CAD design of Bathurst class corvette for 3D printing

Hi, long time listener first time caller here, Since there is no active club near me this is mostly a design exercise to work on my CAD and 3D printing skills. The ship is a mostly accurate Bathurst class corvette using the AusBG rulebook.

Reciever,motors servos etc are all modeled on those from my parts bin from various RC cars and helicopters, so they are not always the best choice but what i have on hand.
So far all the heavy items are below the waterline so as long as the hull has the displacement sea handling shouldnt be too bad and there is still over 1/2 the hull volume left for its pea shooter armament (original vessel had a 3" cannon so it would be useless in combat).

i will be eventually printing a hull less the windows in PLA on my homebrew printer, which can be done in one piece due to its 460*490*290mm build area (LOA of hull is a hair over 400mm) my printer can print up to 90mm/sec so its an "overnight" print job.

Luckily the hull is almost done as my PC is starting to stumble while rebuilding the model, and it takes almost 5 hours to slice (with support)

 

Printer was designed and built in a little over 8 months as my university thesis, the original plan was to add milling/engraving capabilities hence the over engineering but i never got around to that. its big its fast and was designed to make large parts (such as automotive bellhousings) using lost PLA casting

 

That's a thing of beauty...

Well done!

 

print took around 9 hours with a failure 1/3 the way through so it was done it two parts and plastic welded together. i need some brass to make the prop and rudder tubes, and to waterproof it befor i can test it out.

 

i am doing this one to test the fitment of the machinery, once it all works out i will print one in ABS with the windows built in and sheet it as usual.

 

3DprntMike if you are around check out the conversation (PM) I sent you.

Peter

 

My mabuchi FK130SH motors finally turned up and ive made the motor mount, progress is slow due to my new job. next up is getting the ESC sorted

 

If you're running those little motors at 6v, the Vex 29 ESC will work great. Just wire the red and black leads on the Rx side directly to your battery.

http://www.vexrobotics.com/276-2193.html

 

That looks like a handy little ESC, ill have to check the current draw on the motors though, it's only rated to 4A max, and these are awfully "hot" for a 130, my bench supply says each motor draws around 4A at 6V no load

 

That's more than hot! Could it be that you have 1.5volt motors? I would drop the voltage on your supply and see at what voltage the no load draw drops to a reasonable number. You don't want to end up like my on my first sea trials - I melted a pair of 380 motors, the end bells literally melting and the windings were completely black. That was a pair of 6V motors that drew 10amps each when in the water.

The 130 motors I run in my PDN draw around 1 amp at full throttle, driving a 1.25" prop on 6.6 volts.

 

It is hard to beat the HK brushed car ESC. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__32025__HobbyKing_X_Car_45A_Brushed_Car_ESC.html
Just need to pot them up in epoxy.

 

Another good micro ESC is Robot Powers Wasp. 10A continuous, 100% forward and reverse, and no silly break function. I run it in my Mogador.

http://www.robotpower.com/products/wasp_info.html

 

I re checked my motors, they draw 0.5A @6v no load and somewhere north of 6A at stall, so any 5-10A ESC will do. i do have a hobbyking Xcar ESC so i will use that until i run out of room in the hull.

i got some brass tube and built the prop and rudder shaft stuffing tubes. now i just have to find some tiny scale propellers.

 

If you're willing to have them shipped a long way, here's some links in the US:
http://battlersconnection.com/
http://www.shipsnthings.com/
http://www.strikemodels.com/
And here's an international site:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__255__254__Boats_Parts-Propellers.html

 

Yes, I am interested as well.

 

Very cool. Any updates?