3D Printing What Are You Printing Today?

So this arrived on Friday.


I plan on printing the new R4 extruder body for my second MK3S that I am building using this PETG. Now correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that this "Carbon Fiber" PETG is created by adding CF powder, not chopped tow. It this is the case how does this add any appreciable strength to the PETG? I thought it was the tow strands that added strength to CF?

mpitfield said:

It this is the case how does this add any appreciable strength to the PETG? I thought it was the tow strands that added strength to CF?

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I've printed a few items with CarbonX. It does seem to be slightly stiffer then regular PETG but I don't think you'll see an overall strength difference since failure is likely still going to be a function of layer adhesion. It does print beautifully though!

I picked up a roll of "Carbon Fiber PLA" from amazon. I was so excited when it showed up I loaded 'er up and pushed print without even checking it. Stuff made a beautiful looking nose cone that had a bit less toughness than a saltine cracker. For a second I thought it was me, then grabbed the filament itself and discovered it was actually crumbly. Don't know how it even managed to feed. Needless to say it went back...

The raw filament is very brittle, but once I got my printer profile calibrated, the printed parts are as strong (or stronger...maybe?) as any other filament.

I really did like the look, had a low gloss sheen type thing going on. I'm gonna stick with other materials than PLA for structures though.

Carbon Fiber PETG is awesome. I buy form Atomic Filament.

Interesting, when you lose access to a laser cutter, every problem starts to look printable.

29mm in 2” motor mount:

Getting ready to fly Wednesday at special '1st Wednesday' club launch.

https://bit.ly/shotokutechupdate

Printed up my new design for a conformal 808 camera mount for my L3 launch next week. Wanted something with better aerodynamics than the ones on thingiverse. Only 3/4 inches high, prints in one piece without need for supports.
eSun PETG on an Ender 3 pro

Working on sleds for TeleGPS, Raven 3, and Featherweight GPS this week, along with drill guides to install them. After about 10 prototype prints, I think these are basically done.

Mount for a runcam on a 3" tube. Going on a Wildman two stage.

AeroAggie said:

Working on sleds for TeleGPS, Raven 3, and Featherweight GPS this week, along with drill guides to install them. After about 10 prototype prints, I think these are basically done.

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Wow, those look great, nice way to integrate everything. Thanks for the photos.

Tony

memcbride said:

The latest version of my screw together all 3D rocket dubbed "ThunderPass II." This version printed in FormLabs engineering "Tough" resin with 0.75mm walls. Also changed design to included BT20 cardboard motor tube. I've found in previous PLA versions, the motor tube is sufficient to reduce the heat related problems around the threaded boat tail. The nose cone/payload bay shoulder is a separate part that threads into payload to hold Firefly altimeter in place.

Finished yesterday. I had hoped to fly today to see if 0.75mm walls were strong enough to withstand flight events. Rain past 48 hours made our farm field unusable today :-(

View attachment 381137

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Do you have any .stl files that I can use? Looks like a fun project to print!

Nice project with the Pringles can - good use of captured nuts. Also nice assortment of pliers! My son and his friend made a Pringles can rocket and used foam core for the fins, they stood up surprisingly well.

FWIW, I set my seam setting to 'random' in Slic3r to avoid the spiral seam on nosecones. But strictly an aesthetic decision. I like the filament you used - nice color and shiny finish.


Tony

manixFan said:

Nice project with the Pringles can - good use of captured nuts. Also nice assortment of pliers! My son and his friend made a Pringles can rocket and used foam core for the fins, they stood up surprisingly well.

FWIW, I set my seam setting to 'random' in Slic3r to avoid the spiral seam on nosecones. But strictly an aesthetic decision. I like the filament you used - nice color and shiny finish.


Tony

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Thx. And thanks for the tip about the setting in Slic3r. I have got a lot to learn about this.

Print, fly, stuck the landing!

RKeller said:

Print, fly, stuck the landing!View attachment 382702View attachment 382703View attachment 382704View attachment 382705View attachment 382706

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love it Riley, great fun model. Why don't you share it and we should have a drag race @ URRF?

Not rocket related, but been printing an ED 209 for the wifes Google home mini all week. Having to reprint his right leg and find a pearl blue paint that's close enough for government work.

mpitfield said:

love it Riley, great fun model. Why don't you share it and we should have a drag race @ URRF?

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That sounds fun! I originally designed it for 29mm. The body is 245mm tall to just fit in my printer. Before investing in the time to print full sized I decided to do 1/2 scale and adjust for 18mm. I've got some small tweaks to make to the design but I am very pleased with the first flights on a B6-4 and C6-5

James Harechmak said:

Not rocket related, but been printing an ED 209 for the wifes Google home mini all week. Having to reprint his right leg and find a pearl blue paint that's close enough for government work. View attachment 382730

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Haha that is awesome!

Also not rocket-related (although it will go with me to the next high power launch I can attend): Printed an adapter to mount an 82 mm UV filter on the front of a "legacy" 500 mm reflex (catadioptric) telephoto lens with an oddball 83mm filter thread.





I really did not expect this to work on the first try. I figured I'd get the threads reversed, or mis-sized (in case you ever need to know it, filters between 32 mm and 90 mm diameter are threaded at 0.75mm per turn), that they would not print as clear spirals for the entire length, that the (tolerances at which I just plain guessed) would be wrong, etc.

I used the Prusa PLA that came with the printer, and printed it at 0.1mm resolution.

The lens-side exterior threads engaged cleanly and it screws on and off with no difficulty. Some defect jammed the interior thread on the filter side after two turns... so I cannot now unscrew the filter. I don't think I will bother to try -- the adapter does what I wanted it to do, and if I need to put something else up front I'll stack it onto the filter. Right now, it is just a relief to have a piece of glass protecting the objective lens.

Mounted on a APS-C mirrorless, the sensor crop takes care of any vignetting.

Next, I am going to try to fabricate a mount for a focal-reducer lens to go into that drop-in filter slot just behind the focusing ring (I've got a few old 37mm macro lenses that look like they are thin enough to pass through the slot if I can demount them).

Charles_McG said:

Interesting, when you lose access to a laser cutter, every problem starts to look printable.

29mm in 2” motor mount:
View attachment 381265
View attachment 381266

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You should start uploading to Thingiverse. Those are great.

AeroAggie said:

Working on sleds for TeleGPS, Raven 3, and Featherweight GPS this week, along with drill guides to install them. After about 10 prototype prints, I think these are basically done.

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AeroAggie, what antenna are you using on the TeleGPS and have you tested it for performance against the standard wire whip? I am guessing that you soldered on an edge SMA adapter as well?

mpitfield said:

AeroAggie, what antenna are you using on the TeleGPS and have you tested it for performance against the standard wire whip? I am guessing that you soldered on an edge SMA adapter as well?

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That's a Comet SMA501. No, I have not tested it yet. Yes, I soldered an edge SMA adapter.

Desoldering the pads enough to get the SMA adapter to fit was really challenging for me. I tried using braided desoldering wick to pull it out with limited success (maybe a pump would work better?). As a result my SMA adapter solder is probably suboptimal. I will do some ground testing before flying it but I won't have comparative data with the stock whip. I will, however, compare it side by side with Featherweight tracker and Eggfinder Mini.

I printed a bottom transition for a 1:39 scale Saturn V.

170 hours to print

Today I am printing a new tail-cone and centering ring for an ST-* based WAC corporal -- which serves as kind of an object lesson in how tools shape our behavior.

I cut fins for a BT-50 based WAC Corporal on the CNC router, but screwed up the dimensions when scaling down from drawings from another model and didn't notice until I had the fins assembled. They are just about the right size for an ST-8 version of a WAC Corporal, and I have some ST-8 that I was never going to use for anything else, so I decided to print a noise cone, and tail cone for that scale -- so that the fins wouldn't go into the trash (I had a spare horseshoe nail, so I decided to buy another horse...)

The nosecone came out really nicely.



Scaling down the tailcone that worked for the BT-50 rocket, though, has proven to be a PITA. This is now the 4th or 5th attempt, with significant redesigns, tweaks in printer settings and -- today -- a change to a different filament.

Honestly, if I hadn't gotten lucky with the nosecone, I'd have tossed the fins after the first tailcone snapped under my fingers.

I could put it all aside, but I am trying not to leave any more half-finished projects on the shelf. I am -- probably -- learning stuff about 3D printing with all of this flailing about, but I really want to get these rockets off my bench so that I can do other stuff.

I really like the WACC nose cone.

cwbullet said:

I really like the WACC nose cone.

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Thanks.

Printing upgrade parts for the Creality Ender 3 I just assembled yesterday.