3D Printing

The Joker is almost complete! Bit frustrating this week, I ordered some small but vital parts last week expecting them to arrive by at least Wednesday. Had a 'phone call yesterday, the usually efficient people seem to have caught "HobbyKingitis" and at this late time have told me there's no stock of one item, so they are holding the order until they have everything.. I'm going to have to take up a hobby that doesn't involve trying to get bits that are advertised but are unobtainable.
Today I made up the pushrods for ailerons and flaps by rummaging through boxes of "useful stuff" that hadn't seen daylight since I don't know when. Finally managed to assemble four clevises, four bits of threaded rod and amazingly, four M2 hex nuts. The design really needed two clevises per pushrod, but I had to make do with one clevis and a "Z" bend at the servo end of the rod. I held the ailerons and flaps with masking tape while fitting the pushrods, I don't think I'll need to dismantle anything when I finally get to fit the elusive cyano type hinges.
The wings slid into place with no fuss, but a snag arose with the canopy. This fits the fuselage when the wing isn't in position, there isn't any mention of adjusting the wing centre section where it butts on to the fuselage, but sanding off a couple of millimetres was the only way to get the canopy to sit neatly. Finally, sanding off about 3mm from the rear face of the wing centre section made enough room for the canopy to settle with its front edge level with the seating in the fuselage, and the moulded detent at the front to give a gentle "pop" as it located.
With everything apart from the receiver and prop blades on board, the weight came out at 1230 grams, I was surprised as the model feels quite heavy. With mistakes and re-makes, the printing time was a few minutes over 90 hours, I didn't keep a record of the time to assemble the "bits".
The next episodes of the Joker story will be on a different Forum, it might be a mention of a remarkable first flight at Cashmoor, but it is more likely to be in "Tales of Stupidity".

Nice work Brian. Looking forward to the maiden sometime this year. I nearly always use suppliers who actually hold stock rather than show items to fill their web shop catalogue. On the other hand you could have saved 90 hours and bought a HK Phoenix 1600 PNP :lol:

Latest from Eclipson. Looks good, shame about the peeling graphics, seems to be a problem with PLA, doesn't like "sticky backed plastic"

www.eclipson-airplanes.com/mxs-r?utm_cam...8a-8a85-fcfd1e24ff78

Since last March, the 3D printed Joker has done nothing but collect dust. I lost a good deal of enthusiasm for the project when I realised (too late) that the model isn't a powered glider at all. It is in fact something called a "Hotliner". A model that whizzes about at high speed isn't really what I like to fly. I suppose with the motor/ESC removed it would make a reasonable slope soarer, but that would take some thought and extra work to accomplish. As I'm not into either disciplines it seems as though I've printed and built a bit of a lost cause. However, all isn't lost as I gained a lot of experience with it.

Is it ready to go Brian? Got to be worth bringing it up to Cashmoor for a maiden.

I'll have a look at it tomorrow Phil, I think it needs the aileron and flap linkages coupled up. Apart from that an "Intrepid Aviator" for the maiden.
Its been a funny year so far, the 3D printer hasn't been used all that much. Some of the stuff I printed late last year has warped to the point of being useless, I found that a heat gun just made things worse. I had hoped to build an Eclipson Black Wing, but that buckled and had to be scrapped. I tried to print an Icon-A5 but that was pretty dismal, so I gave it up and spent a lot of time on the SIG Kadet. However, I was introduced to the "joys" of flying from water, added floats to my 20yr old Lazy Bee and proceeded to sink it three times in a row. The model will taxy very nicely, but the normally docile flight turns into a thrashing nightmare when trying to get it off the water, hence the triple dunking. Now I've taken another look at the Icon-A5, had some dialogue with the designers, added the modifications to the printer profiles that they suggested, and as if by magic, the printer is churning out one usable part after another. The advantage of having an Icon is that it can take off from dry grass.
Getting back to the Joker, I think it'll need a day when the wind is steady and straight up or down the runway, I must keep a better weather watch.

The summer and autumn sort of just drifted away and I didn't get a lot of 3D printing done. To complicate things, I was lured away from my shed by the delights offered by IKEA, in particular "Kitchens". Fortunately everything has been built/fitted/commissioned/ and almost approved by the lady of the house. Perhaps now I can get back to trying to print a model aeroplane. After getting success with the Icon-A5 prints, I read an article on the new lightweight PLA. Unfortunately, the designers of the Icon don't recommend it. So I stopped working on the Icon, and ordered some LW-PLA. This took some weeks to arrive as the stuff comes from Germany. In the meantime I found that an outfit called Eclipson have issued mods to their original files to incorporate settings for the lightweight material. Just for fun I downloaded the Eclipson Model T, it isn't anything spectacular, just a routine sort of aeroplane, but it does have the choice of undercart, wheels or floats. The unfortunate episode with my Lazy Bee at Longham last summer didn't deter me from choosing the float option. The airframe is all lightweight PLA, but the floats and supporting structure are regular PLA. The floats have printed quite nicely, and so have the wings. I haven't weighed the wing assembly yet, but some of the parts, like the ailerons are unbelievably light. If I can remember to charge the camera battery, I'll post some photos of the progress.

The wings for the Eclipson Model T weigh 132g. Quite light for a 1.16 metre span. The parts have printed with a distinct wavy effect on the wing sections, but the frail aileron parts are quite straight. The waves are symmetrical and are the same for the left and right halves of the wing. The wing tips weigh 18g and the aileron 7g, being 4g for the part with the built-in horn. The appearance is quite nice, reminded me of Chinese prawn crackers, but there's a tendency to string with some parts like the location tabs. According to the designers, using lightweight PLA will save 260g. I won't be saving quite that much as the floats are standard material.

Once again a long time has passed since I fired up the PRUSA printer. A Spring and Summer spent on refurbishing three newly acquired models, slopping preserver on fences and erecting new trellis panels, didn't leave much time for other disciplines. Back in the depths of last Winter I was asked to print a figure in wood filled PLA
This took a fair time to set up, but was fairly successful and the printer churned out several items. The "thing" is called Groot, and is something to do with Marvel comics. Unfortunately, wood filled resin is prone to block the small 0.4mm nozzle of the printer. One morning I went to check a print that had been left unattended for a couple of hours, the shed had a definite odour of burned wood, and the printer was busy printing nothing at all at some distance above the bed. The blockage had done more than bung up the nozzle, the complete heater block was a mess of burned on resin. Since then, all I've done is order replacement parts and soon I'll strip out the old block and replace it. Its fortunate in a way, the new parts are of an improved design, so with luck, further prints will be a bit better.
So far I haven't had a lot of luck with my choice of aeroplanes to print. The Joker from 3DLabPrint was easy to print and the assembly method gave an accurate model, but the model itself is rather heavy and I've seen two videos where the model disintegrates in flight. I've tried to print models from Eclipson, but I seem to be unable to understand their complicated setup chart, consequently the prints aren't quite right and aren't usable. I've tried printing parts for models by PlanePrint, once again, the setting up is a bit complex and mistakes are all too easy. However, the test parts were encouraging and I decided to choose a model that would use a 70mm 12 blade EDF. Unfortunately the model needs trike retracts, even more unfortunately these are "available" from HobbyKing. They have been on order for nearly four months, the mains came a few weeks ago, but until the steerable nose unit arrives, there's no point in starting the model, unless I ditch the U/C and rely on hand launching.

Hand launch preferably near long grass initially. This may be of interest to you 70mm EDF retract set ex my old Habu 2. You also may have been better off getting some retracts from Motion RC. EU rather than from China.