Where is it?

[Hai-Lee]

Have you ever been unable to find that accessory to finish that urgent build, (normally just as the weather breaks and tomorrow will be the best flying day of the year? You know that you have the part but for some reason you just cannot locate it! You could spend an inordinate amount of time searching fruitlessly for it, (especially if your workshop is arranged like mine). You could jump in the truck and make a mad dash to the local hobby shop hoping that they have stock of the item you require. You could spend time searching for appropriate materials to hand make a piece to suit.

But then if you have a 3D printer all you need is the STL file and you can scale and print almost any piece you may require. Sure you can jump onto thingiverse and search for something that you can make work but then not everything there is free or designed for use with FB creations.

Herein I call upon all of those closet 3D creators to post their creations for use on FT FB Creations. I know that I have a number already! So I will start the ball rolling with something that no one else seems interested in and that is a temporary bungee hook which can be either taped into position or glued/screwed subject to your requirements. For tape or glue I recommend that you print it with a skirt to increase contact area, (not mandatory but some models I bungee launch are quite large, (up to 5 pounds weight).

Here it is:


More to come but I will wait to see if others wish to contribute first!

Have fun!

 

[Hai-Lee]

No volunteers as yet! Oh well!

Here is another to stir the pot. A Hinge for use in adding SPLIT FLAPS to an existing FB wing.
Just print a number of the attached piece, (minimum of 3 for each hinge point to be fitted.
2 of the pieces are glued to the wing undersurface at the trailing edge of the underside piece with a gap between them sufficient to allow the fitment of a hinge piece between them, (free to move). The third piece is glued to the flap which can be either Balsa, sheet plastic or even printed to suit. (a flat piece to covet the area of the flap to be fitted). A printed flap can include the control horn as part of the print of course.
The pieces for each hinge point are "PINNED" together with a piece of thin music wire or paper clip etc with a "Z" bend so that the tail of the wire can be taped to the underside of the Flap itself.

Have fun!

 

[Hai-Lee]

Last post for today!
Have you ever glued the vertical fin on crooked and had some strange handling issues? Have you ever glued the tail members on the fuselage only to notice that they do not line up with the wing? Well even though I have built over 100 FB models I still had those very same issues. To me it was not good enough! I needed something that would hold things in place while the glue dried and could be used at anytime to check alignments.

Attached is what I quickly threw together. It is designed to be held by clamps or pegs to the horizontal stab with the slot holding the vertical fin to ensure that everything is square while the glue dries/sets. The 2 small shelves are so you can place a small spirit level upon them to check for angular differences between the wing and the tail to again ensure that all is square.

It is a little rough but a little work with some fine sandpaper of a file can remove any burrs or the like. It has paid for itself over and over as now I have almost zero defects when building or repairing.

Hope it helps those who chose to try it!

Have fun!

 

[sprzout]

Hai,

I have a few things I've used; I'll add the files when I get home. I've got a 45 degree bevel cutter that I found on Thingiverse, as well as control horns and firewalls that I've used. That's primarily what I've 3D printed, but I'm sure there are a few more...

 

[sprzout]

Here we go...

Bevel Cutter, courtesy of Thingiverse:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1412887

This one works really nicely at getting a good beveled edge, and I don't feel like I'm cutting too deeply. I do recommend practicing on some scrap first before you make that first cut, just so you understand how it works; the nice thing is it just uses a standard utility knife blade, like what you'd find in a box cutter and can buy at Lowe's or Home Depot for roughly $10-$15 for 100 of them (I'm not sure of the European equivalent, Hai-Lee, but I'm sure you know of a home improvement store that you can recommend LOL).

Control Horn - This is my own design; there are others out there on Thingiverse, but I trust my own since I made them using the same dimensions as the ones that were laser cut in plywood from FT. I'm funny that way. I've tested it (hence the Mark VI or Mark 6 version) and it works GREAT.

Firewall - This template I made myself because I noticed that I needed slightly smaller holes than what I had with the firewalls on plywood, to screw my motors to them. The screws that came with my various motors (not from Flite Test) seemed to have a slightly smaller thread than the holes that were cut, and so the screws didn't want to bite and hold the motor on. I'd give a bit of throttle, and the motor would pull off of the firewall. So, I changed the hole sizes just slightly, and voila. If you need them a little bigger, feel free to drill it out or adjust the STL. Or don't; I'm not going to be offended if you don't use my parts.

 

[Stevo430687]

Thanks for the link to thingiverse. That's the ticket...

 

[Kendalf]

I have a few designs and I've been looking for a thread to share them. Perhaps renaming this thread would help. I had no idea what this thread was about other than that @Hai-Lee posted it!

 

[Openair1985]

I want to share and offer assistance in designing 3D modeling of various designs, if anyone needs help, write to the contacts