Pull String Helicopter

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Published on February 18, 2013
This thing was Featured on February 20, 2013

Description

A pull string helicopter that flies well and is easy to assemble.


ABS is the recommended material for best part survival.

As requested SolidWorks 2011 source files are posted. Blade profiles are not optimized. Try to design better shapes that can be easily printed without support and upload your progress!

Instructions

1. Look at the provided pictures to familiarize yourself with the helicopter. It was designed to fly best with the tapered side of the blades down and also the tapered portion of the spool centers the propeller when launching in this orientation.
2. Print all parts and the propeller with the number of desired blades (at this time I have only tried the 5 blade). I printed in ABS using 3 perimeters, 0.2 mm layer height, 25% fill and a 1 cm brim to help hold the tall parts on the print bed. The narrow part of the spool was printed solid. No support was needed if printed in the given orientation. You know your setup best so adjust accordingly.
3. Cut 3.5 ft of string and tie a 2 in loop on each end. A thin strong material is ideal, I used 150 lb test spectra fishing line.
4. Find a rubber band in the 3 in x 0.25 in range, loop it through the bottom of the spool, back through the rubber band and pull snug.
5. Slide the rubber band and spool into the handle and attach one end of the string to the hole in the center of the spool using the same looping procedure. Attach the other end of the string to the pull.
6. Slide the propeller onto the spool, tapered side toward the spool, and wind the string onto the spool. Pull the rubber band through the end of the handle and loop it around the center of the plate. Twist the plate and rubber band a few times so the string retracts and then slide the plate into the handle. At this point the rubber band should not pull too heavily on the spool.
7. Oil the spool so it spins easily in the handle. If not oiled the plastic can friction weld together.
8. Give the helicopter a pull and try not to break too many things.
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I built this at 75% scale with PLA and it works great. I did paint the fins with Krazy Glue to keep them together better, and my only problem so far is that I don't have strong enough fishing line to pull it hard (15lb).

I'm glad you like it. The fins were getting thin at 100%, good job printing at 75%!

I printed it with PLA. The handle was too tall for my printer, so I printed part of it again upside down and glued it onto the first printed partial handle. I couldn't find any thin string, twine or fishing line in the house, so used some entirely unsuitable thick string.

The print looks good! the string could use work.

Just out of curiosity, what function does the rubber band perform?

It holds the spool in the handle and acts as a retract for the string with varying success.

Wow, what an awesome job on this toy. I just came back in from playing with this outside, I had all the neighbor kids trying it and just having a blast.

I'm going to print a bunch of them to hand out to the Neighborhood kids so they can have flying battles!!! Pictures to come soon!

Thank you! I'm glad everyone likes it.

Has anyone printed this in PLA yet? I have done 3 complete prints of the handle and each one has broken with the slightest pressure. I am not sure that PLA lends itself to this without thicker walls on the handle

PLA might not work if the handle is being damaged that easily. I'm also interested because I have never used PLA before. The spool and blades experience large loads when launching and the blades when crashing into things. At this time I will add a note recommending ABS.

The bottom plate is now in the zip. file.

Source files? I'd like to modify. (Also, 3 blade works OK)

Can you use SolidWorks 2011 files? The 5 blade will easily hit the 40 ft. ceilings at work. The bottom plate is in the download list and can be downloaded separately. I’m not sure how to get it into the .zip file. The flat side of the prop should go up for best results.

Having all sorts of issues printing the handle. It doesnt seem to want to slice correctly using slic3r. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I used Slic3r 0.9.8 and it worked fine, is it giving geometry errors?

Nice work!