Newbie wanting to create a 3d printed aircraft

NathanSchool

New member
Hello! I'm a new user who is interested in creating a 3d printed aircraft using lightweight PLA filament. I was wondering which resources/recommended products to buy when starting out.
I am interested in buying a brushless motor/esc to power the plane.
 

JasonK

Participation Award Recipient
Hello! I'm a new user who is interested in creating a 3d printed aircraft using lightweight PLA filament. I was wondering which resources/recommended products to buy when starting out.
I am interested in buying a brushless motor/esc to power the plane.

have you flown anything yet? I wouldn't recommend starting with a 3D printed plane. When you start, you will be crashing. Foam board planes can often bounce right off the ground and maybe need a tiny repair to be back flying again. 3D printed, your reprinting parts and rebuilding after [just about] any crash.

Otherwise above link for the free eclipson model is a good place to start with 3D printed planes.
 

Aslansmonkey

Well-known member
As has been mentioned, if you are completely new to RC aircraft, start with a foamboard plane. You WILL crash a lot starting out and FB planes can take the hit much better and are easily repairable. 3D printed planes tend to shatter when crashing and while they won't be completely destroyed, much of the time the broken component will need to be replaced because it's beyond repair. Trust me, I know. My Eclipson Model A is three different colors now.

That said, the model A linked above is a fantastic place to start. The design itself is free and it goes together pretty well. It's a very solid flyer and has excellent glide characteristics. Too good at times, actually, because when you bring it in to land it will often overshoot your target landing area because it glides that good.

For a more scale appearance, the Eclipson Model B is also a good plane and flies well.

I've used Colorfabb LW-PLA mostly. You'll have to do some test printing on like a wing part (I believe Eclipson actually provides a test part) to dial in the print settings for the material. It'll take a few tries to get the stringing down to an acceptable level as foaming filaments like to string a lot. I can pretty reliably print at 50% extrusion now, however, which makes for a nice light plane. While this stuff is more expensive than regular PLA, keep in mind you're using about HALF the filament for the same part over regular PLA. You can expect to get 2 complete airplanes out of each roll of LW-PLA.

I've also used Polymaker light weight PLA. This stuff is "pre-foamed" so you just print with regular PLA settings. They claim it's something like 65% the weight of regular PLA but the one test part I did as a comparison was closer to 75%. I printed the entire Eclipson Model B in this stuff however and it flies rather nice. Polymaker is probably a little stronger structurally than the Colorfabb stuff but at the cost of more weight. Personally, I don't think the strength is that much better though and I don't expect to be buying more Polymaker for plane use. I print a lot of parts for model rockets, however, and the Polymaker is excellent for that.

Note that many 3D airplanes still have parts made with other materials too. My Model B for instance has PETG spars and landing gear parts and TPU tires. But 95% of the plane is the light weight PLA.

Another consideration for 3D printed planes is that you need to have a balanced prop and motor set up. Or more specifically, you need to have a motor/prop combo that doesn't vibrate a lot. Foamboard absorbs these vibrations and just makes for a noisier flight. 3D printed planes tend to get torn apart by the vibrations. It's a little disconcerting to throttle up for launch and have the motor rip itself out of the front of the plane because the vibrations tore the mounts apart. Did I mention my Eclipson model A is multi colored? Yeah, one of them is the nose.

For reference I've included photos of the Model A and Model B. The Model A was originally red and yellow. Sections damaged beyond repair were replaced with green (because I was out of red and yellow by that time). All the LW PLA on the Model A is Colorfabb LW-PLA. The model B was printed with the Polymaker stuff.

I've also made a 3d Labprint Savage Bobber (flew, but crashed on landing and basically disintegrated), A 3daeroventures micro sportcam (never got it to fly), and a 3D labprint Piper Cub (almost but not quite got it to fly). Of those the Bobber was the closest to success as I actually had a good maiden flight with it and flew it for 10 minutes maybe. But it was a gusty day and landing was not it's friend. Did I mention 3d Planes tend to shatter on crashing? Yeah...that. The sport cam died mainly due to electrical issues, not crashing. It actually survived several tumbles quite well. The cub I had trouble getting to maiden, but that, I am sure, was more me than the plane. I've never had much luck with cubs.
 

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Petfixer71

New member
There is an overwhelming amount of 3D printing info onsite.... I am specifically worried about how to modify the G codes .... (see below) explained on Eclipson site. .....

just would love some words of wisdom from experienced printers.
 

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