mpbiv's 3D Printed Folding Tricopter: a work in progress

jipp

Senior Member
i was thinking for us who do not have a 3d printer but have plenty of good quality plywood. i bet i could pull off a frame.. do you have drawings? one could print out and trace to plywood. im thinking 1/8 or maybe 3/16 ply. would be light, you could even make your own laminate material ( i have all the wood tools you could dream of. from years of wood working. and lost of scrap wood. yeah i like working with wood, i can not lie. :p ). id be willing to give one a try down the road once you have the design finish.
would not take long to cut the frame parts out on my grizzly 18" bandsaw. have a shop full of wood tools. this is a valid option for me.. i guess weight could be a issue but hey since i have the tools, and wood is cheap.. i think it be fun to try. it would be worth it even if it did not become a speed daemon, but just a mini cruiser tri. so if you ever get a chance to trace your parts that could be printed out.. please do for me. thank you in advance.
chris.
 

C0d3M0nk3y

Posted a thousand or more times
i was thinking for us who do not have a 3d printer but have plenty of good quality plywood. i bet i could pull off a frame.. do you have drawings? one could print out and trace to plywood. im thinking 1/8 or maybe 3/16 ply. would be light, you could even make your own laminate material ( i have all the wood tools you could dream of. from years of wood working. and lost of scrap wood. yeah i like working with wood, i can not lie. :p ). id be willing to give one a try down the road once you have the design finish.

I've made several parts for my multirotors out of 3/32" birch plywood. Just printed the designs on regular paper, spray glued them to the plywood, and cut them out with a jigsaw.
 

JJBTEXAS

Member
You may have mentioned this before but what diameter carbon fiber shafts are you using for the arms? I would like to build something like ImmersionRC's Vortex and those arms are perfect for something like that.

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mpbiv

New member
i was thinking for us who do not have a 3d printer but have plenty of good quality plywood. i bet i could pull off a frame.. do you have drawings? one could print out and trace to plywood. im thinking 1/8 or maybe 3/16 ply. would be light, you could even make your own laminate material ( i have all the wood tools you could dream of. from years of wood working. and lost of scrap wood. yeah i like working with wood, i can not lie. :p ). id be willing to give one a try down the road once you have the design finish.
would not take long to cut the frame parts out on my grizzly 18" bandsaw. have a shop full of wood tools. this is a valid option for me.. i guess weight could be a issue but hey since i have the tools, and wood is cheap.. i think it be fun to try. it would be worth it even if it did not become a speed daemon, but just a mini cruiser tri. so if you ever get a chance to trace your parts that could be printed out.. please do for me. thank you in advance.
chris.
I don't think the CAD program I am using does drawings. I am using Inventor Fusion 360 on a Macbook Pro. Which is weird because it appears the Windows version does do drawings.
 

mpbiv

New member

jipp

Senior Member
I've made several parts for my multirotors out of 3/32" birch plywood. Just printed the designs on regular paper, spray glued them to the plywood, and cut them out with a jigsaw.

good to know it works. will be giving it a go after i learn more. i have the wood tools so why not. and i agree my bandsaw is over kill for such a project.. but its my baby, i use it for everything.. from cutting veneers to just ripping stock to size. my least fav tool is my table saw.. that is 1 of the 2 tools im always over cautious about as iv seen to many people lose fingers from them.. by the way the second tool is a shaper.
and i cant lose my fingers, im already a crippled who cant walk. if i lost my fingers id throw in the towel i think.
chris.
 

jipp

Senior Member
I don't think the CAD program I am using does drawings. I am using Inventor Fusion 360 on a Macbook Pro. Which is weird because it appears the Windows version does do drawings.

aww, thank you. was worth a try. maybe when you upload them someone could be kind enough to do so. i just do not have the experience yet to build my own design.. that will only come with experience building kits,etc and time.

on a side note, was a good morning flew the nano dis-morning.. and iv come to realize its a fun toy.. but, it is sorta limited. for one.. if you have no level place to start you are fighting from the start.. wind is the other problem.. from a prospective as a learning tool to move on to a larger quad i think it has served its purpose. aww, experience from actual use instead of reading.. funny how the two sorta do not mesh always. :p
chris.
 

mpbiv

New member
mpbiv- have you considered using a clamping mechanic on your pivot arm instead of epoxy? View attachment 42145
Yes and no. My design for the front arms is definitely inspired by the Vortex, and I believe it uses clamping similar to what you have modeled in this picture. I just didn't do it.

I actually ended up using CA on this one rather than epoxy, and to be honest the plastic wicked it up pretty good. I don't think they're going to break free. Then again that also means if I mess the plastic portion up, it might be hard to remove from the carbon tube for replacement........ so I might have to go back and re-think that.
 

JJBTEXAS

Member
Then again that also means if I mess the plastic portion up, it might be hard to remove from the carbon tube for replacement........ so I might have to go back and re-think that.

That was my biggest concern. I have both sides clamping so all 3 pieces are removable from each other for maintenance and replacement.
 

mpbiv

New member
Had some time last night to make some progress. It started out with re-designing the upper plate for the FPV Pod. Essentially I redesigned it but kept the outside profile the same. I added some ribbing to stiffen it, a few holes to lighten it and allow for cooling air to pass through to electronics, and added some snaps to hold the FPV transmitter.

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I also made some design changes to the lower portion of the FPV pod. It now includes the standoffs to bolt the two halves together. These two standoffs are the posts sticking out in the picture below. The upper portion has two matching counterbored pockets for the standoffs which help add more rigidity to the assembly.

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At this point, the prototype frame is pretty much done. I am just waiting on some ESC's to get here and then I will complete the build. If the maiden flight goes well, it wont be long before I post the files to Thingiverse.
 

Twitchity

Senior Member
Very nicely done. I'd say you should print out some more frames to sell, but the printing time alone for those parts is probably getting close to 10 hours. We'll have to get back out flying one of these days soon so I can see this thing in person.
 

jipp

Senior Member
its a great looking frame. id like to make one from plywood. as i do not have a 3d printer. could be fun to try. hope someone will be able to make a print.pdf of the parts.. so i could just trace them to the plywood etc.. we see what happens when you upload the plans. it look s great in yellow.



chris.
 

mpbiv

New member
Very nicely done. I'd say you should print out some more frames to sell, but the printing time alone for those parts is probably getting close to 10 hours. We'll have to get back out flying one of these days soon so I can see this thing in person.

Actually you might be surprised, I think cumulatively I am probably closer to 6-7hrs total print time. The upper portion of the FPV Pod and the Tail Boom are probably the two longest builds. The upper plate took a little over one hour to print last night and is near the limits of my x-y build area. The smaller pieces all take about 15-20 minutes each to print. If I could fit everything on the build platform, I could probably do it quicker. I spend a lot of time prepping the bed between prints, and some of the smaller prints automatically run at lower speeds to allow for adequate cooling between layers. Those are both areas where print time could be improved with more parts on the build plate.

I'm printing at 40mm/s with a layer thickness of .2mm, g-code generated using Repetier/Slic3r for parts that don't need support material and Cura for parts that do.

I'll let you know when I get this thing air-worthy, and we'll have to find somewhere to fly again!
 

jipp

Senior Member
will definitely be downloading/building when you post:)

can your software put the plans to picture to be printed? if so would you be willing to do so for me.. so i can copy them to plywood. :) his software does not allow.

chris.
 

mpbiv

New member
Still waiting on the ESC's to finish this project! Hopefully it shows up this week, because I would really like to get it in the air.

Part of the reason why it is taking so long is I ordered the new 4in1 12A HV ESC from Ready to Fly Quads. Usually it takes a week or two to ship. This setup will help me save some space with wiring, although three small 12A ESC's should also fit in the frame, I don't have any spares at the moment.
 

JJBTEXAS

Member
can your software put the plans to picture to be printed? if so would you be willing to do so for me.. so i can copy them to plywood. :) his software does not allow.

chris.

I'm not sure, depends on what format he post them in. I can convert STL files back into solid works files but not sure if I could make those into drawing without a bunch of work.
 

jipp

Senior Member
I'm not sure, depends on what format he post them in. I can convert STL files back into solid works files but not sure if I could make those into drawing without a bunch of work.

yeah, his software wont allow him too. i forget what he was using. if its possible to make something i can print and cut out and trace onto some hobby grade plywood.. it would be a fun project. id make the templates out of some plexi glass i have so assuming i broke a frame i could rip a new frame out in a few minutes on my work horse (my band saw is my fav tool ) if i had a 3d printer im sure that be my fav toy right now. LOL. thank you if its possible down the road.. if not, its all good.. I thought id ask. for us who do not have 3d printers.. im sure im not the only one who would make one out of wood , or maybe i am.. hangs head in shame. :(

chris.