Originally posted on the British Association of Radio Control Soarers forum where the original CG Balancer was found.

I have owned, build and used many styles of Center of Gravity devices over the years. I recently stumbled upon a picture of a mechanical CG Balancer on the British Association of Radio Control Soarers forum (BARCS - https://www.barcs.co.uk/ ) which was laser cut out of acrylic with etched and filled lettering. This was pure genius and had much more bling factor than the Digital Scales. It was as compact as a Digital Scale, required no batteries, calibration weights and could easily survive rolling around the back of my vehicle or a drop to the floor. Best of all I figured it had less than $20 worth of hardware.

I reached out to Neil Pritchett the designer of the CG Balancer to inquire if he would allow me to create a 3D Printed version as I do not have access to laser cutting equipment. Neil has graciously allowed me to share his design in a 3D printed format. The .stl files and assembly instructions provided are for personal non-commercial use only. Please reach out to Neil and thank him for sharing his design!

I built the CG Balancer with the following ideas in mind:

· Low cost.
· Easy to print using 1.75mm PLA filament.
· Self-aligning and simple to assemble.
· CG range of 30mm to 130mm
· Resolution of 0.1mm
· Can accommodate older balsa and fiberglass fuselages of up to 70mm wide X 70mm high.
· Compact, durable and easy to use.

Print, share and enjoy.

Kind Regards,
Dana E. Hager

AMA #4293
.

Very cool. And good people to share this. Thanks.

Dana,
This is cool. Thanks for sharing. By chance do you happen to have the stl's for each side as one piece?

Thanks,
Alan

Originally Posted by jh2rc97

Dana,
This is cool. Thanks for sharing. By chance do you happen to have the stl's for each side as one piece?

Thanks,
Alan

Sorry the current version was created so that it would accommodate almost any printer bed size. I’ll make a note for future updates.

You could import the stl files into Tinkercad and group them together and export again if you really wanted to.

Kind Regards,
Dana
AMA #4293

Have not done that before. I will try.
Thanks,

Dana:
That's excellent! Good on you for sharing the files! You are to be commended! One question, I have a mini 3D printer with a 4.7" square bed.....could it print your files?

Cheers!
Lyle

Originally Posted by Pappyjkns

Dana:
That's excellent! Good on you for sharing the files! You are to be commended! One question, I have a mini 3D printer with a 4.7" square bed.....could it print your files?

Cheers!
Lyle

Sorry for the delay.

The side rails are 6.875" (174.6mm) long and 1.625" (41.3mm) wide. You would not be able to print those parts on a 4.7" bed. All other parts should be able to fit.

What printer are you using? I will look to see if I can add a puzzle joint to the rails so it could fit that bed size.

Kind Regards,
Dana E Hager

AMA #4293