3D Printing COVID Confusion Nose Cone

[Culprit]

Hello! Since paper towels and toilet paper appear to be quite desirable these days, I couldn't just throw the empty tubes away. LOL! I found a good Coronavirus model on Thingiverse and made it into a fitting nose cone in Fusion 360. The virus obviously needs supports, but PrusaSlicer also decided it needed supports in the shock cord tunnel. Fortunately, one of my wife's upholstery needles is a good match for the radius of the tunnel, so that cleaned it out pretty easily. The tunnel is sized to easily slide 1mm 200lb Kevlar through without a needle or anything.

As I finish the rocket, I plan to paint the base of the nose cone to provide some visual contrast between it and the virus.

Printed in PLA, .15 mm layer height, 5% gyroid infill. Took about 14.5 hours on a Prusa Mk3s.

A couple folks on Facebook asked for the .stl, so I'm trying to load it to Thingiverse as a remix design of the original virus - but based on the website's behavior today, it'll be tomorrow. And if anyone wants something more than the .stl, just ask.

 

[manixFan]

Wow, very cool. I’ve used the parts feature in Prusa Slicer to block supports where I don’t want them. Pretty easy to do, just do a quick google search on it.

Let us know if you get it uploaded.


Tony

 

[Culprit]

Wow, very cool. I’ve used the parts feature in Prusa Slicer to block supports where I don’t want them. Pretty easy to do, just do a quick google search on it.

Let us know if you get it uploaded.


Tony

Thank you, I will look into it. I know that functionality is there, I've just never needed it before - so I haven't learned it yet.

 

[Weldo]

Neat! Though I will say that it looks positively gross! Nice work!

 

[cwbullet]

I like it. Can I get the file to print one?

 

[Culprit]

Here's the Thingiverse link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4250452

The zipped .f3d file is attached also if you want to adapt it for a different size tube.

 

[BDB]

I love it!

 

[Culprit]

The Virus went airborne on Memorial Day! LOL

One of my son's friends and his dad came out to launch some rockets last Monday. Perfect weather, and nine perfect flights over five rockets. The dad hadn't launched since he was a kid, and the son never had. He had an Estes Amazon he had built so we chose four rockets that would let him see 13, 18, and 24mm motors, straight and tube fins, parachute, streamer, and tumble recovery, data from the Jolly Logic Altimeter Three, rocket where the nose came down separate from the booster, launch lugs and rail buttons, and of course 3D printed parts. Did I mention it was an awesome afternoon? As a result, I believe we have a new member to my son's TARC team for the coming year.

Since my last update I painted the base of the virus nose cone black to make the shape of the virus more apparent from a distance. I'm not really into finishing and painting... um, what I meant to say is that I wanted to leave the natural look of the toilet paper and paper towel tubes for the theme of this rocket, so I simply shot it with a couple coats of clear acrylic. I didn't expect it, but it made the glue pattern on the paper towel tubes stand out - they were practically non-existent before. If I had known that would happen, I would have ensured to line them up when I joined the top and bottom tube. I like the tiger stripe pattern.

We flew the COVID-19 rocket twice, once on a D12-3 and again on an E9-6. Details are in the Altimeter Three data and graphs below.

The 14 fps descent speed on the D flight was with an 18" Rocketman TARC chute, and the 23 fps descent rate on the E flight was with a 12" Rocketman TARC chute.

 

[curtisheisey]

Great idea. Thanks for sharing the design. I think this could be quite a hit at launches. Nice also to see the corresponding flight data.

 

[Yukon@K-9 Rocket Tech]

Lol this is hilarious!! Maybe add some TP and a mask on the recovery lines for fun XD