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What material did you print the sled with? It turned out awesome! Also, what printer are you working with?

The sled was printed in PLA. I am using a Monoprice Maker Select V2 printer along with the Cura slicing software and I designed the sled using Fusion 360.
 
PETG is as easy to print as PLA with a strength comparable to ABS, all without the toxic fumes. It is very durable and has a relatively high heat resistance for plastic. My recent L2 scratch build was completely printed from PETG except for the tubes and recovery system. For the fins I designed them with slots for carbon fiber rods to be epoxied into them. It resulted in a very stiff and durable fin. The fins have easily withstood a J250W and two I180Ws.

Esun PETG prints at 250C with no fan at 40-60mm/s for excellent layer adhesion. It prints beautifully and I have not had any issues with it. View attachment 372241
I really like the carbon fiber rod idea, I'm gonna definitely have to try PETG now. Thanks for the helpful feedback.
 
If this is the first thing you've printed, I can't wait to see what comes next. Looks amazing, very professional.
 
If this is the first thing you've printed, I can't wait to see what comes next. Looks amazing, very professional.

I have printed a few toys and stuff from Thingverse for the kids but this was the first useful thing I have printed. It is also the first thing I designed in Fusion. I have experience with 2D cad programs but the 3D modeling software is all new for me.
 
I have printed a few toys and stuff from Thingverse for the kids but this was the first useful thing I have printed. It is also the first thing I designed in Fusion. I have experience with 2D cad programs but the 3D modeling software is all new for me.
You're using Fusion 360? I actually helped start a club at my school called AggieCAD where we are teaching fellow students about Fusion 360. We are going to host a competition at the end of the semester and the winners will get their designs 3D printed. 3D modeling is a very useful tool to have and the prototyping capabilities that go along with it are incredible.
 
Please find attached 9 photos of of a PETG printed "sandwich" sled (3 levels) I utilize in 75 and 98 mm AV-bays. The basic design is for a 75 mm sled with extenders (see pictures 8 and 9) to enable operation in a 98 mm bay. The top surface usually contains 1 or 2 altimeters with up to 3 Lipos in enclosures "sandwiched" between the upper and lower sled layers. The lower layer usually contains a tracking transmitter and/or GPS unit.
Chuck, please consider this as an early 3D printed sled competition entry.

Fred, L2
ICBM, Camden, SC
KG4YGP

Pictures 1-3 below

upload_2019-1-22_23-1-52.png
 

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Please find attached 9 photos of of a PETG printed "sandwich" sled (3 levels) I utilize in 75 and 98 mm AV-bays. The basic design is for a 75 mm sled with extenders (see pictures 8 and 9) to enable operation in a 98 mm bay. The top surface usually contains 1 or 2 altimeters with up to 3 Lipos in enclosures "sandwiched" between the upper and lower sled layers. The lower layer usually contains a tracking transmitter and/or GPS unit.
Chuck, please consider this as an early 3D printed sled competition entry.

Fred, L2
ICBM, Camden, SC
KG4YGP

Pictures 1-3 below

View attachment 372323
 
pictures 6 and 7
View attachment 372345

Picture 6: 3D printed double snap switch enclosure that with
a single pull-pin turns on/off both switches (see picture 7).

View attachment 372346

Picture 7: double snap switch enclosure between
the upper and lower sled layers with pull-pin in place
 
pictures 6 & 7
upload_2019-1-23_0-5-54.png
Picture 6: 3D printed double snap switch enclosure that with
a single pull-pin turns on/off both switches (see picture 7).

upload_2019-1-23_0-7-3.png

Picture 7: double snap switch enclosure between
the upper and lower sled layers with pull-pin in place
 

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The last two days I have been printing a test article locking tab motor retainer. A friend at work sent me his motor retainer idea, which essentially copied, to make one for a rocket I have been working on. Since these are just test prints, I did not finish the complete fin can, just enough to test the locking feature.

IMG_9352.JPG
 
Finished all of the test parts. These are printes designed around BT-60 airframe tubing. The final rocket is an extreme down scaling of the Derrik Deville's QU8K BALLS project from 7-years ago:

Qu8k.h1.jpg

Printed are the nosecone, fincan, coupler, baffle, two (24mm motor mount) centering rings, and motor retainer:

IMG_9353.JPG

The parts look wet in the camera flash.

I am currently printing the final design in a gray PETG material.
 
Finished all of the test parts. These are printes designed around BT-60 airframe tubing. The final rocket is an extreme down scaling of the Derrik Deville's QU8K BALLS project from 7-years ago:

View attachment 372610

Printed are the nosecone, fincan, coupler, baffle, two (24mm motor mount) centering rings, and motor retainer:

View attachment 372611

The parts look wet in the camera flash.

I am currently printing the final design in a gray PETG material.

Very nice! Are you going to post the stl files?
 
As soon as I finish printing the final design, and get some weight numbers I will post them in the repository. I was hoping to be able to fly a range of 24mm motors from Estes "D" through the Aertech/CTI F-class motors. To fly the Aerotech 24/60, I am going to need a different motor retainer, being as the 24/60 thrust closure is twice as thick as the 24/40 (.125" to .250")
 
Testing out some PLAs.

First some metallics from Everyone - Silk Silver, Gold and Copper

420749A5-E0C4-441B-82D8-96D976DB2B3D.jpeg

Then some ColorMe Hazes
E9C3B50F-9C87-4F3A-9E2A-B5EA043D4493.jpeg

And lastly some Amazon Basics (including a wood color)
75B665FB-86B5-41FF-AC0E-83C58007892C.jpeg
 
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Printing the final QU8K fincan. Had to print with supports under the fins, as the trailing edges kept sagging without the support. Material is Hatchbox PETG.

IMG_9399-SM.JPG
 
Working on some paper models (birds) from Johan Schreft... I wasn't able to print them today, but maybe tomorrow. I added spare heads and "tricky" parts, as well as under wing feathers, and streamlined the layout to maximize the space for a 2nd "kit" on the same page (when possible). I also added the common name and Latin names of the birds (to each page) to help keep things organized.

https://jscherft.wixsite.com/website-johan-3/templates-store
 
Vectored Thrust Motor Gimbal
The larger diameter ring (98mm) is screwed to the upper section of the rocket, the smaller one with the ball joint (54mm) screws into the motor mount. I plan to gimbal the motor and the fins. The vertical rod ends connect to servos (not shown) the horizontal link prevents rotation.

 
Hi Kramer 714,

Beautiful Vectored Thrust Motor Gimbal CADS. I appreciate the design and printed products and thank you for this novel addition to this thread. The following is a series of questions for my education and not meant to be critical. Please discuss the computer control/software/ servo control via ?gyros you plan to incorporate. Also, I wonder if your eventual ground testing during motor burn, if the 3D printed parts will be resilient enough to repetitively facilitate the movement required. What back up system do you envision if during flight, the motor or fin movement fail? You state that you will gimbal both the motor and fins. Since most HPR motor burns are less than 5 seconds, most of a flight will be unpowered and I wonder if the maximum effort would be best to rely on gimballed fins rather than the motor. There is a Danish group which plans to reach orbital levels in which "minutes" of powered flight would occur and they do gimbal the motor nozzle (see: ); however, I question the effectiveness of motor movement (to correct an errant flight path) if the powered component of flight is only a few seconds. Again, these questions are asked to acquire more insight into this topic. Thanks again for presenting your interesting designs.

Fred, L2
ICBM, Camden, SC
KG4YGP
 
Vectored Thrust Motor Gimbal
The larger diameter ring (98mm) is screwed to the upper section of the rocket, the smaller one with the ball joint (54mm) screws into the motor mount. I plan to gimbal the motor and the fins. The vertical rod ends connect to servos (not shown) the horizontal link prevents rotation.


Very nice design work, I look forward to seeing some results. What electronics are you using, have you been over to bps.space? I wonder if their "Signal" computer might be something that you could utilize, although I believe it is a 2 X-Y gimbal system.
 
Let me break your questions down into two parts, software and hardware.

The software side is being taken care of by my son (ECE Major in college) I can see if he will weigh in here.

1) Fin VS Motor control. This will do both. The fins (actually have a ring fin built) will be mounted tot he motor tube, the system will gimbal both. Imagine cutting the bottom 1/4 of your rocket and moving the whole thing. For the first bit of the launch, when the rocket is going slow (first second or two), the thrust vectoring will be effective, after that the fin movement will be the control.

2) Didn't ask but important. One thing that my son is factoring in is the control authority vs speed. The gimbal can go up to 15 degrees in any direction. This is a large deflection, depending on speed he will limit this, just after motor burn out it might only be 1 or 2 degrees.

3) Space launch is different, fin effectiveness decreases with altitude and is effected by mach number. Once at very high altitude they can only use thrust vectoring. If you need it, why have the cost, weight and complexity of moveable fins. My stuff operates a bit lower....

4) Fin Servos. Gimbaling the entire back of the rocket is pretty simple vs moveable fins. At the 'day job' I have worked on fins for lots of systems, full flying fins require con trivial bearing mounts.

5) Strength of 3d printed parts. The design was based on the mechanical properties of PETG effort was made to ensure that there is a margin below the bearing and yield strength. This is printed with 100% fill. Assume an overall weight of 20 lbs for the rocket, A VMAX 54K gives about 500 lbs of thrust (I'm not planning to use that fast of a motor just using it as an example) gives a bearing stress of about 2,500 psi, all of the tensile stresses are less than 1,000 psi even assuming a hard chute event. With a simple proof test, the fitting will be 'demonstrate-able safe'. Might put a small SS safety cable in for an extra level of safety for RSO.

Mike K



Hi Kramer 714,

Beautiful Vectored Thrust Motor Gimbal CADS. I appreciate the design and printed products and thank you for this novel addition to this thread. The following is a series of questions for my education and not meant to be critical. Please discuss the computer control/software/ servo control via ?gyros you plan to incorporate. Also, I wonder if your eventual ground testing during motor burn, if the 3D printed parts will be resilient enough to repetitively facilitate the movement required. What back up system do you envision if during flight, the motor or fin movement fail? You state that you will gimbal both the motor and fins. Since most HPR motor burns are less than 5 seconds, most of a flight will be unpowered and I wonder if the maximum effort would be best to rely on gimballed fins rather than the motor. There is a Danish group which plans to reach orbital levels in which "minutes" of powered flight would occur and they do gimbal the motor nozzle (see: ); however, I question the effectiveness of motor movement (to correct an errant flight path) if the powered component of flight is only a few seconds. Again, these questions are asked to acquire more insight into this topic. Thanks again for presenting your interesting designs.

Fred, L2
ICBM, Camden, SC
KG4YGP
 
Mike,

Thanks for the elucidation of the Vectored Thrust Motor Gimbal project. My initial impression was that the motor and fins would be independent movements. It'll be fun to watch the evolution of this project. You may want to consider placing it also in the electronics section.

Good luck,
Fred
 
This is an AV bay from Thingverse. I printed it in Silver ABS.

IMG_0937.jpeg
 
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