Spitfire76's Build Log of 3DAeroventure's B17

[Spitfire76]

With a wingspan of 83inches (2108mm) and a length of almost 60"(1520mm) this will be a very ambitious 3dprinted plane build.

I had considered building this B17 for sometime but was put off by the price of the retractable main landing gear (~$650) then a friend and fellow club member asked if I could print the airframe for him. Once printed I will provide him the parts to assemble and fly.

Design by https://www.3daeroventures.com/

Designer's build log on RC Groups

B-17G Flying Fortress - 3DAeroventures - RC Groups

Discussion B-17G Flying Fortress - 3DAeroventures 3D Printed Planes

www.rcgroups.com

 

[Spitfire76]

Fuse1-2 parts printed with 3dlabprint's PolyLight 1.0 LW-PLA (gray). I was able to use the supplied g-codes on my Ender 3 v2 but did add a G29 after the G28 in order to perform the bed leveling. Parts are large so they took a very long time to print. There is also some stringing but is easily removed with a X-Acto knife and is mainly on the inside of the fuselage. The internal supports are printed with Bambu Matte PLA on my Bambu Lab's P1P.

 

[Spitfire76]

The founder of 3DAventures was a special guest on episode 77 of the AviationRCnoob podcast were he spoke about his designs.

Ep 77 - 3DAeroventures with Special Guest Eric Haddad by The Aviation RC Noob

Join Matt and Joe as they sit down with Special Guest Eric Haddad from 3DAeroventures. Eric has designed many 3D printed airplanes and is most recently known for his collaboration with DBT Aero, designing a ⅙ scale Synergy. Discord Become a Patron www.patreon.com/aviationrcnoob There is a...

creators.spotify.com

 

[Spitfire76]

Making some progress with the fuselage

 

[Spitfire76]

I am getting good prints from using the g-code files but ran into a problem with Fuse5. This is the largest of the fuselage files and it was trying to print beyond the right edge of the bed. This is the G-Code loaded into Cura.

The g-codes were generated for a Prusa i3 Mk3 which has a bed X-axis dimension of 250mm whereas I am printing on an Ender3 which is 235mm. The g-codes assume that the X-axis center is 125 mm (250/2) from the home position (0,0 front, left) but really should only be 117.5 (135/2) which if my math is correct it needs to be shifted 7.5 to the left.

It turns out that the fuse5 was not centered on the I3 Mk3 bed either so I needed more that 7.5mm offset so tried it with 30mm.

I replaced the G28 in the original file with the following.

G28 X0 Y0 (home just X and Y to front left
G92 X30 (make it think its already at 30mm to the right)
G28 Z0 (home Z)

I also add a G29 after this as my Ender had the bed leveling feature.

Its printing now although the first layer was not great which I believe might have been to do with having the offset with the auto level.

Its only 13% and has been printing for 3hrs so this will be a 23 hour print.

Eventually I would like to print the LW-PLA parts on my Bambu Lab P1P but at the moment its just easier to use the g-codes on the Ender.

 

[Miguelito900]

It will take you less time to solve it if you open the STL Fuse5 part in Cura and slice your own Gcode.

 

[CrshNBrn]

I printed some of the parts to this plane then filled in the rest with foamboard. It actually flew pretty well until I lost the hatch, battery, and the rest of the plane in a spectacular collision with the ground. Good luck with your build, Spitfire76- its a gorgeous airplane!

 

[Spitfire76]

It will take you less time to solve it if you open the STL Fuse5 part in Cura and slice your own Gcode.

I know but it became a bit of a self imposed challenge to change the G-Code
Anyway thanks for pointing out the original build log on RC Groups.
I have joined that thread and I will try to catch-up with those posts.
I also added that link to the first post of this thread.

 

[Spitfire76]

The LW-PLA parts are lighter than the estimated weights maybe because I am using 3DLabPrint's PolyLight 1.0 instead of ColorFabb's LW-PLA. On the other hand the PLA parts are a bit heavier so hoping it will balance out.

LW-PLA Profile A	Est Weight (g)	Act Weight (g)
Fuse1	40	35
Fuse2	30	25
Fuse3	88	74
Fuse4	92	78
Fuse5	70	60
Fuse6	64	55
Fuse7	62	53
Fuse8	23	21
Fuse9	28	25
PLA Profile B	Est Weight (g)	Act Weight (g)
Fuse Tray 1/2	38	39
Fuse Tray 3	48	56
Fuse Tray 4	36	38
Fuse Tray 5	25	23
Fuse Tray 6	48	47
Fuse Tray 7	20	19
Fuse Tray 8	9	8

 

[Spitfire76]

Printing has continued since my last post .

I got bit distracted by the release of Eclipson's B17 yesterday. It has a smaller wingspan of 1700mm compared to 2100mm for this current build.

Eclipson B-17/ Printable RC warbird

Take flight with our 3D-printed B-17 Flying Fortress — an iconic legend reborn through modern engineering and cutting-edge 3D printing. This highly detailed model captures the scale and presence of the legendary World War II heavy bomber, redesigned for RC enthusiasts who demand both performance...

www.eclipson-airplanes.com

It just looks a bit odd, maybe not as much to scale as the 3DAeroventure version.

 

[Spitfire76]

Its just over a month since I started printing the parts for this plane and I estimate that I am about 90% done. My poor old Ender3 has been printing all the LW-PLA and I have had it running most days and nights. My friend who will build this plane wants to install clear plastic in the window sections so he is looking into that process.

 

[Spitfire76]

 

[Spitfire76]

Its been awhile since I updated this build log but the printing phase is almost done. Just need to print the flaps. The total print time for the LW-PLA is 433.5 hours!.