After building (and crashing) a foam board Mini Mustang, I got the idea to try to print one. I'm very near to being ready for the maiden flight - the last 3D printed piece is about half an hour away from done, and then it's just stuffing the electronics in it.
Here's the progress so far:
Please excuse the aesthetics on the prototype; it hasn't been the focus
I've been making adjustments to the CAD as I've been putting together the prototype; namely adjusting tolerances, adding mounting points, fixing the warp on the ailerons, etc.
The biggest thing to note is that this thing is heavy. I think once it's ready to fly it'll be around two pounds. I'm hoping with a Power Pack F it'll still manage to maintain a better than 1:1 thrust to weight ratio, but who knows!
If I do future 3D printed designs, I'm probably going to take a much different approach to it. Since this design is built to foam board specs, the walls are 4mm - probably totally unnecessary. I could go down as low as 2 or even 1.2mm and still have good durability. I also wouldn't need big flat surfaces (nearly every piece is designed to be printed standing up), which would let me match the aesthetics of the actual plane it's based on much more closely.
I'll also seriously consider doing more of a hybrid design with a foam wing and 3d printed everything else. The wing was the most time consuming thing to print and adds a lot of weight. In addition, between the fuselage and the wing, the wing is way faster and easier to build in terms of foam. Unless this thing has shockingly good durability (which it might, considering the carbon fiber spar I put in it), the tradeoffs just don't seem that great in favor of 3D printing it. The current design on the 3D printed fuselage has a hole a tad too small to use the FT Mini Mustang wing though, unfortunately. I will probably adjust that.
Once I take it out for its maiden, I'll release both the CAD file and the STLs for printing it. Happy flying!
Here's the progress so far:
Please excuse the aesthetics on the prototype; it hasn't been the focus
I've been making adjustments to the CAD as I've been putting together the prototype; namely adjusting tolerances, adding mounting points, fixing the warp on the ailerons, etc.
The biggest thing to note is that this thing is heavy. I think once it's ready to fly it'll be around two pounds. I'm hoping with a Power Pack F it'll still manage to maintain a better than 1:1 thrust to weight ratio, but who knows!
If I do future 3D printed designs, I'm probably going to take a much different approach to it. Since this design is built to foam board specs, the walls are 4mm - probably totally unnecessary. I could go down as low as 2 or even 1.2mm and still have good durability. I also wouldn't need big flat surfaces (nearly every piece is designed to be printed standing up), which would let me match the aesthetics of the actual plane it's based on much more closely.
I'll also seriously consider doing more of a hybrid design with a foam wing and 3d printed everything else. The wing was the most time consuming thing to print and adds a lot of weight. In addition, between the fuselage and the wing, the wing is way faster and easier to build in terms of foam. Unless this thing has shockingly good durability (which it might, considering the carbon fiber spar I put in it), the tradeoffs just don't seem that great in favor of 3D printing it. The current design on the 3D printed fuselage has a hole a tad too small to use the FT Mini Mustang wing though, unfortunately. I will probably adjust that.
Once I take it out for its maiden, I'll release both the CAD file and the STLs for printing it. Happy flying!