3D Printing Planes

[LitterBug]

@jhitesma
Did you install LEDs in the wings for some night flying?

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[jhitesma]

@jhitesma
Did you install LEDs in the wings for some night flying?

Cheers!
LitterBug

I was going to until I realized the colors were backwards Red lights in a green wing and green lights in a red wing may look kind of confusing

I may just add some white lights. Should be easy enough - though would have been easier before I put the nose on. Fishing the servo wires through was relatively painless since I could see what I was doing. Easier than on most balsa or foam planes to be honest.

 

[Craftydan]

I was going to until I realized the colors were backwards Red lights in a green wing and green lights in a red wing may look kind of confusing

Meh. Just fly inverted


For the hinges . . . CA hinges? (Tyvek)

Cut a few 1" strips, cut matching slots just bigger than the strips, set them in place and wick in a bit of thin CA. Re-break the hinge-line if needed.

I've used them a lot on Balsa. Makes a nice tight hinge. I've got no doubts it'll work well on ABS or PLA.


Looking forward to the maiden report

 

[jhitesma]

Meh. Just fly inverted

That sure is a popular response

For the hinges . . . CA hinges? (Tyvek)

Cut a few 1" strips, cut matching slots just bigger than the strips, set them in place and wick in a bit of thin CA. Re-break the hinge-line if needed.

I was considering that...but there really isn't enough material to cut slots into, it would have to be glued to the surface and I'm wary of how well CA would hold up in that situation. That's one of the big issues with this single wall printing.

IMHO the best bet would be to reprint the wing sections and ailerons and actually model some hinges into them...but I'm not about to do that unless I build another

I may just switch to duct tape since that seems like it would work better. Or maybe extreme packing tape instead of regular...Just going ot have to experiment a bit.

When I went home for lunch I noticed that the green aileron had already fallen off just sitting there in the dining room. And when it fell off it hit the table and the glue joint in the middle of it failed as I expected it would. So...definitely need to solve this aileron issue a bit better before I try flying it!

 

[MarshallX]

If you look at my other post, this is my #1 issue with planes being 3d printed right now, we are 3d printing these planes, there is no need to tie us to the downfalls of balsa.

Give us actual molded hinges that we can add a pin to, would be very easy.

 

[rockyboy]

Give us actual molded hinges that we can add a pin to, would be very easy.

Well there's a really good thought.

Why didn't we come up with that one before

 

[jhitesma]

I suspect that on the one I'm building he didn't model hinges because he wasn't sure it would work at all so he tried to keep things as simple as possible.

Over the weekend I picked up a new roll of 3M Extreme packing tape and it's sticking GREAT so tape hinges are in place for now. Not very pretty but they'll work. I just need to finish hooking up my servo pushrods and will be ready for a maiden - would have finished it over the weekend but it was too windy for a maiden so I slacked off instead