3D Printing

Something I should have checked before starting the P-47 project has now put a stop to it. I should've checked the availability of the servoless retracts. Apparently they come from Hobby King, apparently they haven't been available for several months, and Hobby King won't commit to an availability date either.
Perhaps all the previous print failures were trying to tell me something?

HobbyKing are virtually out of everything or anything useful. I blame Trump and his trade war or Hong Kong playing up.

3DLabPrint sent me an offer yesterday...20% off the price of their new model called Joker. Its a 1.7M sort of hotliner/electric glider. It uses Corona thin wing servos and a 9 X 6 folding prop/spinner assembly, both items from the well known warehouse! I checked with HobbyKing, both items are on back order. The video of the model being built is interesting,( the parts take 84hrs to print) at last they've got the joints easier to assemble and probably a lot stronger than plain butt joints as used on the P_47. The attention that they've paid to aiding construction is quite encouraging, the new method eliminates all the slight misalignments between sections. There are a couple of videos of the model, and if you look around, there is a video of the prototype, which looks all "pale and frail" as its made from translucent PLA. It was indeed "frail" as during the second test flight, the rear fuselage broke off during a fairly tight turn. The "production" model has a 6mm diameter carbon tube from the wing root to the end of the fuselage. Definitely worth thinking about, must be a source other than HobbyKing, pretty grim if an alternative isn't available. The P_47 project is on hold until I can source suitable retracts, thats the snag with a printed model, there's no chance at all of modifying the printed parts to accept an alternative unit.
I thought the Joker would be a good model to carry on with, perhaps there are suitable alternatives to the recommended prop and servos, we'll see!

I was looking at the P_47 wing parts yesterday, bit fed up with the whole thing, then I realised that I could tape over the U/C mount slots and wheel wells, and with luck, the model might survive until the proper retracts are delivered.
Filled with new but misplaced enthusiasm, I downloaded the program for the ailerons and elevators, loaded the printer and pressed "GO". I didn't do any pre-processing of the files, according to the designers, their files are meant to be used straight into the printer, I have an e-mail that confirms it too! According to the program, the parts would take about 23 hours to complete. Fortunately I checked the progress after a couple of hours. The picture says it all. From the state of things, it looked as though the program had overridden the crash detection built in to the printer. I must be missing something vital somewhere, it would seem that I can manage to print almost anything apart from model aeroplane parts.

Brian wrote: . I must be missing something vital somewhere.

Time to scour over all the details again. I am sure you will find a click box that will sort that out. Off subject slightly. A similar sort of fiasco! I have just bought a new digital midi music controller and it seems I am so far behind with the tec now, I am wondering if I am ever going to get the hang of it. Apparently you now have to "map" all the keys and pads to the software instruments and so on..... In the old days you just plugged in the midi leads from one keyboard/synthesiser to another and select which one is master and which bank you want to use. Oh well, cold days and wet days will give me a chance of figuring it out.

I was hoping you might go back to the Black Wing again.

Alas the Black Wing! I was too keen and too soon. Shortly after printing the model, we went to Australia for a couple of months. When we came home and I eventually got back to reality and the contents of my shed, I found that the flimsy sections of the Black Wing had warped quite badly. I messed around trying to align one section with another, but it was completely hopeless. A shame, the Eclipson Black Wing is the only model to have printed out straight from the designer's files without any problems. Things are on hold at the moment as I'm waiting for a delivery of suitable PLA filament. Looking around for alternative designs, I came across an outfit called PlanePrint.com. They have an interesting website and they offer a test print and all the info on how to do it. I just had to give it a go didn't I?
The designers are adamant that the only program that works with their designs is "Cura". I found that they are absolutely right. I tried their test print using different programs, the results were amusing but inconclusive. I downloaded and installed Cura and tried using the simple instructions provided, but this didn't work at all well. Finally I found a video of setting up all the parameters, instead of four or five simple instructions, the real set-up took an A4 page of notes. I generated what the designers call a Profile for the print. I printed the test piece, to my surprise it was just about perfect.