Given the much lighter weight, you could print it a fair bit thicker, to give more to work with for sanding smooth. Solvent Vapor polishing too might be ideal. Any roughness on the leading edge is gonna cause issues, same with wind power generators after a few years etc. interesting idea since you could try any kind of design you wanted
Not really a relevant Comment for such a high-tech video, but I remember hand-carving props for rubber-powered planes in my free-flight days. It was just a normal part of the process - you'd get a plan, buy the balsa, build the airframe, carve the prop... Tricky but lots of fun. Although they were huge and had wide, high-pitched, paddle-shaped blades, they weighed almost nothing. Most were whittled from a single block of wood, but a few really fancy ones were laminated from several sheets. If you picked the wood carefully (contrasting reddish and yellow-white balsa) they looked great - just like the stripy full-sized ones from WW1 biplanes. They were fragile but I don't think I ever broke one; even the biggest rubber-powered models only weighed a few ounces so things happened very slowly and gently. Yay for long grass! :-)
Interesting, and although I would never want to have a 3D printed prop as near my face as yours was in this video, here's Angus's view on strengthening any 3D print.
I printed it flat (90degr turned) with a lot of shells and 100% infill. I picked petg. Additionally I will paint it and rebalance it afterwards. Probably a lot of work but having a prop when shipping time is an issue (weekends, national holidays etc.) is worth it!!!!
i had a grinder blade explode and sliced my 2 fingers and role up my arm my fingers where just hinging there barley connected. i also had leather welding gloves on . first hospital wonted to take my hand. sec hospital wonted to save it with 90% use. and they did. i got lucky. since then i well always ware safety even with my planes. the fact it can do more damage then just taking your eye. plus i had a prop snap and stick in a sheet rock wall like a throwing knife.
ABS or PETG (or ideally Nylon or Polycarbonite) would give you more strength. One nice feature of the Original Prusa's with the E3D v6 hotend is they can print these materials out of the box.
Ive been 3d printing folding props from thingiverse and they are great for experimenting! If you print in abs acetone smooths it out as good as a real prop. I've also printed them with nylon.
Hi, im looking for printing folding props . Because i wanna build a foldable coaxial contra-rotating system but i cant find CW foldable propeller. Is it possible to contact to you for cad drawings and printing tips ? My e-mail adress is cemil.kahveci255@gmail.com
I've wondered what the result would be if a prop was 3D printed, so thanks for the video! If you were going to do it again though I'd be interested in seeing it in ABS with the acetone treatment to smooth out tge surface. This is probably where a lot of the noise & drag is coming from so it would be interesting to see if that makes a difference. Also I must mention please wear safety googles whilst doing these tests! A slashed eye or buggered retina is no good for your depth perception...
I've always wondered if you can get extra strength by baking the part after printing a close to the glass/printing temperature. In theory it should help it slightly reflow the layers and therefor assist bonding, but I've never really tried with something that needed the extra strength.
Printed some 75 mm 5 blade edf fans in pla, 3400kv on 4s is still not enough to let them explode. Good thing is printing is cheaper than buying a new fan and now I can just print ccw and cw fans for my hovercraft. Okay, they draw a bit more current when adjusting the pitch to achieve the original thrust and the responsive is a bit worse, but yeah it saves me around 5$ (new one is like 7$?) every time I break one. I had less luck with thingiverse props tho.
You're bound and determined to keep that new toy rolling Andrew! Perhaps, if you are near a bushfire area, you can take advantage of the new proposed Backpacker volunteer working rules. 3 shifts a day! ;-)
im getting ready to play with this idea. my first prop i tried at .2mm layer height an that was way to corse for my liking but it still printed so im gonna try it again but this time im gonna drop my layer height to .08mm an see if this helps with the finish an after that im gonna give it a shot on one of my resin printers an it will be printing at .05mm layer heights so it should give me the best results but ive not been printing with resin long so i dont know how the standard resin i have will hold up or if i should use something else.
Great video.. Wonder if you are still doing this stuff.. Some insane crazy good engineering filaments out there now that would kill that PLA one. I think if you can print a prop then go to a store then that is a huge win.
Interesting to try. I did something similar when I first got my 3D printer but soon concluded that commercial plastic props are so relatively cheap and so much more robust that it’s not worth the effort to make your own. Very good try though; you have certainly got to grips with the technology very quickly.
Ok. So maybe it wasn't as good as a commercially available prop (and it took hours to make) but... you just HAD to try it! I would too! (in fact, I'd probably try again and again- but that's just me) Thanx.
kimmy j i came from the to mono price mini v2. The MP has a good print quality but the print area is to small. The Ender 3 Pro have 225 to 225mm and is okay for me. For my office room is the printer size okay, a bigger printer is too big for the table.
Try printing it with PETG!!! Not sure why so many people are still using PLA considering the functionality and durability of PETG. PLA has the benefit of being biodegradable but PETG is recyclable. You decide.
Need help 🆘 I'm also trying to make 3d printed prop. But don't understand infill pattern and infill percentage for proper balance prob. As banggood stop product delivery in India due to Pandemic.
Hello, Even I wanted to design a propeller but I don't know how to design to design according to pitch (I know about diameter) but If we want 5.5 inch pitch how to design
I looked at props but decided that at the cost of them to buy vs the time and cost of printing them it wasn't worth it. The brittleness can be combated by printing it in PETG, I've been playing with that and it's very strong and more flexible than PLA but I still wouldn't bother printing a prop in it unless I had a very specific need that I couldn't buy. I'm going to be sticking to printing things that are custom to my needs and buying the cheap things. Currently my printer is working hard making a custom enclosure for a omnibus F4 based antenna tracker, took me hours to generate a model even though I took many different existing designs and chopped them up and pieced together in an editor to make mine!
@@AndrewNewton not dumb, there are a load of things that dont make financial sense to print that just have to be tried because they are so amazing but are a try just the once sort of thing.
I may have to go this rout with my custom RC Airboat. I need a real aggressive 4+ blade prop. Ideally something like a racing prop for a real airboat. Unfortunatley my boat has a rather odd prop size of 8" and therefore my choices are super limited. This is the boat... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dlOZaX35L6E.html
I find that multi blade spinners not that easy to come by in various sizes. I assume it's possible to print a spinner of uncommon requirements if you're able to print a prop ?
Not really a Surprise. You can print allmost Everything, allmost,😉 but Props...!? maybe with Fiber reinforcement, they can last, but how to get the Carbon into the Prop? I think the brittleness of the printed Items is the Major Flaw of this Technology. Keep going, When will You show us some Building, Constructions, of Wings or whole Planes? Greetings from🐜🔛🇦🇹 Vienna
Nowadays, it's trendy to print planes, props, you name it. 3D printers are just not meant for such details. It's a great idea if you scratch build a plane and print some parts though.
Any prop can go, but a 3D printed props trustworthiness would depend a ton on the quality of the printer. I happen to have a high quality printer that with some post treatment I believe would handle the stresses. I'm currently printing impellers in metal for real world use. I think the key is that we take advantage of the 3D printer to eliminate the weaknesses of it as well.
Printing at higher temperature too changes the strength of PLA. A higher resolution may improve things a bit too. It sounds like he's done with the experiment however. He's probably not inclined to continue the development.
well that is to bad, i was hoping this would have worked out, i been wanting to use my ender 3 to print propellers for my drone. it would be cheaper and i wouldn't have to wait a week for them to come in the mail!
At the :30 mark it looks like you have weak layer adhesion. Right at the center of the hub your layer lines are not even bonded to each other. I bet that has a lot to do with this 3D printed prop breaking on you. Plus the rough texture you have on that... You might want to try to optimize your printer for better quality prints and retry this...
@@AndrewNewton you don't need a "higher end printer". You just need to set your settings correctly. A sub $200 printer could properly print that any day.
This may be a better disign: drive.google.com/file/d/12w2jSE_l_IbchAg58EJmOnXoP6rIgx94/view?usp=sharing or full plane: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3358880
Interesting experiment, certainly had things shaking at the back end. Did it break in the air, or when it hit the ground? Suggestion: when balancing, instead of using tape, which can come of, try layers of your wife’s nail polish (can buy clear if you don’t like her red. Lol). Can keep adding layers to the tip, or scraping a little off to balance.
I always cringe a bit when I see hand launching with a pusher. Man if a blade lets go as it passes your ear goodnight nurse. They come off like stiletto dagger blades.
@@AndrewNewton Yes, I realise why...I have to say though, that printed prop is potentially an accident waiting to happen. I wish you had highlighted this in your video.
