Hi All,

Chatting with some people here, there seems to be some interest in my latest project. 3D Printing all the Plywood parts of a standard Balsa build, covering in Balsa then Cover Film.

The PDF attached below is of the fuselage build which is now finished. Will add the Wing Build when completed. I kept the text to a minimum in the doc with some great pics. Had to add it to a ZIP file as it was just over 3meg.

Would welcome any feedback, questions or suggestions.

Has been and still is a very interesting project combining new technologies with older technologies.

Wohoo!

Now that is a cool looking thing. That will be interesting how this progresses.

Cheers.

Cheers Driver330. Doing the wings now. Thanks for your support and kind words as well.

Cool color scheme. I'm surprised we haven't seen more of this design process. Look forward to seeing the finished plane.

Very nice! Good work.

Hey drewdb! Really cool work here. Looking forward to see how this project goes along.

Yes I love the colour scheme. Can't wait until she's in the skies.

I thought of this process after my 3DLabPrint Edge 540 kept cracking in some way with just normal landings on grass.

A few people at my club had the full Balsa builds with Laser cut Ply and I thought ????? Mmm!

I also used the same process to repair my Calmato 40 Trainer after wiping out the whole front end back to the trailing edge of the wing. Now she's a cyborg. Half plane, half machine I couldn't put it in the bin. I did my Silver Wings on her so she's a bit special.

I've attached the build log for that 3D Printer repair if anyone's interested. Cheers.

Excellent work!

Will you be offering the files at some point? I have two Calmato 40 Sports that I could maybe bring back from the dead! I've kept the wrecks for a rainy day but my balsa rebuilding skills aren't great. 3D printing parts however may be just the answer...

Hi TheGuv,

They look nasty. Always sorry to see these sorts of sights.

I'll have a think about it once i finish it. Has been a lot of work and many hours.

Cheers.

Originally Posted by drewdb

They look nasty.

The second one nearly got the club president, missed him by under 2metres... I'll never know the cause of that one, but the first was down to my own ineptitude!

I'll have a think about it once i finish it.

I can imagine the time and effort involved was huge. I'll certainly rebuild my two should you decide to release the files, but will understand if you prefer not to.

Great work either way!

The second one nearly got the club president, missed him by under 2metres... I'll never know the cause of that one, but the first was down to my own ineptitude!

The second one is the worst one. I think she knew it was the Club President and worked extra hard not to take him out

Thanks for the compliments. Cheers.

Well I finally completed it. Damn it looks good.

Was hoping to maiden tomorrow but some issues now that i can check everything for real. Lesson, Don't believe all plane build plans you download.

Anyway, with hind sight I can start again and make the needed changes before printing and re-assembly.

Will post it all again when done if anyone's interested? Probably not as most people seem interested in fully 3D printed planes. Not much activity on this idea. That's ok I like learning and trying new things.

This looks terrific. Wow. Well done.
I wish I had 48 hours in a day.
Too much work. Too many projects lined up already.

You covered the plastic frame with a colder (thinner) covering, right? Otherwise the plastic parts would not be too happy....

Cheers.

Originally Posted by drewdb

Will post it all again when done if anyone's interested? Probably not as most people seem interested in fully 3D printed planes. Not much activity on this idea. That's ok I like learning and trying new things.

I am sure there are a lot of folks like me watching this thread. I just don't have anything to add that helps the conversation, looking for new ideas and tips.
Please carry on!

BTW your plane looks excellent!

I'm certainly interested and follow this thread!

I hope one day I can repair my two Calmatos to end up looking half as good as yours and they'd still be great!

What were the issues you discovered with the plan? CG maybe?