Bending all the little fairings?

[sonex892.]

If you are polishing, metal will look better. I'm a fan of annealing the aluminium for compound shapes. I made wooden male and female blocks then squeezed the rudder cable fairings in a vice.


Here's an old thread from years ago where I made metal naca ducts with annealing, form blocks and mallet. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=275&hilit=naca+polished

[13brv3]

Very nice. Love the NACA duct! I've read about using a molding block, thick rubber, and a press. I definitely want to try that one day, and with that much force available, I don't think you'd even have to anneal it.

I'm never going to polish a plane, so plastic works for me. In fact the 3D printer is whining it's way through the first attempt now. The original builder made one side of the slot about 5" long, which keeps most of the pre-made fairings from fitting. The other side seems to have had a small slot pre-punched, but he had to cut the cable slot above it. That means the fairing needs to be wider than normal to cover both holes. I drew up a simple fairing that should fit both sides.

This is V1. The flange was solid, but I cut it with snips to be able to test fit it without removing the cable. I can already see some things I'd change. 3D printing is really still amazing to me. Can't have enough cool tools :-)

Rusty

[NWade]

Looking good, Rusty!

If you haven’t already considered it: You probably want to use PETG for the fairings, if you can. It’s going to be a bit less-brittle and handle heat & UV better than PLA.
ASA would be ideal, but speaking from personal experience ASA is as big of a PITA to 3d print as ABS.

Holler if you have questions regarding 3d printing -I’m not an “expert” but I’ve done a fair amount of learning, tinkering, and printing over the last 2 years (including a few small parts on my Sonex).

—Noel

[13brv3]

I haven't heard of ASA, but PETG is my favorite, and what this was made with. I've had a Makergear M2 for close to 10 years, and I'm no expert, but I get by.