Printed wing ribs

[Arcfyre]

Howdy folks-

Been absent from the forums for a while, but I wanted to share my most recent project. I used onshape (free online CAD) to design a wing rib, then had my buddy print out a few copies for me on his 3D printer. I designed the wing rib to make use of 1/4" balsa sticks for the leading and trailing edges. The main spar is designed around using a commonly available wooden yardstick from any big box hardware store. Each rib is 3mm thick, and the rib has a chord length of 8 inches. Adding on ailerons brings the overall chord to 9 inches.

I've flown it and it performs very well. Super simple build and it is very nicely scalable. I threw it on a spare fuselage I had laying around but I think I'll build something dedicated for this wing. I also have ideas kicking around about building a biplane version. Here are some pictures of the process:

 

[danskis]

Very nice and l'm sure it flies great. A guy at one of the fields I fly at printed everything for a "stick and tissue" type plane, wings, stringers and bulkheads, but on a much smaller scale than yours.

 

[quorneng]

I have done similar although a slightly different rib design due to its "built in" spar construction.
The rib in CURA.

The half wing showing the ribs glued onto the 3mm Depron lower skin that has a 3mm Balsa spar flange incorporated in it.
Note the 3 & 6mm Depron shear webs inserted between the ribs and the preformed Depron front upper skin.

The "D" box in place as well as the tapered top balsa spar flange.

It incudes a printed dihedral joining assembly. Once the "D" box glue is set the wing can be safely handled.
The rear Depron skin only goes on once the aileron servo is in place and its wire run through the ribs.
The completed 52" (1321 mm) wing on a 3d printed fuselage pusher.

With a passable motor glider performance it also has a max 350W available for its 750 g (1.6 lbs) all up weight, giving 210W/lb so it has "unlimited vertical" too.