FT Tutor and Cub landing gear wire reinforcement

prusaprinters

Finding the right thickness of wire to make gear for my FT Tutor is tough. I have tried using "Orbit Irrigation Sprinkler Flag" wire from the hardware store before, but it is ~1.7mm so it bends too easily to be suitable. I decided to wrap that wire with some plastic to give it a little more bend resistance.To assemble, print both halves of the wire shell, bend one of the sprinkler flags right in the middle and insert it into the wire gap. Secure with 5x zipties (4-in size). The zip ties in the main body only fit properly in one direction, so make sure the head of the ziptie is going to go into the body and just stick up a bit. No glue seems to be needed.When installing, the fat side faces the rear. You'll also need to cut small slots in the side of the fuselage for the the mount to stick through. Flite Test just digs the wire into the side, so this isn't much different. The slot on the bottom accepts a piece of scrap foam slid into it to lock the landing gear into the Tutor.The wheels are "Highly Configurable Wheel (One Wheel To Rule Them All)" by Alex Franke (CodeCreations), Apr-Jun 2012. I've included the STLs for the 100mm x 30mm wheels in the picture. They are held on with a blob of hot glue covered with heatshrink wrap, which may or may not hold long term. Don't be silly like me and print two of the same wheel, mirror one of them! 30mm is pretty large so to save weight I now use 100mm x 25mm. I've also included cylinder_spacer-wheellock.stl which is a collar that makes it easier to glue accurately, since the glue goes on the outside, making it hard to get hot glue in the wheel hub.Total weight of the V1 assembly pictured is 87g. V2 with the slightly smaller wheels is 74g.