Hi Max,
since aluminum mast has those 2 screws, i designed a plastic part with foil profile inside the square tube so that mast goes inside square tube like if it’s solid, and it’s fixed from below with 2 long screws. It’s very rigid.
The mast foot is actually a very strong piece all 3d printed and very tied to the aluminum profile. Not sure if it will break but it seems unbreakable…
For the moment this is just the Foil design, but the Mast foot has already a prepared space for the cables to go through the mast and inside the mast foot. It’s just needed to make a hole in the aluminum plate on the end of mast foot.
For the moment the inside of the mast or the square tube are not waterproof, but i was thinking to use polyuretane expanding foam if needed to make it waterproof later.
For the moment i am already designing Foil Version 3… skipped version 2 that seemed too small… The main wing will be fully 3d printed in 3 attaching parts…
Hi Giga,
i didn’t go for Aliexpress or Alibaba since they required big values for transportation and huge minimum quantities. Look for a local aluminum profile retailer or local company that makes building exteriors. They should sell or know where you can buy those profiles. I bought from this company but i am not sure if they are present in many countries: http://www.navarraaluminio.com/en/products/download-product-brochure.html The profile i bought was the sun break blades the smallest one on page 47.
The wood wing was made from 3 wood blades of 4 mm glued and clamped into a mold with the pretended curvature. Made the mold so that i could make more if needed, but i guess a 3d printed wing will give me more complex and freedom to design the wing exactly like i want.
Thank you very much. Are you from portugal? How did the delivery work?
How did you find the company? I guess there are similar companies in germany, but I got no clue how to find them.
Yes I am from Portugal. I went to the factory to pick-up the blade and they cut it there for easier transport.
I am sure you can find a lot of aluminum factories in Germany.
I found this manufacturer that is referenced in some shade break sites. I could not find blade profiles in this site, but i am sure they must have them or at least know who sells them…
Thank you very much, I found out the company next to the village I am from (and my parents are) sells sunblades
I sent them a request, lets see what turns out
Thats the profile I asked about. May I ask how thick your blade is? I guess I read some where that the masts are about 20-30mm. This one would be 50mm and it is the most slim one I could find.
I work with Aluminium profiles in my day job. There are a ton of companies in Germany that make extruded Aluminium. But not many that sell profiles. Extrusion dies are cheap compared to injection moulds, so most of the time the manufacturers make custom profiles for each customer. If you want a standard square tubing, chances are they won´t have a mold that you can use. So you need to ask the companies that make sun blade products. They will have off-cuts that they could send to you. Explain them what you need it for and try to buy a whole length which is always 6m. Then sell it here. One length of mast tubing should cost about 5-10€/m to buy from the extrusion manufacturer. So they can charge you 10-20€. The best way to cut it to length is a chopsaw with carbine teeth.
Apologies for asking and I don’t mean to be negative but have these been tested in the water? It seems very thin walled and are you adding glass or carbon over the 3D printed base?
Just wondering if these have been tested under real world conditions before trying something like this.
Beautiful work though, and great design. I hope this shade material has the torsional strength to fly a wing on as that’s a much faster build than composites.
Hi Giga,
that value cannot be right. For all those different lenght measures the width is always 50mm? It doesn’t make much sense to me. My profile is 120 lenght for 19 mm width. 50 mm should be ok for the profile with 300mm length, but not for the others.
Hi Giga,
sorry for not answering before… missed this comment.
My blade is 20mm x 120mm. I believe 50mm wide is a bit large but it might work. My profile is 2mm thick.
Hi gang, looking for an advice. Torpedo is on the way to be built, got cheap Gartt 510 kv (3.1kW) and waiting for hobbyking to have another motor in stock (620kv aqua). Still searching countless EsC reviews. Will run 6 or 7:1 (reisenauer) on 10 or 12s, depends on testing. In the mean time, i will draw and mold wings, think of best shape to connect them and to minimise drag.
In this case, mast is welded to the fuselage (alu pipe, basically peters build but trying to go slimmer where i can) and i am having thoughts about stressing the tube with this type of mount. Images say 1000 words so:
I would fix wing (wing and mount would be single piece) with screws through the alu pipe but wondering will this hold. Will be made from something strong. What u think?
You couldn’t be better inspired.
After 10 years of research on mast profile, what is most praised today for air/water interface is this airfoil section: NACA 0010-35 from NACA 0010-35 (naca001035-il)
The leading edge (LH side) is slightly round
Not sure you are asking me… That first foil was made in wood, so no stl files. The second revision i don’t think they would made a good foil, so i never printed the right wing… I left that design version and made a third version that i will try in a few weeks… Just had some issues mixing the epoxy resin to build the rails for the foil… i will need to wait at least one week to make sure resin will cure… Check my other posts where i put the stl files for my third version foil wings.
