Adjustable RC Airplane/Aircraft Propeller Ceiling Hanger for the Hangar

thingiverse

I was able to design a set of hooks that slide on rails, allowing you to hang most size RC Airplanes from the ceiling safely. A complete set includes one of each hook and two of the rails. I strongly advise against using these for planes with rubber bands or o-rings holding the props in place or flimsy props. There are likely many more uses than just hanging planes from them. You can see the two planes behind my design in the second picture hanging from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1093029. Update #1 - I have a lot of MakerGeeks Crystal Yellow PETG, so I printed a set using it. It slides together without any oil needed. I added 3 pics with a Rare Bear hanging from them. You must leave a space between the rails for that spinner. Update #2 - A friend had to move and couldn't bring his planes, so I ended up buying 17 planes. This included many I had owned and sold in the past. The CZ Scimitar I sold because it was so hard to store. Not anymore! See the new picture of it hanging in the basement. With the hooks I have been able to add a lot of planes to the collection and keep them all around the basement and out of sight of my wife. She even bought me a massive dehumidifier for the basement to keep the planes rust-free and in shape. Print Settings: Printer: RapidBot 3.0 Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: .2 Infill: 20% Notes: For these I use Honeycomb Infill, 4 parameters, 4 solid top and bottom layers, MakerGeeks 1.75 PETG. Post-Printing: Oil for movement is not necessary because the rails and hooks are a very tight fit if you are over extruding. Before putting the hooks on the rails, I have been putting oil on the rails to ensure I can move the hooks on the rails. Without the oil (Liquid Bearings, 3 in 1, or other hobby oil) the hooks are really hard to move. Update: After getting some bridge tests to print, I no longer need to oil my rails because they are now smoother. How I Designed This: Hanging Planes by the Prop: I love my plane collection but was running out of room. I have an empty section of mostly unfinished basement that used to hold a huge old furnace and two oil tanks. I've been keeping a few bigger planes on the floor there, but there was so much wasted space. I downloaded and printed two of the Flugzeug Halter - Breit STLs in the Model Plane Ceiling Hooks thing from dschiedsch. They worked but were a tight fit for some planes when I tried them out. That is when I decided to make something adjustable to fit any single two-blade prop RC plane and keep the hooks as close to the motor as possible where the props are stronger. I started from scratch using Sketchup and just kept playing with the design until I had something I liked and worked. The hook and rail connection is a very tight fit. That is intentional because I did not want wander through my walk-in plane closet and bump things off the ceiling. Between the rail base to under the T-ish part, I have been using Liquid Bearings along the inside corners and then working the hook back and forth a few times to make the hooks slide smooth. Without the oil, the hooks are extremely hard to slide. Even with the oil, you might need to use two hands to slide one. Because I printed the rails standing up, the grain of the two parts are going against each other which makes the plastic click for each layer it moves. This is an unintentional effect, but I like it. Rail Spacing: As you can see in the pictures with the Carbon-Z Cub, I mounted my first one with the two rails apart thinking I'd leave space for the prop spinner. There was plenty of room, but I will leave that set alone. For the rest of my planes, I will be mounting the hangars very close or completely together. Screws: On the left side, I only used two standard coated screws instead of four and they are holding fine. I am not sure of what size they are because they were not in a box, but they are like a basic drywall screw. Make sure your screws as flush or counter sunk or the hook will catch on them. Final thoughts: I know this design may not be the best, use too much plastic, be overkill, or have many other flaws. I had fun making and testing them. I will keep tweaking them as I get feedback. As anyone with a large collection of airplanes knows, your collection is constantly changing. These work for me. And now I have room for more planes once I print more of these to get the rest of the larger single 2-blade prop planes off the ground.