Bukobot Fly - Mod7 - Printable glider

thingiverse

This is a remix of "Bukobot Fly - 1 piece printable glider that flies!" https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:22268 by deezmaker. I was searching for a model to create with my son, and this one caught my eye. I made a few copies of the original then started tweaking it. My goal was to reduce weight and make it fly a little slower. This is where I ended up after making a few changes. I enlarged the original model by 125%. I tapered the leading edge of the wing, thinned the vertical fin to 0.8mm, and extended it forward. I also tapered the rear of the fuselage/tail boom. Thinning the horizontal stabilizer and wing to 0.24mm and shortening the nose helped me get balance with a M3 x 8 hex head pan screw. Printing this was a challenge on a stock Tarantula Pro print bed. It wasn't flat enough, so I ended up buying 235x235 borosilicate glass and using glue sticks or hair spray to get the PLA to stick. Getting the print bed level was another challenge. The bed needs to be supremely level in order to get consistent 0.24mm thickness on the flying surfaces. It took me a few tries until I got it just right, but even after I got things tweaked, I still have occasional issues. Printing things this thin consistently is tricky. Expect to have some failures, because this thing is hard to print. The model needs to be oriented at a 45 degree angle to print on a 235x235 bed. The weight of this model came out between 12.5g and 13.0g including the 0.5g screw. This model is about 1g more than the original, but it flies slower due to lower wing loading. I added dihedral in the same way as the original model, and I also found it helpful to add a little washout to the wing tips as well as crease the wing down the length of the span to add an airfoil shape. Sliced using PrusaSlicer v2.1.1 with these settings: fan always on, fan disabled on first layer, first_layer_temperature = 195, first_layer_bed_temperature = 55, temperature = 185, bed_temperature = 50, fan_speed = 50, fill_angle = 45, first_layer_height = 0.12, layer_height = 0.12, first_layer_speed = 40, perimeter_speed = 100, external_perimeter_speed = 50%, infill_speed = 120, solid_infill_speed = 50%, top_solid_infill_speed = 50%, bridge_speed = 60, gap_fill_speed = 20, travel_speed = 120.