Originally shared by André Roy
Hi everyone,
Check out my latest progress. This is just a mock up to test fit the ‘fuselage’ parts and check tolerances. I’m designing it like I would design a balsa/ply airplane model. The skin will be made of a combination of thin balsa and later I’ll add shrink wrap (your traditional “Monokote”). I’m currently using Thick CA and kicker to glue the PLA parts together. It works, but there must be something better. I’d normally use epoxy for wood models, but it doesn’t bond that well with PLA.
Here comes some big news! My last post garnered the attention of Brook Drumm of Printrbot. We exchanged a few emails talking about what the design goals of this 3D printed flying wing project were. It was obvious to him that my small build volume was limiting what I could do with this idea. So, he offered to sponsor the project by providing me with a Printrbot Go V2 Large (http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-go-v2/) and filament! I cannot even begin to explain my excitement. Imagine the possibilities with this monstrous 2’x1’x1’ build volume. Check out how big the printer is in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfUf2BcOvCU
Thank you Printrbot! If this project is successful, I’ve got ideas for other designs. Maybe a ducted fan design to make use of the Ducted Fan Design Library.
This means that I’m going to see this project through to a complete and working V1 state. It’s going to be free/open, released under CC BY-SA which will liberate it to the community (that’s us). I’m not quite ready to release my design files yet, but I will be very soon. I need to clean them up and organise them first.
I’m also hoping that OpenRC will adopt my design into it’s fold. I think the melding of traditional balsa/ply built-up model building techniques with 3D printing is pretty novel, even if it’s obvious, as I haven’t seen any other examples via my google searches. Anyway, I hope you guys are excited to see the progress over the coming few months.
Cheers!
lol