Hi,
This is my first RC3DPrint.com print, but I've done plenty of others and have a well tuned set of cura profiles for my ender and cr-10. I've downloaded the Piagio and the 337 to do some test prints on parts. I'm really interested in a couple things with your designs compared to others which I thought was really clever, but wondered if they could be optimised?
Fuselage - The print is double walled, which makes it strong, I thought using 3% infill was a clever strategy as it saves you from creating the structure. Was wondering if there was a way to design the fuse so that it was single wall, but we can keep the cubic fill pattern for strength, that would save a lot of weight.
Wing/Stab etc - Again with these structures I've left the 3% infil as per the pilatus PDF instructions, is that your intention? It's an ingenious idea once again, just wondering if there's a way we can lighten those structures as well?
Thanks, and can I compliment you on making the experimental designs $1 for community feedback, that's very clever, and more than happy to contribute a little to getting unique designs like this off the ground - pun intended.
Whilst I'm here, I've always wanted to build a LongEZ, they are very unique high performance design that would complement your growing stable of unusual aircraft which I would encourage you to pursue.
Thanks again,
Matt
Always handy to have a mate for the test flights especially. I've seen some people use a launch dolly which is handy if you're by yourself. That being said I've launched plenty of airplanes into the ground :)
Thanks Jon, I'm glad I'm printing it the way you had envisaged. I've only printed a few planes so far. I'll finish printing the Piaggio this week all being well, will see how it comes out as far as weight then and will try some of your suggestions if we need to. Usually my solution to weight is MORE POWER! And we can usually solve CG problems moving the battery around. Thanks again for your efforts. I'll post some build photos soon if you're interested. Cheers!
Hi Matt,
Firstly let me say, thanks for taking the time to write down your ideas, I really appreciate it.
1/ Fuselage, great minds think alike! I had this game thought as well and spent about a week designing this geodesic structure for my Grumman Mallard seaplane.
When I put it through the slicer I found that the weight saving wasn't as significant as I had hoped, but more importantly, there were many little overhangs, and occasionally parts that would have required large supports. I will keep looking at it though, ideally there would be a setting in Cura that simply leaves out the inner wall.
The aircraft below is SULSA. pretty much the first ever 3D Printed plane, you can see the geodesic structure inside as you were proposing. The team behind this used Laser Sintering to build it so didn't suffer from the overhang problem.
2/ For the Stab etc. I have started printing the control surfaces with 0% infill, this seems to work and reduces the weight a little - A better way of doing it is to print in "vase" mode (spiralize outer contour) as it saves loads of time, you then need to print the top of the part though and glue it on as this mode leaves the top off. 0% infill may also have a problem with the walls on the hinge holes at the top of the print.
Depending on the model, I think you could print the vertical and horizontal stabs in that way.
For the 337 I would advise printing all four vertical stabs and the elevator control surface with 0% infill. This will help move the empty CoG forward too.
For the Piaggio, the vertical stab carries a bit of load so I would leave the infill there. Ailerons and elevator could be 0% though.
Thank for your feedback - I guess in an ideal world I would be able to do all the testing and flying myself before putting the planes out there but I have realised I'm unable to do that for one reason or another. I hope this way people can enjoy be planes sooner and we can develop them along the way.
Long EZ is on my list 😁.
Cheers,
Jon