Hi again after some weeks of "inactivity" on this blog. Inactivity is quoted because behind the scenes there has been a lot of work.
Below you can see some photos of the work done during the summer up until now. The landing gear has been done again from the beginning (both crosstubes and skids). I used 10mm full aluminum rods this time. The skids have been done again too. Then some work on small and bigger parts with CAD and my customized mUVe3D. Strobe cap, antenna, side maintenance step, Pitot tube, various covers, hanging jacks, 28V panel cover, crosstube access steps, rear light cap...
I have found a way to reproduce from photos the "Agusta Bell - Jet Ranger" label that should be put on both sides at the front of the aircraft. I had to 3D print the molds for the crosstube fairings that you see assembled below.
There has been a lot of work for the grid at the rear of the heli that it had to be perfectly fused with the body of the "hump" at the rear near the oil radiator. The grid comes from... my wife's kitchen and an old protective grid for pans like this one.
Below there is a special part that gave me headaches for months before I have finally managed to make it from scratch using Autodesk's Fusion 360 and T-splines. The part is the cuff that joins the crosstube fairing to the fuselage and its geometry is far from being trivial. The whole thing needs to fit both to the crosstube fairings and to the shape of the fuselage body. The result is two molds made of FunToDo Standard Blend resin with my mUVe3D DLP printer. It took around 2h with 100-micron z-resolution to print (total height ~4cm). The molds will be copied with silicon RTV and then the real covers will be made of carbon fiber like the fairings for the crosstubes (see pictures below).
I am really glad I managed to build 3D models of those cuffs because they have been the blocking points for weeks and I had really underestimated their complexity. Now I need to make the rear ones and laminate with carbon fibers. I hope that after that the heli build will accelerate a bit.
Cheers until the next update!
Below you can see some photos of the work done during the summer up until now. The landing gear has been done again from the beginning (both crosstubes and skids). I used 10mm full aluminum rods this time. The skids have been done again too. Then some work on small and bigger parts with CAD and my customized mUVe3D. Strobe cap, antenna, side maintenance step, Pitot tube, various covers, hanging jacks, 28V panel cover, crosstube access steps, rear light cap...
I have found a way to reproduce from photos the "Agusta Bell - Jet Ranger" label that should be put on both sides at the front of the aircraft. I had to 3D print the molds for the crosstube fairings that you see assembled below.
There has been a lot of work for the grid at the rear of the heli that it had to be perfectly fused with the body of the "hump" at the rear near the oil radiator. The grid comes from... my wife's kitchen and an old protective grid for pans like this one.
Below there is a special part that gave me headaches for months before I have finally managed to make it from scratch using Autodesk's Fusion 360 and T-splines. The part is the cuff that joins the crosstube fairing to the fuselage and its geometry is far from being trivial. The whole thing needs to fit both to the crosstube fairings and to the shape of the fuselage body. The result is two molds made of FunToDo Standard Blend resin with my mUVe3D DLP printer. It took around 2h with 100-micron z-resolution to print (total height ~4cm). The molds will be copied with silicon RTV and then the real covers will be made of carbon fiber like the fairings for the crosstubes (see pictures below).
I am really glad I managed to build 3D models of those cuffs because they have been the blocking points for weeks and I had really underestimated their complexity. Now I need to make the rear ones and laminate with carbon fibers. I hope that after that the heli build will accelerate a bit.
Cheers until the next update!
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