3D Printing AV Sled Design #2

[dr wogz]

AV Bay sled intent #2:

OK, so I’ve built this already out of wood. And it thought it would be an easy thing to transfer over to "3D printing". this i9s my first stab at putting it into "CAD Land".. (C'mon, I'm at work.. my boss thinks I'm solving some silly design issue! )

It’s a sled that mounts to the inner side of the AV bay tube, not in the traditional sense of "on the securing rods".

This particular design is 6" long, and is 2" wide. It’s meant to fit a 4" dia AV bay tube (3.8" diameter) Increase / decrease this diameter dimension to match your tube. You can also increase the width to get more surface area. Only downside her is that you lose height for anything tall on the AV bay sled.

1. Draw a line down the axis of the tube.
2. Mark off the intended mounting holes, 5" apart in this case
3. Drill two pilot holes at these marks.
4. Glue the mounts aligned with h holes (use a golf tee or other pin to locate them)
5. Countersink the holes from the outside, so that the head of a #10 or ¼" flat each screw will be inside the radius of the tube wall. You will countersink the mounts as well. That’s what they’re there for.
6. Drill out these two holes to clear your preferred screw, be it #10 or ¼"..
7. Thread the holes in the back of the sled to your preferred mounting; #10 or ¼"..
8. Mount the electronics to the board, then slide the sled down the tube & mount!

On mine, my original, I have the LiPo battery mounted to the back, and the GPS Tx & altimeter mounted to the front. There is ample room to add a switch to the sled, but that’ll be up to you. I didn’t plan one, but I do plan to add a mounting point for either the 110/220V style switch or the screw switch. Again, you kinda know where it’s gonna go, just plan accordingly. You could, also mount two (or 3!) of these in an AV bay; one for rocket functions, the other for data logging or some other experimental set-up..

My original wood one took a fair amount of sanding & fitting to get the curvature & curved mounting blocks right. I had glued the mounts in the place, and wedged the sled in place to drill thru the tube, the mount, an the sled in one pass, to ensure the holes aligned.

I had initially gone this route because I was in the mind-set of having just one rod to secure the top & bottom of the AV bay.

exploded view

as mounted

mount, glued to the inside of the tube (2 required) (Curved side to glue tot eh inside of the AV bay tube

Sled, front side (put stuff this side!)

Sled, backside (curve to match inside of tube)



(Do contest rules allow for 2 entries?! )

 

[dr wogz]

You could modify the sled to hold a camera at an oblique angle, pointing thru a hole in the side of the AV bay & BT.. Or use it as a base to mount other protuberances outside the airframe..

 

[Banzai88]

Actually, that's a pretty cool design. Using end caps on an ebay, one could do away with a through rod altogether and go with kevlar loops. This would allow for GPS to be mounted in the av bay without fear of rod interference. Especially useful in 29 and 38mm minimum diameter designs. In fact, you could use the 'top' screw, along with 2 others to secure the ebay into the top tube as well using pem nuts under the other two screws. I like where this is going!