Brushless R/C Racing Hovercraft - For 200x200 printer

thingiverse

Some tinkering with a small frozen pond https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtGw097Tzy4 Edit Dec 21, 2017: A new lift duct design has been added. The standard duct is designed to neutralize the motor torque of a clockwise rotating propeller. You can mirror it in your slicer if you have a counterclockwise propeller rotation direction. In addition, a safety grate has been added which screws to the top of the duct and protects people's fingers. A grate for the thrust duct is on its way. This is a remix of the original hovercraft design to fit on a 200 x 200 printer. Reinforcements have been added at the joints of the upper and lower hulls to ensure the seam is strong. Welder's contact adhesive available on Amazon was used, but other adhesives such as Goop or E6000 available at Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot would work too. CA/Superglue will also work, but it's a brittle glue when cured. You want the adhesive to be somewhat flexible and strong or the joint may fail. Print the thrust duct and rudders with 1 perimeter and low infill - like 15% or so. They need to be light. A brim is recommended to keep the thrust duct stuck to the build platform. Tall and thin objects like the legs of the thrust duct tend to have large thermal stress distributions causing them to warp and pull off the bed. A 5mm brim solved my problems. The thrust duct requires the use of supports. I recommend printing in PETG or ABS. PLA will be brittle. ABS may cause problems with warping and printing large pieces without an enclosure. PETG is a good mix of strength and printing ease. The skirt ring was successfully printed in one piece on my 200 x 200 Makerfarm I3V 8inch printer. Pieces of 1.8mm filament were used as alignment pins. They also act to strengthen the joint. I am experimenting with a new thrust duct remix design to decrease weight (lower the CG) while increasing durability. Getting the skirt parameters correct using a trash bag is recommended, however, use of nylon ripstop material (parachute fabric) is ideal as it's tough, light weight, abrasion resistant and a much better material than a trash bag. Further remixed parts are coming as I work on the design iterations.