100% Printed Plane (Rubberband Powered) rev. Nov2@7:45EST
Description
The stringers are lengths of printing filament.
The wings are printed as one Piece so no assembling.
Instructions
1. All parts are designed to fit on a 5x5 inch print table.
2. Printed in ABS at 1.5 micron resolution, using 1.75 filament.
WINGSWITHCENTER FILE is for developmental purposes only.
Assembly:
1. Print the Wings and Tail surfaces bottom side down, on Tissue Paper with NO RAFT.
2. Assemble the Fuselage ribs (interior hole notch up, and an inch apart from centers) by using actual Printer Filament threaded through. CUT 4 pieces of filament 6.5" long. Start with the four corner holes first, Glue filaments to tailend, align them all properly by pushing through 1st fuselage rib. Align properly, glue, then trim 1/2 inch of filaments from otherside of fuselage rib.
3. Then use 8 Pieces of approximately 8" filament again, but zigzaging through the holes as in picture (zigzag provides structural rigidity). Start from the front. Align and glue in place. Then trim excess from behind last fuselage rib.
4. Cover upper surface of wing in tissue paper adhering with glue, and affix to fuselage using filament pins or glue.
5. Bend a piece of wire to form Hook, and insert through Nosecone and Prop, and bend a small 'L' shape (this allows prop to freewheel when gliding. See stl for visual reference.
6. Assemble Tail surfaces and glue or snapfit into tail of fuselage.
7. Loop rubberband length 4 times through loop and hook, make sure it has some slack.
Tips:
1. DONT Glue Nosecone to 1st Fuselage bulkhead. It is designed to fit in place, and the rubberband tension will hold it in place when wound.
2. When printing on tissue paper, make sure it isnt wrinkled. Securely stretch it taught. Or just print normally, and apply bottom tissue manually.
3. A small needlenose pliers and some snips come in handy. Needlenose for pulling the filament through the zigzag, and snips for clipping the extra ends off.
4. A Tip on gluing (for those of you not familiar)- Use a thick or gel type superglue like Gorilla brand and use an accelerator like Zip Kicker. a drop of Zip Kicker on the joint will instantly cure the glue. I use a small pipette or the end of the of the spray tube to dispense it, I dont use the supplied sprayer because it will coat the entire part and then you cant reposition each joint if required.]
Modifications:
1-A. in order to better balance the CG(center of gravity) on the plane, try shortening the rear fuselage by not using all the bulkheads, AND/OR, B. Dont use the zigzagy filaments just the corner ones (be careful about rubberband tension), this also allows the benefit to slide the wings forward or backward if you dont glue that fuselage peice to the stringer filaments. THE CG should be where the wings connect.
Trimming and Flying:
1- Bend tail upwards to create lift(nose up),or downward to dive. The entire Tail assembly is designed so that it can be bent for adjustments relative to the main fuselage body.
2- Wind Prop and toss slightly upward.
Have fun
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I like the wings allot. They printed so nicely and where surprisingly light. 1.4 grams per wing. Would be possible to get a .STP of the wings. I would like to be able to chop it up and print some larger wings. Maybe make a center section to join between for a bigger wing. Looking to make a RC glider.
Silly question, perhaps, but does it fly? It looks kinda heavy.
Of course the answer to that is yes! In fact everything flys! just a simple matter of power to weight ratio, and luckily I made a real beefy fuselage to handle an extra heavy and torquey rubber power source. The real question you wanted to ask was: "What is the Glide Ratio?". :>)
Two questions: (1) Did you use support for the prop blades?
(2) What is the diameter of the filament you are using?
yes I used support for the prop. to remove just work each blade from the hub outward. I reposted a new 5 bladed prop vs. the older 4 bladed one. The new 5 bladed design features a thicker prop tip, so it should be easier to remove the support. Also you might want to scale it down to 80-90 percent.
Also, I use 1.75 filament (I was gonna mention that before, but I forgot). I will post it in the instructions.
Have you printed/tested this? Photos/video plsssss :)
Printing now, made a few minor changes, all the kinks should be worked out.
Changes include:
1. thicker firewall (1st fuselage bulkhead) due to bending
2. More clearance for Nosecone to fit into 1st Bulkhead
3. More clearance for wing mounts to fit onto 3rd bulkhead.
Also redid instructions for easier assembly.
So what does the textured surfaces provide? Seems to me like it would just slow printing.
License

This is a really neat airplane, but I just can't get Skeinforge to slice the fuse parts. It just hangs at 0% progress. Everything else sliced up OK. Has anyone been having this trouble?