Scale UH-1H 450 Class Custom Build Project

[Highspeed1964]

Hey folks,

Sorry I've been away for a while now. Haven't had much to update as I've been in R&D mode. Searching for a better Planetary Gear drive as the one I have is too bulky, heavy and would need an adapter plate made. Too much machining involved in getting this part set up to a better fit. So I've gone on a search and found a couple potential sources.

The first one I tried has a direct bolt-on fit and the case sizes match up perfectly. However, the pinion gear size for this is really too small to fit on the motor shaft. There are a couple of options, one is going up to the next size unit, but they are out of stock at the moment and they say 6 -16 weeks for delivery of such items. Another option I am pursuing right now is a different source. But they don't have prices on their website and this usually means "pricy". Of course these are Swiss made gear boxes so they should be top-notch quality. I'm submitting a price request just to get a ballpark figure and if they're in a decent range I'll discuss specific requirements.

I have also run the first test piece out of the mold for the lower hull with quite satisfactory results... for the most part. I didn't like the color it came out. Too "crayon green" to me. So I mixed in a bit of black to darken it and a touch of yellow to offset the absolute green and I'll run another test from that. But before I do that I want to test some cutouts in the first test piece for things like the battery cover and other cavities for electronics components.

In the mean-time. I do have a couple shots of the test piece as-is so here they are:



Too "crayon" green for my liking.



I did make a modification to the lower hull piece in that the upright posts behind the pilot/co-pilot doors are at the wrong angle for releasing the part from the mold. So I chopped them off and will put them on the upper piece. This allows those parts of the skin to form a lap-joint with the frame which will still be built into the lower hull and give a much stronger joint between the two halves when finally assembled. You can also see a patch of darker color where I was testing the newly mixed color for the next run. I'm pretty certain this is a much better color for the external skins so I'll pull another run in the next couple of days or so.

But I'm quite pleased with the form of the final part as it came out of the mold. This is going to be an impressive body in my opinion. I just can't wait to see this section finished. Then on to the flight mechanisms. I'll post a couple more shots showing the motor/gear drive later this evening as it is right now. I've also found the umbrella gearset I'll probably be using for the main shaft final drive.

Sorry the posts have been a bit more sparse lately, but it should pick up again a bit soon.

Thanks as always for watching,

Highspeed

[Highspeed1964]

I'm still in a Research and Devolopment (R&D) phase, but I wanted to touch bases here so that you know this has not been forgotten. But I have some exciting news!

I have found my source for the planetary gear drive I will be using in this project. It is a bit more expensive than I had hoped, but it will be a direct bolt on to my motor without having to make any adapters or machine anything special at all. The drive I selected can be seen here. I will be using the 4.33:1 drive ratio along with a 3:1 umbrella gear arrangement for an overall 12.99:1 reduction to obtain the slower headspeeds I want for scale model flying.

Here is a rough diagram of my drive train. Hope this comes through ok in the final post.

EDIT: The text based drawing came out like garbage in the final post so I'll get an actual line drawing of it up soon. Sorry.

Sorry this doesn't quite line up right. The concept is to get a compact design, maintaining component placement per the real-world counterpart as much as possible. This design utilizes fairly standard parts but allows me to locate all the components out of the cabin/cockpit area per my original goal. The weight distribution has been tested and so far everything balances well with the battery up front under the floor-boards.

So that's what I've been up to the last couple of weeks (on top of beta testing some software elsewhere).

Hope to get some more work done on the fiberglass body soon, so stay tuned.

As always, thanks for watching.

Highspeed

[Highspeed1964]

Hello again,

Having figured out the source for the planetary gear reduction drive, I've taken some time to try a new color mix for the gel-coat. I started with a fresh base and add pigment in different proportions. I also added in a touch of brown this time and I think I've gotten the right color I was after.

So I made a new test part (same part as before - the lower hull) and I think it came out much better! See for yourself in the picture below.

I've also gotten some more done on the design of the mechanical drive train and found a wonderfully simple way to make the 45(ish) degree gear-box for the tail. I'll go more into that a bit later as I'm still working on the details, but it will utilize mostly off-the-shelf parts with only a couple of pieces that will need to be custom made. The main thing is that I will be able to use standard tail gears in a slightly modified arrangement as the heart of this piece.

So here's the new color I'll be using for the exterior of the entire fuselage. Let me know what you think.



The piece on the right is the first test piece. Again, I just think it's too "crayonish" for my liking. The test piece on the left is the new color and I think it is definitely more of the army green that I was looking for. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

That's about it for now. I'm still working on getting a line drawing of the drive train together so you can see what I have up my sleeve for that and I hope to have that posted here soon.

As always, thanks for watching.

Highspeed

[Highspeed1964]

So as promised, I have put together a drawing showing the mechanical assemblies. It is not complete yet and there are incongruities in the drawing but I have put it together in a CAD drawing so I can start figuring out the dimensions for the mounting blocks, bearing blocks and side-plates.

What you see in the image below is the complete drive-train from the motor to the main mast and torque tube. I have a good idea how I'm going to do the angled gear-box for the torque tube going up the vertical stabilizer to the tail rotor shaft, but I'm still learning the CAD thing and I'm not sure how to draw that yet.

What is not included in this drawing are the servos, linkages, swashplate and rotor head. I DO have most of the parts pictured in this drawing with the exception of the shafts and one-way bearing coupler either in-hand or on the way. The couple of items that are on the way should be here in the next few days so I can begin putting some of this assembly together and do some run testing on the motor/gearbox combination.

So here's a screenshot of the CAD drawing in the CAD program:



Now, I need to explain a few items in the drawing.

First is the motor. It is the gold and black cylinder at the top right of the drawing. The motor is a 3600kV, 3S motor. It can be seen here. The motor will be driven by the HobbyWing Platinum Pro v3 50A ESC.

Next is the black and silver cylinder. That is the primary gearbox. It is a planetary gear reduction drive unit with a 4.33:1 reduction ratio. Now you ask, "why such a low ratio?"

Well, if you look all the way to the left of the drawing you'll see two beveled gears, one on the horizontal shaft and one on the vertical shaft. This gear combination has a further reduction ratio of 3:1 for a total of 12.99:1 which for all practical intents and purposes is a 13:1 ratio with which you are probably very familiar.

Now that mess of round gray pieces between the gearbox and the bevel gears is actually a couple of components.

First is a coupler that bolts to the output shaft of the gearbox. This coupler also is the one-way bearing housing. That one-way bearing is what actually couples to the intermediate (horizontal) shaft and provides the autorotation capability. Then there is the tail drive (primary) and driven (secondary) gears. These gears give a 1:2 overdrive ratio to increase the speed to the torque tube. (The torque tube is the long shaft extending off the right edge of the drawing.)

Now, from the main shaft back through to the torque tube you have an increase at the bevel gear of 1:3 which then passes through the tail gear pair at a 1:2 ratio to give an overall 1:6 ratio between the main rotor and the tail rotor.

Having done the math, the motor will be spinning at approximately 28,575 RPM based on a 70% throttle and a 90% motor efficiency. The gearbox reduces this to about 6600 RPM and the bevel gear further reduces this to 2200 RPM for the main rotor head speed. That head speed is increased by 6 for a tail rotor speed of 13,200 RPM. (You can also take the 6600 RPM of the gearbox output and multiply by 2 and you get the same result.)

I know these head speeds are lower than most of you are used to in a 450 size helicopter, but I am going for scale flying with this aircraft and actually want these lower speeds to give more realistic flight characteristics.

Now as long as the motor is turning (and in the right direction) the one-way bearing will drive the rest of the components for a CCW (viewed from the top) rotation of the main rotor and also a CCW (viewed from the left side of the aircraft as the tail rotor is on that side) rotation of the tail rotor. This seems unconventional to us RC heli flyers as this put the forward tail rotor blade in a downward travel away from the main rotor down wash. but that is how the real world full size helicopter is set up. And since I am going for the most realistic representation of that helicopter I can get, this is what I want to do on this one as well.

Anyway, that's where I've gotten to on the mechanical design and wanted to share that with you all. Hope you enjoy and as always...

Thanks for watching,

Highspeed

[Highspeed1964]

So I finally got a package in the mail that I've been waiting for! It is the planetary gear drive that I ordered from Switzerland (through a US distributor) for the drive train of the helicopter. I actually ordered two - one for doing preliminary testing and a mock-up on the bench and the other for the final build.

The details are below in the text for each picture. The first several pictures are the unboxing and the last few are the assembly.



This is the package that arrived. Pretty compact.



And the packing slip detailing what is included inside the box.



Opening up the box was a little disappointing at first since it seemed pretty empty. I had expected these units would come packaged in individual boxes with foam inserts for protection. However, as it turns out the packaging was quite satisfactory. See the next image.



Opening the box further revealed the fold-over cellophane/cardboard carrier that held it all in place for shipping.



Removing it from the carrier, the parts were further contained inside a plastic zip-lock pouch.



The contents of the pouch included two drive units, two adapter plates (custom drilled for my motor), two pinion gears, six case screws and three paper gaskets (not pictured as they were tucked away inside the instruction sheet shown in the next photo.)



The assembly instructions. All pretty straight-forward as you'll see in the next few pictures of the assembly process.



First I laid out all the parts in sequence to get a feel for each component and how it will be installed.



The next step was to mount the pinion gear to the motor output shaft. To ensure it is place at the proper distance, I decided to mount the adapter plate to the motor and measure 5mm (+/- 0.2mm) from the surface of the adapter plate. I then used the required loctite to secure the pinion gear to the shaft at the position.



Next, one of the paper gaskets is installed onto the flange of the adapter plate. You can barely see it in this shot, but I wanted to document each step for you to see.



Finally the gear box is put in place over the adapter plate. I needed to line up the pinion gear with the internal gears so that the teeth were engaged properly. After the case was in place it was a simple matter of installing three of the screws into the holes around the outside and voila! It's all together, ready for testing.

I will be doing some comprehensive testing on this unit beginning with slowly hand spinning the motor to ensure everything feels smooth and no binding anywhere and then I will continue with low speed tests under power progressing to full speed.

This will be done on video and I'll post it to YouTube so I can link to it in my next post.

That's about all for now, but I am excited to have these components coming together.

I also have a possible source for getting the metal components (custom shafts, bearing blocks, motor mounts, etc.) made so that I can complete this assembly and do full testing on it. I'll keep you posted as I hear more on this as well.

As always, thanks for watching.

Highspeed

[Highspeed1964]

Hey guys,

As promised in my last post, I have made a video of the first run-up of the motor with the planetary gear drive!

Now bear with me as the video got cut at the end (my camera, not a YouTube issue) so the discussion of the motor/gearbox/main rotor didn't come through. But the video does have the complete run-up testing and discussion so it's a good watch for sure.

The video can be seen here:

First Run-up Video of a Planetary Gearbox (12 min 10 sec)

Now that you've (hopefully) watched the video, here are the calculations I was going to show:

Motor Speed (Raw)

3600 rpm/V * 12.6 V = 45,360

With a 90% efficiency that comes to:

45360 * .9 = 40,824

Now given that I anticipate running at a 70% throttle setting, the motor will be running at about:

40824 * .7 = 28,576.8

Running that through the planetary gear reduction drive at a 4.33:1 ratio:

28576.8 / 4.33 = 6599.722863741339 rpm (call it 6600)

This output is then fed to an "intermediate shaft" that couples to the main shaft through a 3:1 umbrella gear set. So the main shaft (and thus, the rotor too) will spin at:

6600 / 3 = 2200 rpm

Now going back to that intermediate shaft, there is also a tail drive/driven spur gear set that has an overdrive ratio of 1:2. The the tail will be running at:

6600 * 2 = 13,200 rpm

This gives an overall tail rotor to main rotor ratio of:

13,200 / 2200 = 6

A 6:1 ratio. Perfect for scale/sport flying.

Hope you've enjoyed today's update.

As always, thanks for watching.

Highspeed

[jgiannakas]

Keep them comming, would love to see the final build and maiden!

[Highspeed1964]

Hey Guys,

Well it has been a while for sure since I've posted an update here. Still been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work on the project getting the mechanical design figured out.

But I'm back at the build again. I've started working on the frame components so I can get everything stuffed in there (other than the mechanicals for now).

I started out by making a flat sheet of fiberglass. I used a piece of plexiglass as the form and built up a sheet starting with the grey gel-coat. Then two layers of medium weight fiberglass, then three layers of light-weight followed by another two layers of medium.

Once this cured, I popped it off the form and drew out the pieces. I'll need to make at least one more sheet to make all the parts I need but I figured I'd go ahead and cut out what I had and test fit things as much as I could at this point. So I ended up with the main beams, the two main forward bulk-heads, and the walls for the rotor shaft housing.

Next I'll be doing the rear cabin bulk-head, pilot/co-pilot seats, center console and main instrument panel next as well as the minor bits and pieces needed to complete the frame.

But for now, here's a couple of pics for you to see how things are coming along. It's starting to take some good shape again and it's an exciting thing to see it get to this point. It won't be long and I'll have the main body done. I still have to make the molds for the tail and get that section together but that'll happen soon, too.



The first pieces of the frame loosely fit together. No bonding of any sort at this point. Just a quick test fit.



Side view. I still have several more parts to make before I can complete the frame.

Initially, the frame will be assembled without glue/bonding agent as I need to fine tune the fit. A little sanding here and there to get the contours just right and then I'll bond it together as a single unit (without the shell) using a Cab-o-sil/Resin mix. Then I'll put it into the shells (I still need to make the shell for the upper main body, but that won't take long or be too difficult) to form the completed main fuselage.

Again, I want to thank you for following and especially your patience as I've been away for quite a while.

Enjoy,

Highspeed

[Highspeed1964]

Been a slow week on the Huey build, but I did get some more frame pieces made. But before I get to the pictures I've had another two-steps-forward, one-step-backward moment.

While test fitting some of the new parts, I realized that I could have made this framing even better. So I am going to do just that. Similar to when I was first building the frame for the wooden prototype, I came to the conclusion that the more pieces I can incorporate into one, more solid piece the better it will be.

What I'm going to accomplish is sort of a "uni-body" construction. The main lower beams (which also have the upright side walls of the mainshaft "box" are going to get re-made to include the upper beams all in one piece. I have started cutting those pieces out but do not have them finished so I took pictures of what I have so I can get an update posted for your perusal.

Having said that, let's get to the pictures.



Here, I've created a piece which will become the instrument panel. I will eventually attach a photo-realistic printout of an actual instrument panel to the face before I install it in the aircraft. I'll also build the back housing to give it that finished look. Finally, I'll make a "glare shield" out of rubber stripping for the ultimate realism.



Next, I cut out the piece that forms the aft cabin wall. This piece is also one of the main cross beams for the landing strut mounting block. (More on that later.)



Well, it's later! As you can see in this side view, the three main upright framing pieces in addition to one more cross beam create two channels in the lower hull. The channels will be filled in with plastic blocks that will serve two purposes - provide mounting points for the landing skid struts and add additional strength to the frame itself. The front block will actually be two smaller blocks - one on each side of the battery compartment which means the forward strut will also be a "split" design.



Finally, I have to of course include an obligatory (by my own need) shot of the whole thing temporarily paired up with the tail boom. Now this is still the original wooden model tail as I have not yet made any progress on building the fiberglass version (not even the molds, yet) but it still looks pretty darned good!

Well that's about it for now. But it's good to be back in action on this build again.

And of course, thank you for watching. Your patience will be rewarded before too long (hopefully). I just need to find a source for making the custom metal parts I need (primarily the shafts and mounting/bearing blocks for now, but ultimately the rotorhead stabilizer bar components as well) so I can move forward with the mechanical assembly(ies) too.

Until next time,

Highspeed

[RCBound]

Finally got a chance to give the thread a look. Nice work!

[Highspeed1964]

Thanks man! I've been taking a short break as I ran into a problem, tried to correct it and made things even worse. I'll be getting back on it shortly though. In fact, I started fabricating the wooden frame for the horizontal stabilizers this evening. It's one of the pieces from the wood model that still needed to be completed. I also may re-do the tail boom as I'm not real happy with the vertical stabilizer - wrong angle, too thick and curved like an older "C" model instead of the more modern "H" model.

Watch for new pics in the next couple of days for the horizontal stabilizer for certain.

Highspeed

[Brute71]

Cant wait for more progress! I might be able to help with some CAD modeling and machining as well. Feel free to PM me and I'll see if I can do it!

[Highspeed1964]

Originally Posted by Brute71

Cant wait for more progress!

Ask and ye shall receive! I've made very slow progress over the holidays, but here are a few shots of the horizontal stabilizers. Just the wood frame at this point (I've also added in the pivot shaft and mounting collar but I don't have pictures yet) but I like the way it's looking.



I started by laying out the ribs on the main spar. I placed spacers at the fore and aft edges to ensure uniform spacing. The ones at the rear are glued in place as they will form the trailing edge.



Next I added in the two remaining spars and removed the temporary spacers at the leading edge. It kinda looks like I'm building shipping pallets! lol



After trimming the spars, I sanded it to shape.



Wash, rinse, repeat... now there are two!



And the profile view showing the airfoil shape. These are upside-down as the flat side forms the top surface.

Originally Posted by Brute71

I might be able to help with some CAD modeling and machining as well. Feel free to PM me and I'll see if I can do it!

I'll shoot you a message, but here are a couple of screenshots from the CAD work I've done to this point. I'm placing these here for all to see the progress I've made on this part of the design.



I am going to attempt to replicate the actual Huey Cyclic/Collective control system in the model. This is the design I've made for the Swash Plate and Scissor Arm assembly. I used a light grey for the main components for visibility while working on the CAD drawings. There are still a few more details to add in on this shot such as the ball-links and the rubber boot at the top of the scissor arm hub.

Two key differences between this and the helicopters we fly are:

1. The Swash Plate is at a fixed height and is a two-servo-90 design at an offset of 45 degrees. The third ball link will be used to drive the articulated horizontal stabilizer just as it's done in the real Huey.

2. The cyclic to collective mixing is done post swash at the scissor arms. This is accomplished by moving the rotating scissor arm hub up and down on a non-rotating sleeve. This sleeve is driven by the collective control fork below the swash plate.



And here it is finished and "installed" on the main shaft ready for control links to be added in. I've also changed the color to the black that the final pieces will be.

Hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I am.

Happy New Year!!!

Highspeed

[RCBound]

Nice CAD work Highspeed

I would really enjoy modeling an entire functional heli sometime.

[Highspeed1964]

Hi guys,

I knows it's been reeeaaalll slow on the progress lately. However, I wanted to give you all an update on what's been happening on this project.

Firstly, I had become frustrated on my attempts at building the internal frame. If you've been following, I had been attempting to build the frame out of parts I was cutting out of fiberglass sheets. These parts were then to be assembled into the final frame. However, no matter how careful I was to measure and cut, the pieces just weren't fitting together right. My final attempt resulted in a complete mess and so I just stepped away for a while.

During the quiet time, I had worked a little on the wooden frame for the horizontal stabilizers. I have completed the frame as you're aware from recent updates, but just haven't been motivated to get the skins on them as it will be a new process of trial and error to get them wrapped around the curved surfaces. I will probably steam or boil the laminate sheet to get it to bend properly. I've just been a bit frustrated as of late and have been having a hard time keeping motivated.

Then in steps brute71 with an offer to help with some of the CAD work and machining for the mechanical assemblies. We chatted a good bit and the fire within started burning again. Part of this conversation revolved around prototyping the parts on a 3D printer before committing the work to the lathes and milling machines.

This got me to thinking... I decided to look into getting a 3D printer of my own so that I could do some preliminary prototyping of my own. (No intent on circumventing what brute71 might be doing for me as I'm sure his skills are far above mine in this area.) Then a thought struck me...

Why not scrap the fiberglass frame and print the parts on the 3D printer! I could easily make this a replicatable assembly and get a lot more precision let alone make this assembly easy to assemble without resorting to glue/epoxy joints.

Well, I've ordered the 3D printer and it should be here early next week! In the meantime, I've started working on the CAD design for the frame so that when the printer gets here (and I finish the "some assembly required" - it's a kit) I'll be able to start printing some parts to test the assembly and fit. This should make the whole process of building the frame go a lot quicker and a lot less expense. (Laying up fiberglass sheets isn't that expensive, but given the amount of mistakes I was making it was getting to be not so cost effective.)

My plan at this point is to make the two main beams and each of the cross-section ribs as separate (flat) components that will have screw tabs such that the whole assembly will be able to be assembled with a screw driver. Then the fiberglass shell pieces will be fastened to the frame, also with screws. Next the mechanical assembly will be assembled as a module and finally that module will be put in place.

This 3D printing concept will especially make building the tail boom frame a lot easier as there will be many inside curves that would be extremely difficult to cut out with my limited skills in this area. Printing the parts will allow so much more precision that I will be able to include such things as "hangers" for the telemetry antenna, push rod guides, etc. right into the frame. And I can fine tune the parts on the computer and just reprint as needed with little waste. A 1kg (2.2lbs) spool of filiment for the printer is around $25 - 30 and I'm sure that will go a long way towards printing any parts that need to be redone - even a few times - in comparison to the cost and time of making sheets of fiberglass and cutting parts out repeatedly.

So unfortunately, there's not much to show in this update as far as pictures are concerned. But I wanted to get an update to everyone so that you don't start feeling like this project has gone by the way-side.

Once I get the air frame completed, I may go ahead and release the 3D printer files to you folks that might want to build one of your own. At least some of the hard part will be done for you and I could provide the fiberglass shells at a small price (mostly materials and shipping but probably also a bit for the time.

In any case, that's what's been going on "behind the scenes" as of late. Hope to have more photo updates coming your way soon as progress begins to ramp up again now that I have had this "EUREKA!" moment so to speak.

As always, thanks for watching.

Highspeed

[RCBound]

Originally Posted by Highspeed1964

Hi guys,

I knows it's been reeeaaalll slow on the progress lately. However, I wanted to give you all an update on what's been happening on this project..........
.................As always, thanks for watching.

Highspeed

Right on man! I really really really need to start 3D printing more stuff with the Fortus 250mc I have access too before I graduate and no long do haha!

One thing I really want to do is print some sick canopy designs and also some FullFuse style tail booms cause they look sweet. Plenty other stuff I could do but I really want to get into custom CF and FG parts along with a little electronics production since I'll have my AAS in Electronics Tech soon.

Really anxious to see how the progress on your design goes once the 3D printer arrives, probably a little bit more high speed...haha no pun intended

[Highspeed1964]

So I got a tracking update on the 3D printer package saying those most exciting words in the hobby... "Out for Delivery"! So it should be here today.



In the meantime, I've spent the last few days preparing for the arrival of this new modeling tool by working on the design of the internal frame. There's still a lot to do on it but it's taking nice shape so I thought I'd put some screenshots up for your enjoyment.



Side view shows how the profile is shaping up!



Front left perspective view and...



Left rear perspective view give you a better feel for the look.



And finally a view from below. This one shows how the battery will fit. You can also see some of the screw tabs I've started placing.

The main beams had to be split into two halves due to the size. Even with an extra 70mm on the print bed of the model I'm getting, they wouldn't be able to be printed in one piece (each). But what I am doing is building in pieces that can easily be printed and then assembled with nuts, bolts and screws. This will make it easy to replace parts if one gets damaged rather than replacing the whole frame.

Also notice that I've added mounting rails under the floorboards for electronics components to be strapped on to. I'm trying to make this as hobby friendly as possible.

There's still more parts to add such as the canopy frames and detail work to do. I need to contour the cross-members, add more screw tabs and fine tune the shaping I have already done. The final shaping will be accomplished after I print out the first parts and test fit them to the shell.

So the next couple of days or so will be spent assembling the printer once it gets here.

QUESTION: Should I post pictures of the 3D printer build?

Anyway, as always...

Thanks for following.

Highspeed

[RCBound]

I'll just say if it feels like a waste of time to you then don't post pictures. If you feel motivated enough though, I'd almost suggest doing it in a new thread so this one doesn't get filled with questions about the printer...possibly could happen

[Highspeed1964]

Hello again everyone,

So I've gotten the 3D printer all put together. It took a couple of evenings, I had it mostly assembled the first and wired, fired up and tested the second evening. I initially printed the test file that came on the CD with the printer kit and then moved on to a test print of one of the parts for the Huey. I didn't have the grey filament yet so I just printed it with the black.

This got me going on the creativity and I was able to get a lot of detail work done with other parts as well. I'll cut to the chase and let you follow along in pictures...



Just a quick shot of the finished printer.



And the first prototype part. This is the aft half of the left main beam. I had to split it into two parts (fore and aft) as the part is too long to print as one piece. But this will work fine as I am making this assembly in parts to be bolted together. I've already gotten the design going for that to work well with this size limitation.



So after I got the grey filament, I was able to print the parts in the correct color (grey for the frame, black for the floorboards) and assemble the pieces I have done to this point. There's still a lot more to do fine tuning the details, adding screw tabs as needed and especially contouring the outer shape. But it's coming along quite nicely!



Here is the same assembly with the floorboards fitted in place. Again for size constraints as well as to facilitate assembly in modules I had to split this into pieces. It also helps in the design process, but I may later join the left and right halves so that there are only fore and aft pieces. That will help strengthen the assembly.



A cool (at least I think so) feature I've added are these rails underneath the floorboards. They are for mounting electronics components such as the ESC you see in this shot. Just insert your zip-tie(s)...



...place the component and sinch it down! Nice and solid mounting and keeps it straight.



Another cool thing about having a 3D printer is that if you don't like an existing component or can't find one that meets your design needs (such as the swashplate in this example), simply design and print a new one...



...snap it onto the bearing (again in this example of the swashplate)...



...and VOILA! Nice new part for the heli! This one is just a prototype and I have a lot of work to do on it so this is definitely not the final piece but I had to give it a quick try.

So considering that up until about a week ago I had never tried my hand at 3D printing I'd say it's coming along nicely. And when you consider that in that week I also had to build the printer from a kit, I'm doing really well. This is already proving to be an indispensible tool to move this project along and get things happening again so keep tuned as I continue the design, prototype and completion of this phase of the Huey project.

And again, thanks for following.

Highspeed

[RCBound]

I skimmed through some of that. Looks great so far! I just tossed a scale body on the 230S l, about to toss a video up. Idk how scale it is but it's the IFT Evolve 300CX.

Glad no major hiccups at all with the printer.