Hello everyone. I have a project idea that I'd like your feedback on.

Honestly it might just be better to lasercut the parts.

I’ve refined my plan a bit. This is really two projects. The first project is the trike frame and mechanical parts. The second is the full fairing body. The trike frame seems it would be obviously better made via traditional welding construction. I’ve reached out to some frame builders to find out what that will cost. I’m still looking into using printed CF lugs, but it’ll take some analysis and testing to figure out if they’d be safe or not. The fairing body can be entirely 3D printed, so I think that’s what I’ll focus on here.

Sounds like a plan :slight_smile:
Now, you don’t need to print on a big bed, its just easier. The thing with having a machine do all the hard work is there’s a much smaller error margin, so a standard 200x200 print bed is likely to be fine, you just chop up the model (which is fairly sensible anyway as then you can moderate the amount of supports that are needed) to fit with multiple print runs and glue it all together.

You’ll want to account for the fact that there is an inherent weakness at the join though, of you don’t know of it already, have a google for puzzle cut 3d printing :wink:

The advantage of printed CF lugs instead of molded CF lugs is that I wouldn’t have to manually wrap layers of CF sheets, cure them, trim them, etc.

B Once, that would work for all but the windows. Those will need to be printed in single objects. The largest window would define the dimensions needed for the printer.

That said, I’m ok with a larger printer because I’d also like to design wind turbines and other large objects. :slight_smile:

Well, hiring a frame builder to weld the frame looks unlikely to happen. The ones in my area want $1000 to $2000 as a deposit to even get started, with even more money due upon completion. At that rate I may as well save up for a ready made trike to build a body around. Part of the allure of a custom build, for me, is the ability to alter the geometry and try again. I think CF lugs is going to have to do.

Brook, would you be willing to talk outside of here? Maybe email or hangouts?