Thursday, May 7, 2026

Disappointed - Badly Done 3D Print!

I want to build a Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389. It requires the plastic PNC-50S nose cone with the "finlets" on the side like the larger Jayhawk.

I didn't want to pay a premium for an old unbuilt kit. After having some beautiful 3D parts made for the recent Centuri Skylab build, I decided to have one of the online 3D printers make the nose cone for me.

After a search, I found Jack Hydrazine had submitted 3D files for the PNC-50S nose cone to thingverse.com. Thanks Jack! The hard work is already done . . .

After too many text messages, and a assurance that the sizing was correct, I used PayPal funds to pay for the nose cones. Two nose cones and two bases for $18.00

On the right is what I received. The outside diameter is only .60". It should have been larger, at .976" diameter to fit a BT-50.

Here's a closeup, check out the ridges.  

The finlet trailing edges are rough, looks like my dog chewed on them.

I'm not mentioning the vendor name yet - I'll give them a chance to correct the mistakes.

3 comments:

  1. Those are really bad 3D prints - period. I have a 5 year old Ender 3 and it prints far better than that. I use it for printing nose cones as well as other components. Never had a print turn out that bad. Even on a draft mode setting it never printed that bad.

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  2. That second one really is horrible. Something seriously wrong with that printer. I hope they make it right for you.

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  3. Wow, I'd be embarrassed to take money for that!

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