I was inspired by the american clearwater foil guys and thought it would be pretty simple to print the shape of a foil with my 3d printer.

So I taught myself CAD and designed a front wing (in two pieces) and a middle segment that a rectangular aluminium tube (the fuselage) would slot into. I printed the first two pieces and am pleasantly surprised with the results. The plastic wing is a lot stronger than i expected, and i reckon one layer of glass over the top would be heaps (tbh i wouldn't be suprised if the plastic by itself could support a rider, although wouldn't last long).

Still early in this project, but a set of front wing, rear wing and fuselage (alu tube from bunnings) could probably be produced for about 20 bucks. Anyone want a set? I don't have enough time to design, print, glass, test and re-print. It'd be great to team up with someone with good glassing skills and go from there.

I have two of those alu masts from manta foils that they used to sell. I'm planning on using one of them, but I think a cheaper way might be to 3d print the profile of the mast and slot one or two alu tube spars down the mast to provide the stiffness.

There is lots more to do - refining design to save weight and increase efficiency, reduce warping at the corners of wings, re-design the middle segment to support a larger alu tube (I thought 2x1cm would be enough, but its absolutely tiny in real life).

The design of the wing was taken from a US uni webpage who publishes splines of hydrofoil profiles. I knocked up the rest in fusion360. the wings will be about 52 cm with a maximum 15.5 cm chord. they have a curve downward to the wingtip of 2 cm.

I'm just having fun with this, not looking to make a business or anything, so would love any help. I reckon we might be able to get to a produced foil for less than $200 (ex board) and share the foiling joy around.


the middle segment. As i said above that slot out the back is for an 2 x 1 cm alu tube which is way too small in hindsight. Beauty of CAD and 3d printing is that I'll just find a larger alu tube from bunnings and re-design and re-print this week.

Those little extrusions on the edges will slot into the wings. Hopefully that, plus a layer or two of glass will be strong enough.


Front view of the right wing segment showing the curve.


profile of the wing. also shows the slot that the middle segment will slot into.



From the top showing the arc of the wing.

What printer are you using out of interest?

Sweet

great to see Love the DIY foils. The wings and mast might whisle a fair bit if u dont have nice smooth finish tho

I took another route.

Printed a front wing in 5 parts to get a wing 620mm x 165 mm.
Printed simple fixtures to align parts while gluing together.

Used a Flashforge dreamer . Wish I had a bigger printer.

Next steps are to sand it nice and make a mold from the printed plug .

I did consider making the mold directly in the 3D printer , but printing time would have gone from 5x 14 hrs to 10x 24 hours...

My plan is to make front and rear wings and use an off the shelf carbon tube as fuselage.
But first will make front wing. Summer here now and good winds, so not much work on it now.

There is a guy locally to me who I believe has used these 3d printing plans

www.thingiverse.com/thing:584300

I have only seen a photo of it on the facebook group. He says he's going to wrap it all in glass. Looks a good way of getting the anhedral curve for the wings. I am a little concerned whether the mast will be stiff enough though.

Anyone tried wrapping 3D print with carbon fibre prepreg ?

I was thinking of using the 3D as a skin but using carbon fiber as an internal structure like a skeleton and then glueing the two together. The 3D parts can have infill to wrap around the carbon fiber and reduce any voids. I have done a few 3D printed RC hydros doing this and the work well. Just need to seal the surface to stop water getting inside.

I 3D printed a foil and wrapped in carbon fibre. Works extremely well, have used it the last couple of months, no issues.

The 3D print was only about 40% fill, so mostly void, very light.

The problem is, that carbon will not stick to plastic using epoxy. It will de-laminate if it hasn't started already. Then it comes down to exactly how you laid the carbon on the plastic as to how quickly it will fail, and where the overlaps are.

Kind of like wrapping sticky tape around ice-cream

You would have much better success using a carbon composite printer, but even then I don't think the laminate will stick

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dachopper said..
The problem is, that carbon will not stick to plastic using epoxy. It will de-laminate if it hasn't started already. Then it comes down to exactly how you laid the carbon on the plastic as to how quickly it will fail, and where the overlaps are.

Kind of like wrapping sticky tape around ice-cream

You would have much better success using a carbon composite printer, but even then I don't think the laminate will stick

That's what I was thinking when looking at some of the foil manufacturers using injected carbon. They look tough but how can you repair them is you damage a wing?

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Livit said..

dachopper said..
The problem is, that carbon will not stick to plastic using epoxy. It will de-laminate if it hasn't started already. Then it comes down to exactly how you laid the carbon on the plastic as to how quickly it will fail, and where the overlaps are.

Kind of like wrapping sticky tape around ice-cream

You would have much better success using a carbon composite printer, but even then I don't think the laminate will stick

That's what I was thinking when looking at some of the foil manufacturers using injected carbon. They look tough but how can you repair them is you damage a wing?

Solid plastic reinforced carbon is different to wrapping carbon around something with epoxy... I'm not sure how you would repair it but there is probably a tube of something that would do the trick.

Select to expand quote

dachopper said..
The problem is, that carbon will not stick to plastic using epoxy. It will de-laminate if it hasn't started already. Then it comes down to exactly how you laid the carbon on the plastic as to how quickly it will fail, and where the overlaps are.

Kind of like wrapping sticky tape around ice-cream

You would have much better success using a carbon composite printer, but even then I don't think the laminate will stick

Thanks for your concerns, but my cheap wing has taken a good number of beatings over last 2 months. Still works beautifully and solid as a rock. If it ever breaks it just means I can start with the next version at that stage.

Mustv'e left my carbon composite printer in my other Porshe. . If you just mean using PLA or ABS-based carbon fibre filament in a normal 3D printer. Haven't tried them yet, but believe you need to swop out to a hardened steel nozzle and slower printing speed is recommended. Slower printing speed would be a real pain, since it practically already takes days to print all the components for a large wing.

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PrfctChaos said..

dachopper said..
The problem is, that carbon will not stick to plastic using epoxy. It will de-laminate if it hasn't started already. Then it comes down to exactly how you laid the carbon on the plastic as to how quickly it will fail, and where the overlaps are.

Kind of like wrapping sticky tape around ice-cream

You would have much better success using a carbon composite printer, but even then I don't think the laminate will stick

Thanks for your concerns, but my cheap wing has taken a good number of beatings over last 2 months. Still works beautifully and solid as a rock. If it ever breaks it just means I can start with the next version at that stage.

Mustv'e left my carbon composite printer in my other Porshe. . If you just mean using PLA or ABS-based carbon fibre filament in a normal 3D printer. Haven't tried them yet, but believe you need to swop out to a hardened steel nozzle and slower printing speed is recommended. Slower printing speed would be a real pain, since it practically already takes days to print all the components for a large wing.

I was thinking more print it in 1 go, so its stronger and doesnt need carbon reinforcing.... but if your printer is too small then yeah tha would be hard

JIC.. most 3D non-pro models are working in a 300mm cube or less..
The big boy in this list at a modest USD$6K.. is 300*300*600

m.all3dp.com/1/best-3d-printer-reviews-top-3d-printers-home-3-d-printer-3d/

Dachopper said..

Select to expand quote

I was thinking more print it in 1 go, so its stronger and doesnt need carbon reinforcing.... but if your printer is too small then yeah tha would be hard

Cheers
AP

Select to expand quote

AquaPlow said..

JIC.. most 3D non-pro models are working in a 300mm cube or less..
The big boy in this list at a modest USD$6K.. is 300*300*600

m.all3dp.com/1/best-3d-printer-reviews-top-3d-printers-home-3-d-printer-3d/

Dachopper said..

I was thinking more print it in 1 go, so its stronger and doesnt need carbon reinforcing.... but if your printer is too small then yeah tha would be hard

Cheers
AP

If you are happy with your CAD design, there are a load of companies that can print it in one go for you...

Or DIY your own printer that is a low bigger

Out of curiosity, roughly how much would it cost you to lay carbon on the front and back wing? I've never used the stuff before... so dont even know how much layers would be needed

It depends..... maybe $50 for epoxy, and Carbon could be $50 up to XXXXX depending on what you buy and how much you want to use.

Vacuum bagging will make it significantly stiffer, so that is a must I would say, another 50 for those bits assuming you have a little vacuum pump already