..many times you have to make parts before the other parts that need to go on before the parts that you need to fit to get the job done. This was one of them. Needed to make more hinges. Not difficult, just fiddly, and a bit dodgy, since I try to cut them on the lathe, with a dodgy china cutting wheel going full speed. However, hats of to the china-folk, I have not had a single one fail on me. So far I have used approx 20 odd discs on this project.
cutting some hinge-parts.
After checking the tail, I noticed the main spar was bend. This appears to be almost inevitable when you heat bits. I decided to simply cut the middle, and add a sleeve. Problem sorted. My metal working skills don’t go so far that I can predict how much distortion I will get. Of course I could make very expensive, very heavy jigs. yup, I could..
fudge, I had to cut the front, because the rear was not straight after brazing..
A bit of a showoff.. Starting to look like it wants to fly!
1569 gram, still smiling
Just one more weighing session. 1569 grams as seen here. Good stuff!
enough done for today!
And I am calling it a day. All in all it does not seem much, but I am happy with it! The section above weighs 300 gram. As a comparison: the ”light” elevator from my 2.5 meter Extra weighs also 600 grams. Ok, there’s 2 servo’s included in that figure, but still..
Finished the rest of the elevators today, another milestone reached! Also bolted the motor back on to get a feel for the CG. At the moment I am still slightly nose-heavy, so things are good! I don’t expect to have to add any of the grey gravity stuff.
yes, that’s 288 grams!That’s the elevator horn-thingy sticking out there. Added a bit of wrap around as well.
The rear stabilizer mount consists of a single bolt, as per original, the front is made up of a few gussets. I probably simplify that part. Not sure how, but simpler as original. (too many small bits that fall apart when you heat things up, is the main reason)
AcrodusterComments Off on Lets make some tail bits.
Oct262019
The plans call for square tube at a few locations. I don’t think it will be a problem to use round tubing. As usual, use what you got! I also don’t think I have enough space for the 2 central bearings, another fudge expected there.
remember: full size! ..bend some tubes..
My template has a more rounded outline at the outer elevator. Might have to redo it, since the big one has a smaller radius.
test fit, looking good...and preparing for the next fun parts
I’m trying to get the steps needed to get this fuselage shape drawn documented. This will be the part that the undercarriage has to connect to.
Insert the imageScale it to the correct dimensionsShift it to the 0,0 origin (just for easiness)Draw a B-Spline curveDo another and shift it backwards 190mmSelect curved shapes, identify the 2 lines, and voila!
The back curve should have a sharper corner, I’ll work on that. Next step is adding the leg and try the fillet parts…
And we have a leg. Next the hardest part yet, a smooth transition between leg and fuselage.
3D printComments Off on It ain’t working the way I want it to..
Oct082019
I’ve come to a grinding halt with OpenSCAD. Pity, but so is life. I learned a lot, and maybe, just maybe there are tricks to do what I want, but since my maths-magic is not that strong, I have decided to stop using it for this project. For quick jobs it certainly does work great. But as soon as you want complicated surfaces, it no longer has the ability (I don’t have the ability) to make it work for me.
But there is an alternative. For too long I have put off using Freecad. Mostly because it takes a lot of learning. So as always, jump in and stick with it. I generally know what I wanted to do. Trace an image (scale it of course) and create a form that can be manipulated. Some tracing something usually involves lots of not so straight lines and curves, the magic words are B-Splines. But between ” it can do that’‘ and something that can be used by me, takes a few hours of hard labor.
Anyway, before I loose it, here is the first ”thing” I made, basically the front part of the fuse, extended backwards. Next I need to copy that to a similar shape, but with slightly different bottom section. It sounds easy. Yes, in a few years I will say that.
The shape I created peeking through the image I used as template.
..and in between I had a pc that blew up, not sure if it is hardware or software, time will tell!
3D printComments Off on This part time retirement is fun!
Oct012019
Another day of shed-time, life is good! Continued cleaning up, while the print-slave does it’s printing. (don’t want to leave him alone, in case the dreaded grey electronic smoke escapes. As is well known: All electronic equipment works by the grace of the grey electronic smoke contained therein. As soon as it escapes, your system stops working!)
Anyway, as I said yesterday, I’m not having much luck with Simplify3D, maybe it always was like this, maybe I just forgot. Whatever, Cura in it’s present incarnation does the job very well indeed. Never a bad thing to have another slicer to fall back on. So today was undercarriage day. Got one legwarmer printed properly, weight is 30 grams. 2 walls, and 8% infill. The 1st one had 4 walls with weight to match (60 odd gram)
The next step is designing the cuffs between legs and fuselage. It looks complicated (it is) but if you start with simple forms, and add on from that, it should all be ok in the end. It’s just a matter of stacking the right size of cylinders, cubes and various other bits of magic together. (Hey, I have to convince me-self that it is simple.)
The end result is sitting in front of the screen, but this black PLA is impossible to photograph, so take my word for it, it’s nice 😉
multitasking!Cura sliced the Openscad design on the right, finished object in the front.
..and no, I have not stopped working on the SA750, this is all part of the fun. I need to make that turtledeck, and the nose-cowl, and various other bits. So, it’s all part of the same game! (oh, and who knows, a driver?
As always I manage to find the bugs.. Just do quick test for the PT-17 legwarmers.
The design was easy, so what can go wrong. I have been using Simplify3D for a long time, always did what I asked it to do. Until now. I asked it to print this very simple structure, but for reasons only known to it’s inner self, it prints the outline and infill and ignores the internal tube. Ok, well if you don’t want to play, there’s always Cura. And lo and behold, Cura plays nice. Ah well, so I let Cura do the slicing and upload the result directly to the Octopi, and all is well. Pity this is, because I really like(d) Simplify for other reasons. I guess I’ll have to dive into the interwebs to find out the why..
Meanwhile, my Printslave is doing it’s bestest.
important bits of code are there, so that I don’t loose them!..always fun to let others see glimpses of the workshop 😉
yeah, I need to add some lights at the back of the camera, now where did I put those leds again?
oh, yes the link to the original code: https://github.com/ErroneousBosch/OpenSCAD_airfoil
3 reasons, Ed asked my if I could do something for his latest project, and I really fancy those 1970’s looking flared undercarriage pants as well. So, bite the bullet, and do some thinkings. I found what appears to be a good starting point on github, so let’s see if we can do this. The greatest hurdle for me is the design phase, once I have the .stl file it’s simple.
The 3rd reason is that I am knackered from working in the garden today, SWMBO decided that the path that runs around the garden needs moving.
The program as is does allow multiple profiles sections, but it does divide then equally along the span. Not what I need. So we have two options, fix the code, or make the pants into multiple sections. The first method will require brain-cell activity, we go with that!
28 sept: It’s a bit of a slow week with other jobs taking priority, but things are progressing. Taking the road less traveled is definitely keeping the braincell entertained. I learned a lot the past few days. I managed to get the turtledeck drawn, and I thought it was then only a matter of printing. Oh the folly of innocence..
it really looks great, measurements are correct, just print it..of course it does not fit in my printer, but I knew that.
..so what is the challenge? When I import the .stl the ‘skin’ is either to thin, so that the printer does not see it. (less then the 0.4 mm orifice of the printhead.), or if I make the part thicker is starts to complain in a language I do not want to repeat..
/*
Construction of the turtledeck for the SA750.
Date: 28 sept, 2019
Inspiration: https://openhome.cc/eGossip/OpenSCAD/lib-bezier_surface.html
OpenSCAD 2019.08.04
All rights as usual, do as you please, it's open source.
*/
include <bezier_curve.scad>;
include <bezier_surface.scad>;
include <function_grapher.scad>;
t_step = 0.01; // smoothness, might be too much for real life printing.
thickness = 0.1;
width = 0.1;
inch=25.4; // is an inch
scale=0.33; // my scale
// refer to fuse stations on full size.
sta75= 0;
sta100=25*inch*scale;
sta120=45*inch*scale;
sta125=50*inch*scale;
sta129=54*inch*scale;
/*
Draw the approx formers on a piece of grid paper, and take the coordinates from there.
*/
formers = [
//former at sta75
[[-109,0,sta75],[-100,36,sta75],[-80,82,sta75],[-60,105,sta75],[-40,124,sta75],[-20,136,sta75],
[0,140,sta75],
[20,136,sta75],[40,124,sta75],[60,105,sta75],[80,82,sta75],[100,36,sta75],[109,0,sta75]],
//former at sta100
[[-75,0, sta100],[-60,55,sta100],[-40,92,sta100],[-20,105,sta100],[-10,120,sta100],
[0,150,sta100],
[10,120, sta100],[20,105,sta100],[40,92,sta100],[60,55,sta100],[75,0,sta100]],
//former at sta120
[[-55,0,sta120],[-30,30,sta120],[-20,43,sta120],[-10,46,sta120],
[0,50,sta120],
[10,46,sta120],[20,43,sta120],[30,30,sta120],[55,0,sta120]],
//former at sta125
[[-44,0,sta125],[-30,30,sta125],[-20,43,sta125],[-10,46,sta125],
[0,50,sta125],
[10,46,sta125],[20,43,sta125],[30,30,sta125],[44,0,sta125]],
// and a fake one to get the rudder blended in.
[[-44,0,sta125],[-30,20,sta125+6],[-20,30,sta125+12],[-10,40,sta129-14],[-5,65,sta129-6],
[0,250,sta129+inch],
[5,65,sta129-6],[10,40,sta129-14],[20,30,sta125+12],[30,20,sta125+6],[44,0,sta125]],
];
//here the magic happens.
function_grapher(bezier_surface(t_step,formers),thickness);
// that's all there is to it. (if only!) If only I had the knowledge I will have in 5 years today, this would be easy.
After a lot of pulling the hairs, I got the code down to the above, it works beautiful and it ‘should’ be simple to build other variants, if, but only if I can get the code to play happy with the printer. I normally slice with Simplify3D. Since I have Octopi (cura slicer) running on the printer, I want to try if that will eat it.
The other slight issue is of course that I will have to chop up the part in 2 or 3 sections, but that should not be a problem. In the end it will be covered with a layer(s) of light glass to keep it from falling apart. The whole idea is of coarse, that modelling in software is ”easier” then producing lots of dust.
That’s the theory..
29 sept: after a good nights sleep I woke up to realize I have a lot of the good stuff from Stefano. Why oh why did I not think about that? The other option is to try with Freecad, import the .stl, make it a solid and take it from there. Options, options. Then there is Solvespace, and of course all the paid for stuff that I can’t afford.
30 sept: ok, this is the reason why this does not slice well: the code likes the shape to bend in certain direction. At the tail end I try to be smart and diverge, creating a bend in the other direction. And that is what is causing the problems for the slicers.
AcrodusterComments Off on That’s the woodwork done
Sep232019
The weekend has come and gone, I have a few more days leave, so lets continue to add more stringers. Bottom is done, one more side to do. I tried 2 different methods of supporting the stringers. At the bottom the more scale version, but it is a bit flimsy. The method used for the sides works better. But, since no one will see it afterwards, and since it is still strong enough, I will leave it as is. This is the end of this chapter, next I might do the stabilizer/elevator section. Did I say already that the designer specifies aluminum-tubing for this? I had the wood, and I thought this makes it look a lot more like a proper plane! It’s an experimental class plane, you are allowed to deviate from the plans!
bottom and left side
For the brazing I have settled on a 0.7mm canule, it gives me the best results (for now). Start with a bit of propane, bottle valve opened less then 5 mm on the clock face, orange valve opened to get the 1.5″ flame. Then add a bit of O2 to get it nice and hot. The flame should just be nice and blue. For the bigger jobs, you need to increase the propane a bit, but I’ve never needed more than a 5 cm flame. Most joints take around a second or 2 max to complete. As always when playing with gas and flames, you are responsible for not burning down your house!
start with a 1.5″ propane flame....and add some O2 to make it nice and hot.
AcrodusterComments Off on Stringers and other bits
Sep162019
This is where loads of fun can be had. To the naked eye, adding a few stringers should be a 10 min job. Yes, sure, but if I can stretch it for a few days? First I added the round formers from firewall aft. They all have the same radius as the firewall, so that makes life a bit easier.
Anyway, a good day was had, and I think I have the process worked out now. As always, let the pictures tell the story.
The bending contraption, borrowed from Thomas 😉 Difficult to see, I try to show the false formers here. try gluing a tiny bit of metal to a 4 mm tube, when you only have 2 hands. (Note to self: don’t forget to fix the inner corner on the opposite site. )the end result, stringer #1 done. cockpit sidetail side, the stringers are fixed with a pop-rivet. They were also alu from what I can find. I like this better!Even Paolo’s brazing look a mess until cleaned up, so I don’t feel too bad. one side done..nice job, even if I have to say so myself
