I thought it would be only a video about the 3d printed ribs but then you actually built an airplane and tested it instead of keeping us anticipated for another video, great work!
Very Nice! Flies very well. The camera operator did an outstanding job following smoothly, and keeping the aircraft in the center of the frame. Very nice, both of you.
This is a good direction for 3D printing and RC - there aren't too many useful designs out there for pieces that go on the airplane. There is a lot of potential for fixtures, jibs, tools, etc. but outside of wheels I haven't seen too much produced for RC. Great share.
I think its because most people don't post them. I made one with carbon arrow spars and 3d printed ribs with integrated flaps (the hinges were also a piece of filament pushed through, you can melt the ends like rivets easily if you feel like it). It uses thin cardboard (Red Baron Pizza box, not corrugated), it could be made with cardstock or thick paper if you care about weight. I also print all my motor mounts (on that one, the fuselage was another carbon arrow, so a printed part was the easiest way, but also I'm lazy so I even have semi-standard box mounts popular with Flight test builds because I'm too lazy to glue balsa wood, and plastic just flexes with a crash) I can build my full plane right off the print bead in under 30 minutes (though it took me 4-5 hours to make my the "30 minute" FT versa wing). So you really can make mine even faster. All the parts can also print all at once on a standard 200x200 mm (8"x8") printer.
super cool, really like the plane and the printed ribs! I've been experimenting with ready board plane for a few years now. I noticed that you left the paper on the inside of the top wing surface, if you use rubbing alcohol on a paper towel you can easily remove the paper and the foam will conform to the ribs better... keep making cool stuff!
since you have the structure, you can use a 2mm foam or depron with tape. It's lighter and still very resistent. Or, you can add a litte bit more structure and cover with monokote or other good quality covering film.
Good show. Nice to demonstrate how there is an optimal use for certain tools. It may also encourage people back into "built up" models, rather than just solid (or sheet) "foamies". 3D printed complex structural parts, pultruded spars/longerons and sheet material (even thin foam/balsa +composite) where appropriate makes for a good build.
I like it, Tom! It's a very nice design, and the flying proves it. This would be an interesting mod for some of the Flite Test planes... may give it a shot, but I'd probably cut balsa ribs, not having a 3D printer. Thanks for another great episode.
wow the plane fly's beautiful and your camera gal sounds beautiful too. you should have her in your next video and teach her how to fly FPV or some thing.
Love the concept. I've done fold over wings before but never thought to do this...nice job! On a side note, when I fold wings I like to score in multiple places on the underside and created a small channel by running a skewer into it to widen it make it fold easier similar to flitetest.
It's been over 35 years since I built a plane of any type. In Jr. high, my shop teacher was an R/C plane enthusiast (1977). He would have us build balsa wood polyhedral gliders in class. One day, when we where all done building our various gliders, he built one as well. He asked us to take a small ink pen and write our phone numbers on the wing. We asked him why, and he said "So the person that finds your glider can call you and let you know where to come pick it up. We all laughed .... So we took our gliders out on a nice 80 degree sunny day with just a little wind during shop class. My teacher pulled some grass from the ground, and though it up in the air, waited, then chucked his glider up into the air to catch a thermal, It never came down, and flew out of site. True story. These gliders had wing spans of about a foot. The wing was 3 times longer than the tail. The wing was made of a solid piece of balsa would about a 5/8 height/4 inch width, but we sanded all the material off the back of the wing. Had a radius on leading edge which was sanded back to about 3/4 inch from front, then the rest sanded off going back to trailing edge. Polyhedral was the key in my opinion. Great job on your project. Keep up the great work !!!
Nice to see someone use mixed fabrication methods in a sensible manner, so many 3D printer enthusiasts are fixated on printing everything, when using printed parts together with other materials and manual fabrication would be more effective. P.s. You should let your hair grow out, the (ginger) Spice must flow!
Have your thought about using polypropylene? it has a lot lower density than PLA. Or Polycarbonate Filament, which is stronger, so you could have less support material in the 3d printed plane, possibly reducing weight?
sir, that foam board u used did that break while bending and why did u use tape?? is that for protecion and what is the mm of the foam board sir, can u please make a video on airfoils like how much thickness should an airfoil be for rc plane like how to make a rc plane in detail with foam board . is 2mm foam board godd to make an rc plane please do respond sir.
Tom Stanton You know, I have a diy channel in Portuguese (I'm from Brazil) and I want to make things like these too. :) Already bought some things (a cheap FlySky transmitter, escs and so on)... Nothing except for some brushed motors and propellers arrived yet and I'm going to start small... But I always been crazy about those things. :D
Great work and great video. Wow, the video of the flight is amazing! I haven't seen an RC plane kept in frame and focus so well! I'm tempted to give building a plane a try now, any chance we can get the files for the ribs and other general information? Cheers 👍🏻
It looks as if the leading edge is just folded. Have you thought of cutting a v groove on the inside of the foamboard to make the leading edge bend easier?
Tom - would you explore the possibility of a parachute recovery, like the cirrus airplane. i would like to fly an rc plane, and have enough room to launch one by hand, but where i live there is no place to land one. i would like to be able to be able to hit a button, and have it float down on a parachute.
I wonder if you'd get even better results using a thinner material for the skin. The distortions between the ribs are because the foam board wants to remain flat. On top of that, you've massively over-built the wing due to the combination of the foam board and the spar. Obviously that isn't really an issue here since it's so light, but a further weight reduction certainly wouldn't hurt. Plus thinner materials would probably be a lot easier to work with.
How about using a geodetic honeycomb like internal structure. Kind of like taking a solid wing model and having your slicer do a lower percentage infill.
It weighs a lot more than foam-board. Even just an empty hollow wing probably weighs more unless its paper thin (and its not going to be as strong as foambaord)
Great video, but I have a question about the dust comment. Surely the plane would not fly stably "in a stall", wouldn't the dust simply lie within the boundary layer? (Studying Aerospace Engineering so keen to understand)
I have a suggestion. 3 mm thick rib, and print as follows: 1 perimeter, 0 top and bottom layers. and GRID infill on 20%, and .3 layer height, with PETG. make super light weight parts and super strong. works wonders for me
I like this better than a fully 3d printed plane - use the 3d printed parts for what they are good for - reproducibly making a complicated shape and use the foamboard, tape and balsa for they are good for :)
Good job! but to me I think its gonna add more weight. Aerodynamically I think it's gonna be the same fight characteristics with the flitetest style or experimental style wing
2 weeks a go I tried something similar for building a paperplane.... failed :-(. Going to give it another go using the wood span you used. So thanks for the video!
Hi, I have already tried this technique before , this is a problem of correct rapping the (foam board, depron) in a correct way around the 3D printed rips.
I did this a couple of years ago, but instead of using foam I used some hobby grade airfoil covering material. However, it was, sadly, much to heavy to fly. But hey, keep up the good work :-D
Interesting! I actually did some weight calculations for using wing cover film over a 3D printed structure. I estimated that the covering material wouldn't add a whole lot of rigidity, so the 3D printed structure would have to be quite complex and therefore would most likely end up heavier than this foam construction. Is that how yours turned out? Thanks!
I wonder how much did you gain on flight time by doing it with the foam instead of 3d printing everything? What is the flight time of both planes? Thanks!
why did you switch from the Kossel to the CR-10? Did you have some problems with the Kossel Mini? I got one of the Kossel XLs and thought about printing ribs for some time now too but never got around to do it. So thanks for showing us your results.
My kossel mini is still going strong, in fact I printed the motor mount and control horns on the kossel. Just the creality is easier to film as it's in my well lit workshop instead of my messy room haha! Thanks!
If you are going to make a 3d printed plane try using a skin over a frame design technique rather than using foam i think it would be much more weight efficient. I would think you need 3 spars in the wing one in the front and back and top and bottom for the skin to keep its shape. Basically copy a balsa plane design but printing structure and mounts out of plastic.
I actually did some weight calculations for using wing cover film over a 3D printed structure. I estimated that the covering material wouldn't add a whole lot of rigidity, so the 3D printed structure would have to be quite complex and therefore would most likely end up heavier than this foam construction. I also attempted to film cover a small 3D printed wing structure and it ending up warping due to the iron heat. I might be wrong about this, but would be interested to see someone try it!
You are the 3d printing plane guy you are that person to try it i believe in you!. As far as plastic to use for 3d printing a plane PETG might be a better choice and its easy to print like PLA but is much stronger its replacing ABS as it has similar characteristics the only thing from memory is softening point after its been printed is around 80* which is better than PLA 60* and ABS is a little better at around 90-100* but is much harder to print and suffers from warping. A hybrid structure of Balsa or carbon fiber box frame/ tubing frame and plastic structure to wrap the skin for easy builds might work nicely. A entire plastic plane or foam board covered frame maybe more of a trainer plane as it will survive a crash better?
I thought it would be only a video about the 3d printed ribs but then you actually built an airplane and tested it instead of keeping us anticipated for another video, great work!
Haha how could I not resist building a plane ;) Thanks!
Excellent work by your camerawoman following your flight and keeping the plane centered in the frame.
Dan Payerle You are right. I would have never been able to do it that good.
Thanks mum
I wanted to do this, but the only stepper motor I have is not heavy enough.
Lol!
Just super. The camera person was a pro. A surprising delight!
Love the design, seems to fly great! Great work.
Very Nice! Flies very well. The camera operator did an outstanding job following smoothly, and keeping the aircraft in the center of the frame. Very nice, both of you.
This is a good direction for 3D printing and RC - there aren't too many useful designs out there for pieces that go on the airplane. There is a lot of potential for fixtures, jibs, tools, etc. but outside of wheels I haven't seen too much produced for RC. Great share.
I think its because most people don't post them. I made one with carbon arrow spars and 3d printed ribs with integrated flaps (the hinges were also a piece of filament pushed through, you can melt the ends like rivets easily if you feel like it). It uses thin cardboard (Red Baron Pizza box, not corrugated), it could be made with cardstock or thick paper if you care about weight.
I also print all my motor mounts (on that one, the fuselage was another carbon arrow, so a printed part was the easiest way, but also I'm lazy so I even have semi-standard box mounts popular with Flight test builds because I'm too lazy to glue balsa wood, and plastic just flexes with a crash)
I can build my full plane right off the print bead in under 30 minutes (though it took me 4-5 hours to make my the "30 minute" FT versa wing). So you really can make mine even faster. All the parts can also print all at once on a standard 200x200 mm (8"x8") printer.
super cool, really like the plane and the printed ribs! I've been experimenting with ready board plane for a few years now. I noticed that you left the paper on the inside of the top wing surface, if you use rubbing alcohol on a paper towel you can easily remove the paper and the foam will conform to the ribs better... keep making cool stuff!
Great video Tom! I would love to see some kind of wing design with 3d printed parts to cover with monocote or oracover film.
Yuur camera operator was awesome and did a GREAT job at a DIFFICULT task!
Composite construction, it's everywhere! Got to say I'm interested in what you're going to use those big steppers and fancy linear rail for.
since you have the structure, you can use a 2mm foam or depron with tape. It's lighter and still very resistent. Or, you can add a litte bit more structure and cover with monokote or other good quality covering film.
Ironing the monocoat would melt the ribs.
I just started experimenting with 3D printed ribs etc this movie gives me inspiration --thank you! :)
Well done Tom
Nice job on the build and maiden flight👍...btw that was a sweet Immelman at 11:56 too 👍 👍
Those huge stepper motors are for a CNC machine!
That fast pass (10:52) was amazing! Subscribed!
Thanks!
Aviomodelli used to have a .40 trainer that used injection molded abs ribs in the mid '90 so yes the use of plastic ribs is well proven,
Good show.
Nice to demonstrate how there is an optimal use for certain tools.
It may also encourage people back into "built up" models, rather than just solid (or sheet) "foamies".
3D printed complex structural parts, pultruded spars/longerons and sheet material (even thin foam/balsa +composite) where appropriate makes for a good build.
It looks a smoother FPV experience than a pure wing shape too, nice work.
I like it, Tom! It's a very nice design, and the flying proves it. This would be an interesting mod for some of the Flite Test planes... may give it a shot, but I'd probably cut balsa ribs, not having a 3D printer. Thanks for another great episode.
i love his use of cnc machine parts
Great video! From 3D printing to a full built and flight! Thanks
I've used lasercut foamboard as ribs with good results, on a 10ft wingspan build.
Very nice. Looks like it has awesome flight characteristics.
wow the plane fly's beautiful and your camera gal sounds beautiful too. you should have her in your next video and teach her how to fly FPV or some thing.
I ike the control rod anti deflection clips you made for this project very useful for long fuselage build.
You work very well!
Thanks!
Gj Thomas, amazing works! Regards from an italian aeronautical technician. (p.s. I just finished an e-bike based on your project, works great)
Can you make a video on the electronics of it??
BeatTheFreak RC controller, battery and motor? Lmao something like that
2 minutes and 20 seconds in and I'm already subcribing
0:30 I finally figured out what those motors are for
Love the concept. I've done fold over wings before but never thought to do this...nice job!
On a side note, when I fold wings I like to score in multiple places on the underside and created a small channel by running a skewer into it to widen it make it fold easier similar to flitetest.
Nice work! I love twin boom tails. 👍
what a beautiful flying field!
Also, you should consider a lower kv motor with a bigger prop. Something like a 1500kv with an 8" prop on 3s would be great for that plane
Awesome work dude turned out well
awesome Tom ! camera girl has some skills! .....and a beautiful voice....:D
It's been over 35 years since I built a plane of any type. In Jr. high, my shop teacher was an R/C plane enthusiast (1977). He would have us build balsa wood polyhedral gliders in class. One day, when we where all done building our various gliders, he built one as well. He asked us to take a small ink pen and write our phone numbers on the wing. We asked him why, and he said "So the person that finds your glider can call you and let you know where to come pick it up. We all laughed .... So we took our gliders out on a nice 80 degree sunny day with just a little wind during shop class. My teacher pulled some grass from the ground, and though it up in the air, waited, then chucked his glider up into the air to catch a thermal, It never came down, and flew out of site. True story. These gliders had wing spans of about a foot. The wing was 3 times longer than the tail. The wing was made of a solid piece of balsa would about a 5/8 height/4 inch width, but we sanded all the material off the back of the wing. Had a radius on leading edge which was sanded back to about 3/4 inch from front, then the rest sanded off going back to trailing edge. Polyhedral was the key in my opinion. Great job on your project. Keep up the great work !!!
That's not how you use a stepper motor. 0:50
Multifunction?
Excellent use of parts hanging around. Got any 5000mAh batteries ? :) Awesome vid Tom, as usual. Thank you. Nicholas Jacobs, Burlington ON, Canada
I have had 3 huge steppers for years now and thats prtetty much only thing i have used them for :D
LOL!
Yes it is!
Hi, I’m a beginner for making the re plane, could you tell me what battery do you use for the plane?
Nice to see someone use mixed fabrication methods in a sensible manner, so many 3D printer enthusiasts are fixated on printing everything, when using printed parts together with other materials and manual fabrication would be more effective.
P.s. You should let your hair grow out, the (ginger) Spice must flow!
Have your thought about using polypropylene? it has a lot lower density than PLA. Or Polycarbonate Filament, which is stronger, so you could have less support material in the 3d printed plane, possibly reducing weight?
Excellent work is there any stl files for this wing ? Thank you so much
Great vid, elegant construction Tom! Would winglets lower the drag without adding the offset in weight penalty exceeding the reduction in drag?
+Silas Marner possibly! Maybe something to test in the future! thanks
sir, that foam board u used did that break while bending and why did u use tape?? is that for protecion and what is the mm of the foam board
sir,
can u please make a video on airfoils like how much thickness should an airfoil be for rc plane
like how to make a rc plane in detail with foam board . is 2mm foam board godd to make an rc plane
please do respond sir.
a good cameraman. rare.
Fantastic work, man. Great airplane!
Thanks man!
Tom Stanton You know, I have a diy channel in Portuguese (I'm from Brazil) and I want to make things like these too. :) Already bought some things (a cheap FlySky transmitter, escs and so on)... Nothing except for some brushed motors and propellers arrived yet and I'm going to start small... But I always been crazy about those things. :D
Great work and great video. Wow, the video of the flight is amazing! I haven't seen an RC plane kept in frame and focus so well!
I'm tempted to give building a plane a try now, any chance we can get the files for the ribs and other general information?
Cheers 👍🏻
Congrats from Brazil!
Rodrigo Marin +1 brazuca aqui. :)
U M A
D E L I C I A
It looks as if the leading edge is just folded. Have you thought of cutting a v groove on the inside of the foamboard to make the leading edge bend easier?
Nice camera work.
Nice , looking forward to the next one!
Was looking at this method for some old plans I had knocking about =] but still using Balsa on top
Love this, I want to make one, I think you should try another one but with a wing tip, like a ^ like a fighter jet.
Tom -
would you explore the possibility of a parachute recovery, like the cirrus airplane.
i would like to fly an rc plane, and have enough room to launch one by hand, but where i live there is no place to land one.
i would like to be able to be able to hit a button, and have it float down on a parachute.
I wonder if you'd get even better results using a thinner material for the skin. The distortions between the ribs are because the foam board wants to remain flat. On top of that, you've massively over-built the wing due to the combination of the foam board and the spar. Obviously that isn't really an issue here since it's so light, but a further weight reduction certainly wouldn't hurt. Plus thinner materials would probably be a lot easier to work with.
You should build a cnc machine to cut out your planes. A few people have done it for flitetest plans. They use a needle cutter to do it. Really cool.
Cool. How about 3D printed ribs with a carbon fiber tube spar covered in a low temperature shrink covering?
Hi , nice fly , I am amazed how light weight it is . You got to try a inverted V tail and a big propeller :)
How about using a geodetic honeycomb like internal structure. Kind of like taking a solid wing model and having your slicer do a lower percentage infill.
It weighs a lot more than foam-board. Even just an empty hollow wing probably weighs more unless its paper thin (and its not going to be as strong as foambaord)
My stick plane had 3D printed ribs and it is quite light because they are thinner and has holes in them
Make a bench hook to help with the cutting at 0:17
what profile did you use, and can you share other dimensions of the plane ?
Great video, but I have a question about the dust comment. Surely the plane would not fly stably "in a stall", wouldn't the dust simply lie within the boundary layer? (Studying Aerospace Engineering so keen to understand)
Great vid! Could you tell me where you got those metal rails you used as weights at 5:21?
+Alexander Neufeld they are rails for a CNC machine that I'm currently building haha
Very nice Job !!
I have a suggestion. 3 mm thick rib, and print as follows: 1 perimeter, 0 top and bottom layers. and GRID infill on 20%, and .3 layer height, with PETG. make super light weight parts and super strong. works wonders for me
Another very interesting video. Thanks.
I like this better than a fully 3d printed plane - use the 3d printed parts for what they are good for - reproducibly making a complicated shape and use the foamboard, tape and balsa for they are good for :)
Exactly! The end goal was to produce a decent plane rather than a proof of concept experimental plane that I'd only fly once haha! Thanks!
You tease! Tell us what the steppers and linear rail are for. Please. :-) Nice job on the plane, btw.
Like! Especially for Nema 23 and HIWIN rails as auxiliary tools!))))
Talented boy!
That was awesome
Good job! but to me I think its gonna add more weight. Aerodynamically I think it's gonna be the same fight characteristics with the flitetest style or experimental style wing
2 weeks a go I tried something similar for building a paperplane.... failed :-(. Going to give it another go using the wood span you used. So thanks for the video!
Try 3mm Depron for the skins. Hot water or a Hair Dryer will soften Depron enough to bend it without cracking.
Nice plane. Also. Your gf has a beautiful voice.
Is it as stable in flight as it appears or did you have to constantly make small corrections?
How would foam ribs compare to the 3D printed ones? Though you'ed probably need a laser cutter to do it.
Hi,
I have already tried this technique before , this is a problem of correct rapping the (foam board, depron) in a correct way around the 3D printed rips.
can we have the dimensions for this rc plane? wing span .. chord length and all specs and motors used..
i feeel like you should go with a lower kv motor with a bigger 8-9" prop
I did this a couple of years ago, but instead of using foam I used some hobby grade airfoil covering material. However, it was, sadly, much to heavy to fly. But hey, keep up the good work :-D
Interesting! I actually did some weight calculations for using wing cover film over a 3D printed structure. I estimated that the covering material wouldn't add a whole lot of rigidity, so the 3D printed structure would have to be quite complex and therefore would most likely end up heavier than this foam construction. Is that how yours turned out? Thanks!
Tom,
Would you be willing to publish the dimensions, NACA airfoil number, ESC, motor details?
I'd like to build one like it.
Thanks.
A good one Tom, i want to make one like that. Can you help me? Im very new to fixed wind rc.
I wonder how much did you gain on flight time by doing it with the foam instead of 3d printing everything? What is the flight time of both planes? Thanks!
love your videos!
why did you switch from the Kossel to the CR-10? Did you have some problems with the Kossel Mini? I got one of the Kossel XLs and thought about printing ribs for some time now too but never got around to do it. So thanks for showing us your results.
My kossel mini is still going strong, in fact I printed the motor mount and control horns on the kossel. Just the creality is easier to film as it's in my well lit workshop instead of my messy room haha! Thanks!
Beautiful job.
I hope you can post the STL files
Greetings from Chile
Hi, really great job.
what kind of adhesive did you use?
Thanks.
dude can you share the plans and materials you used on this build please?
Very tidy nice job
Anyone knows what is that glue they use and if has plans available for this planes?
Could you please tell us some details on the Electronics? I would like to build a similar Plane.
what is that red tape he uses and why does he use it? I uses foam for my first build inside the wing. And scissors.....
what is the material of plane, motor, esc, battery
Can you share the plans of this plane?
If you are going to make a 3d printed plane try using a skin over a frame design technique rather than using foam i think it would be much more weight efficient. I would think you need 3 spars in the wing one in the front and back and top and bottom for the skin to keep its shape. Basically copy a balsa plane design but printing structure and mounts out of plastic.
I actually did some weight calculations for using wing cover film over a 3D printed structure. I estimated that the covering material wouldn't add a whole lot of rigidity, so the 3D printed structure would have to be quite complex and therefore would most likely end up heavier than this foam construction. I also attempted to film cover a small 3D printed wing structure and it ending up warping due to the iron heat. I might be wrong about this, but would be interested to see someone try it!
You are the 3d printing plane guy you are that person to try it i believe in you!. As far as plastic to use for 3d printing a plane PETG might be a better choice and its easy to print like PLA but is much stronger its replacing ABS as it has similar characteristics the only thing from memory is softening point after its been printed is around 80* which is better than PLA 60* and ABS is a little better at around 90-100* but is much harder to print and suffers from warping. A hybrid structure of Balsa or carbon fiber box frame/ tubing frame and plastic structure to wrap the skin for easy builds might work nicely. A entire plastic plane or foam board covered frame maybe more of a trainer plane as it will survive a crash better?
Waaaaaw so nice flay
Which airfoil did you use?