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.
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.
ReplyDeleteThat second one really is horrible. Something seriously wrong with that printer. I hope they make it right for you.
ReplyDeleteWow, I'd be embarrassed to take money for that!
ReplyDeleteI have 3D-printed many of Jack Hydrazine's nosecones and several of my own design. It is not easy. First, the discrepancy between STL measurements and actual printed results is variable depending on printer and material so you pretty much have to tweak your dimensions to get a good fit. Second, the shoulder is an overhang of essentially one extrusion width and can be irregular or not a sharp 90° unless you print the cone and neck as two separate pieces. The winglets will need support so the trailing edge is going to be a bit bumpy. Finally, you are going to have a seam, no matter what. The best you can do is control where the seam will be. All this said, that is a pretty crummy print.
ReplyDelete