Beautiful! What a great use of 3D printing. Perhaps someone will try an airplane ?

+1

I remembered that I see something like this at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16356
and I'm sure you can find more. You should have a closer look and use the experience to improve yours.

I like your work and look forward to receive my printer.

Test ride with slef-printed blades:

Have a nice day
wolfi

MeshMoth wrote:

...Im no expert on anything, but shouldn't the blade be pitched upwards instead of just flat? it looks like its all a horizontal motion without any lift...

maybe the circle part could be tilted and the blade be flat...

or both printed flat but separate pieces that are glued to a pitch?

Like i said, I know nothing so don't be angry if I'm wrong..lol

This particular helicopter is known as collective pitch.

Instead of the motor speeding up or down, the pitch of the blade changes.

It's also how I can fly upside down

OHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!.... lol sorry.

And when I said that it was flat, i meant the blade was pointing in a horizontal pitch... maybe im just being confusing...

Maybe this stl will help me explain better... I did a crude edit of the blade and probably mucked it up that it can't be used to print, but it should show what I mean...

Edit:

Let me try again:

...Im no expert on anything, but shouldn't the blade be pitched upwards instead of just flat? it looks like its all a horizontal motion without any lift...

maybe the circle part could be tilted and the blade be flat...

or both printed flat but separate pieces that are glued to a pitch?

Like i said, I know nothing so don't be angry if I'm wrong..lol

This particular helicopter is known as collective pitch.

Instead of the motor speeding up or down, the pitch of the blade changes.

It's also how I can fly upside down

maybe the circle part could be tilted and the blade be flat...

or both printed flat but separate pieces that are glued to a pitch?

Like i said, I know nothing so don't be angry if I'm wrong..lol

I would think, (looking at the design)
you'll either need to print the blade thicker (so it touches the bed), (or add support) so that the tip has some support (that overhang will be impossible).

Either way there is going to be a lot of clean up task afterwards, by  the time that's finished there probably will be no ridges.

Support will be a must when printing these blades. I'll also look into as small a layer height as possible to get a nice smooth airfoil. Later, I may try some polishing techniques to further reduce the drag on the part.

Assuming they don't fall apart on the initial stress testing.

Either way there is going to be a lot of clean up task afterwards, by  the time that's finished there probably will be no ridges.