Hoochykins Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 Has anyone had any experience with 3D printing a whole model? I'm just beginning the print on the below using Air PLA (not quite as light as LW-PLA but easy to print) and it's looking good. Â http://rc-plans.com/catalog/item313.html https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4273142 Â Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDB Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 Yes and I wonât do it again, PLA is very brittle and the model wonât survive anything other than a perfect landing. Â 3D printing certainly has its place and uses, but in my experience itâs currently too fragile for a whole airframe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Philbrick Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 We have a prolific 3d printer member in our club. He printed a Vulcan for me that has survived for a couple of years. It's a bit like the well known new broom, some parts are original but not all. I agree with PR P they are quite delicate and needs nothing other than a perfect landing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoochykins Posted February 25 Author Share Posted February 25 Was this using LW-PLA or this new Air PLA? Apparently the Air PLA is quite a bit stronger and it does seem quite good at the moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Philbrick Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 The new pla is definitely stronger,but also a bit heavier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoochykins Posted February 25 Author Share Posted February 25 This is the inbetween by the looks of it, it flexes a lot without snapping it would seem:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BRPT2FW8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details  It's impressed me. Only time will tell how it likes being landed hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDB Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 1 hour ago, Hoochykins said: Â Â It's impressed me. Only time will tell how it likes being landed hard. In what way has it impressed you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDB Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 1 hour ago, Hoochykins said: Was this using LW-PLA or this new Air PLA? Apparently the Air PLA is quite a bit stronger and it does seem quite good at the moment They are the same material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoochykins Posted February 25 Author Share Posted February 25 8 minutes ago, PDB said: In what way has it impressed you? Â There's a hell of a lot of bend before it breaks, much less brittle than normal PLA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDB Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 5 minutes ago, Hoochykins said: Â There's a hell of a lot of bend before it breaks, much less brittle than normal PLA Youâve printed an airframe with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoochykins Posted February 25 Author Share Posted February 25 (edited) Yeah I'm printing the fuselage as the moment, Ill get it all printed and assembled then let you know if it's still looking strong but currently it's looking good. Does string a bit but I'll sort that out by adjusting the settings. It's looking positive. Edited February 25 by Hoochykins 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilC57 Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 (edited) I have printed a couple of Planeprintâs models with ColorFabb LW-PLA. After the first one broke apart spectacularly in an area of high stress, Iâve learned that you need to reinforce any potential high stress areas with longitudinal strips (5mm x 1mm) of carbon fibre.  Iâve not had any problems printing LW-PLA with my Ender 3 V2, as long as you follow Planeprintâs instructions to set up the correct profiles in Cura.  Edited February 26 by EvilC57 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBG Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 I have printed and flown a number of 3d printed edf's and gliders most of which were successful. Models printed from PLA can be a bit fragile but I think some of that is due to the way they are designed. I have found that models printed with pre foamed PLA or LW-PLA are more durable as those materials have some flex in them whereas standard PLA is very rigid. Applying 25g/sqm glass cloth applied with WBPU varnish adds greatly to the strength of the models with very low weight increase. I have one very fast edf flying wing which would land quite fast and used to break the fuselage every few flights. Since applying the glass cloth it has flown a number of flights with no problems. Two of the models are shown below. The Fanblade is the model which has had glass cloth applied to the fuselage, the photo was taken before it was done. The Pika was mainly printed from standard PLA but the tail section from the wing aft was printed from pre foamed PLA which saved about 50g of nose weight over a Pika printed purely from standard PLA. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bennett Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 I've printed Eclipson's Model B in both regular PLA and LW-PLA. I did the regular one first because that's the material I had at the time, and if flew very nicely but needed lead in the nose. Something broke on landing though (can't remember what) so I reprinted the fuselage.  In the meantime I printed it using LW-PLA but with a regular PLA nose and rudder for contrasting colour, and transferred the motor and electronics there. That didn't need lead in the nose, was very skittish, and suffered a broken nose when it nosed over on landing. I'm experimenting using CA debonder to remove the damaged nose so I can replace just it, rather than reprinting the whole fuselage. I've now got some other colour LW-PLA so will be using it for the replacement nose, as my experience is it's much more robust than regular PLA. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Lee Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 There were a number of 3D printed aircraft at the RCHotel last year. Joe Anderson was having great success with lightweight & flexible filaments. I was quite impressed with them, certainly a much more viable medium than conventional PLA. I was able to fly the ones below whilst I was there and performance is certainly comparable to conventional constructed models.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoochykins Posted February 26 Author Share Posted February 26 Cheers guys, loads of info. The glass cloth idea is something I will look into depending how this model behaves. I have used the foaming PLA, only this Air PLA so I don't have much to compare it to, might have to grab some just to test with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDB Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 18 hours ago, Hoochykins said: Cheers guys, loads of info. The glass cloth idea is something I will look into depending how this model behaves. I have used the foaming PLA, only this Air PLA so I don't have much to compare it to, might have to grab some just to test with. Be great to hear how you get on with this pre-foamed PLA, worth noting I am not a very experienced pilot so my PLA experience could also be in part due to my rubbish landings. đđ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Printing the parts for an entire model plane sounds attractive but it does not solve the problem of using the same material through out the entire structure coupled with the fact that a printed part has a significant 'grain'. It is stronger and stiffer along the line of the print than across it. In PLA this effect is pretty significant Put all this in the mix and you are bound to end up with a less than ideal plane from a structural point of view. Even a classic balsa built up plane uses different materials where appropriate like different grades of balsa, hardwoods, carbon and aluminium tube as well as glass cloth or a heat shrink polymer..  My own view is to use printed parts including using different print materials where the benefits of the printing process outweigh any structural issues. My own example of this process is in my simple 52" (1320 mm) span "Big Dragon" pusher. Actually built as a follow on to an slightly larger all Depron powered glider to explore and test my 3d printing design skills as well as to hopefully create a more practical plane. The fuselage which includes the wing pylon that has a built in cooling duct for the ESC within it, the motor mount and the battery compartment are all printed in PLA as are the wing ribs. The wings are skinned in 3mm Depron which has a hard balsa spar. The tail boom is a glass fibre tube. The tail surfaces are balsa reinforced sheet foam. It weighs 743g (26oz) with a 2800 mAh 3s on board. Full power is rarely used unless you want to go straight up! The printed components added about 50g compared to the earlier Depron fuselage built up from 6mm thick foam but the PLA is stronger and probably gives better aerodynamics.  If you want to build an RC model airliner printed fuselage formers represents a really economic way to make lots of identical fuselage formers. The clever bit is how to use them!  1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 Nothing to do with planes as such but I was printing a lightweight structural part. Intended to be a single 0.3 mm wall with a 5% "gyroid" infill. The only problem was I had accidentally set the "wall flow" to zero. đ An interesting result. A free standing infill. I can think of no use for such a thing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Chantler Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 On 27/02/2024 at 17:35, Simon Chaddock said:  If you want to build an RC model airliner printed fuselage formers represents a really economic way to make lots of identical fuselage formers. The clever bit is how to use them!   Simon, Looks great đ and tres light đ Is it planked with 3mm foam? Can you let us know what sort of size are the formers are and what you use for a jig? (or is there a build thread?)  Thanks  Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 On 11/03/2024 at 09:38, Simon Chaddock said: Nothing to do with planes as such but I was printing a lightweight structural part. Intended to be a single 0.3 mm wall with a 5% "gyroid" infill. The only problem was I had accidentally set the "wall flow" to zero. đ An interesting result. A free standing infill. I can think of no use for such a thing! Print your own loofah? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 (edited) Mike That fuselage, it is 2.2 m long! was planked in 3mm Depron. There is a build blog for the whole AN124 Ruslan here You will see that I don't use a jig as such but build each part of the fuselage as a "half shell over the plan". The plan has the former positions marked. When the half shell planking is complete it is rigid enough to be lifted and the other half of the formers added. The remainder of the planking is then done "free hand". I would not recommend building something as complex as the AN124 using this process without practicing building several smaller models first. I very much doubt I will ever do anything as big again! Edited March 20 by Simon Chaddock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Chantler Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 Wow, that's an impressive build, missed that one! Quite a challenge!  Not sure I would have so much patience or skill đ Very interesting methods - may borrow some of these đ  Thank you  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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