 

[JGplanes]

I had several requests to upload the STL files, so I'm making them available on Thingiverse. It's not a finished product, but I think if I were to improve it, I would probably want to start over anyway.

JG