3Dlabprints 3d printed rc airplanes are a
piece of art, there is not much more to say.
I have been flying RC airplanes for the last
twenty years, so I really wanted to get one
of the 3D printed planes for myself.
This is the first video of a video series
in which I’ll show you how I properly made
one of these planes.
In this video I’ll show you how I figured
out the optimal print settings to get one
of these beauties in the air.
Guten Tag everybody, I’m Stefan and welcome
to CNC Kitchen.
I had my first RC plane almost 20 years ago
but never flew much since, as a small kid,
I was always afraid to crash it and put that
hobby aside for many years.
Around 10 years ago I got back into the hobby
with my Easystar, started doing FPV and also
built quad and tricopters.
So quite a while ago I saw pictures of the
Czech 3DLabPrint planes that are printable
on most home desktop printer but never managed
to make one, even after the Spitfire model
was available for free for everyone who bought
an original Prusa i3 MK2.
So this winter I thought it would be the time
to finally print one for myself and I contacted
the guys from 3Dlabprint if they would provide
the files for this video series which they
kindly did.
They have a whole range of different planes
for sale, from trainers to WWII models to
EDF jets.
The 3D models they sell are not just simple
copies of the outer shell of these planes.
They developed a modeling technique which
makes all the parts printable as very thin
and leightweight structures that don’t need
any supports.
The planes are separated into several pieces
that are later glued together and equipped
with the electronics.
If you print the plane in a clear plastic
the internal rib structure becomes visible
which shows the art and craftsmanship that
was used to create these models.
So even if you are a no RC pilot but love
airplanes and lightweight structures I’d
highly recommend taking a look at their models!
The smaller models like the Spitfire and the
Messerschmitt already start at $20.
I’ll be printing their model of the Messerschmitt
Bf 109 because so many printed already the
Spitfire, so why not print a good old German
plane?
Before I start printing the plane itself I
did a lot of tests on finding the optimal
extrusion factor, nozzle temperature and fan
setting which I approached with dozens of
these specifically designed test specimens.
In the next video I’ll then be testing different
gluing techniques and finally we’ll print
the parts, assemble everything and get the
Messerschmitt up into the air.
I’ll be printing all of the parts on my
currently still unmodified CR-10s.
I would have preferred my Prusa just because
of print quality and reliability but I thought
that these Bowden style printers became so
common these days that more people might be
benefitting if I tune the settings for this
printer.
I also will be using the latest version of
CURA for my build and not Simplify3D, because
CURA is free so everybody will have access
to it and you don’t have to spend another
$150 for that piece of software.
I have chosen Formfuturas transparent Premium
PLA for the print not only because my Dutch
friends have sponsored a roll but it also
showed the highest strength of PLAs I’ve
tested so far during my filament tests.
It is not the most ductile material so crashing
it might end in tears, but it is very stiff
and has good interlayer strength.
I have decided not to go with PETG because
the strength of it is smaller and much more
importantly the tensile modulus is around
30% lower than the one of PLA, which means
that at the same wall thickness it is 30%
less stiff.
Polycarbonate would also have been an option
due to its impact strength but first it’s
way more expensive and second the CR-10 would
not be able to print it without modifications.
For the test I designed a special tensile
test specimen, that is printable with only
a single outline and is reinforced at the
end to prevent it from crushing when I clamp
it in my test machine.
This should be a nice representation of the
structure we’ll print later.
I used atomic green Premium PLA for all the
tests because I didn’t want to use up all
my transparent material and I assume the results
should be pretty much the same.
Two key printing parameters the manual mentions,
that need to be tuned are nozzle temperature
and extrusion multiplier.
With higher temperature, layers usually fuse
together better and extrusion multiplier tunes
the amount of material that is pushed out
of the nozzle during printing.
Higher values lead to thicker walls but usually
also better adhesion between the layers.
Due to my previous experience I started with
a nozzle temperature of 200°C and increased
it in 15°C steps up to 245°C.
For each temperature I printed two samples
at 100%, 105% and 110% flow, weight them and
then ripped them all apart.
When we take a look at the results, we can
nicely see that with increasing flow we get
more strength and also higher temperatures
lead to higher strength up to the point, where
at 245°C we have a huge drop of the properties
again.
If we also consider the weight of the samples
it gets even more interesting, because we
see that with the same extrusion multiplier
more material gets extruded at higher temperatures.
So, if we take a look at the strength per
weight the mass of our parts increases disproportionally
in comparison to the strength so a factor
of 105% seems to be the optimum.
Since the difference between 215°C and 230°C
is not that high I will probably later decide
which temperature to choose depending on the
print quality.
Another interesting point I investigated is
part cooling.
3DLabPrint recommends not to use a fan for
the parts to increase strength but I wanted
to find out how high the effect really is
on my CR-10.
Therefore, I printed another set of test samples
at 230°C, 105% flow and fan settings of 0,
33, 66 and 100%.
The results might be a little counterintuitive
at first, because full fan and no fan at all
show the lowest average strength values.
With both settings I had one outlier, which
lowered the average quite a bit.
This outlier might result from printing errors
due to insufficient or too much cooling or
is just general scatter of the results.
In my opinion the results are pretty constant
so the influence of cooling is small at least
for my CR-10S, because first the cooling fan
and nozzle are pretty bad and secondly the
heatsink cooling fan also blows quite a bit
on the heater block and the part.
Also the layer times are pretty long so the
previous layer is probably cooled down regardless
of a cooling fan.
If you have another cooling setup I’d still
not go for full cooling because the influence
might be detrimental, so maybe print some
sample parts at different settings and choose
the lowest fan setting that still delivers
a good part quality.
So I also printed a couple of wing tips with
and without fan at 215 and 230°C and even
though the difference is small, stringing
is reduced with lower temperature and 50%
cooling fan.
What do you think, should I go with the better
print quality but maybe slightly reduced strength
or should I aim for maximum strength regardless
of the quality?
I guess we have figured out general print
settings quite well.
105% flow and print temperatures between 215°C
and 230°C give really good results.
I might try to optimize things like retraction,
wipe, coasting and so on in one of the next
parts since I have noticed quite sever blobs
at all end points during printing and there
are some visible holes in the outer shell.
In the next video I want to investigate different
methods of glueing the parts together.
3Dlabprint recommends CA glue, but do we get
better results with expensive superglue or
might even be 2 part epoxy a better choice.
How about solvent gluing PLA with acetone?
If you have any suggestions or experiences
then please let me know in the comments and
I’ll try to include them.
Winter is probably over and I really want
to finish this project during spring so the
next parts will be out in the next couple
of weeks.
If you enjoyed the video and liked my approach
then please leave a thumbs up, it really makes
a difference.
Subscribe if you want to see more of this
in the future and consider becoming a Patreon.
If you would like to buy a CR-10 then take
a look at the discounted links in the description
to help me run this channel.
Thanks for watching, auf wiedersehen and I’ll
see you next time.
