DIY 3D printed foil

[fluidity]

Recording it here... https://pinshape.com/items/93677-3d-pri ... -hydrofoil
I split the wing into 4 pieces for easy printing. Scaled to 50% for rear wing.
I'm as far as most of the cladding for the front wing, I need to fair the front wing and then infuse a couple of sheets of glass surface tissue for final impact protection and sealing of kevlar strands over front and rear wing.
I botched the rear wing resin infusion, forgot the peel ply layer between the infusion meshes and the fabric sheathed 3D print. However I managed to peel off the infusion mesh at the perfect time, lots of sanding and ready to go again, with most of the strength of the composites

The front wing has a layer of Kevlar inside, a strip of 200 wide 600 gsm uni glass wingtip to wingtip on the top only, a layer of carbon/kevlar cloth over that and then I added some kevlar and CF/kevlar, basalt patches around the middle top before a basalt sheet over the entire top. After a couple of days to cure it I can bounce on the top quite safely with the tips pressed into the carpet. The 2 bottom layers are in tension and the top multiple layers are in compression under normal use. I wanted to use basalt for the uni but my only source I can find so far that looks promising is 100 meter x 100mm wide unidirectional basalt rolls. The 600gsm uni leaves a ridge that needs a lot of fairing to blend in.

I've carved an 800mm fuselage from pine and planning to heatshrink more unidirectional glass fibre areound it, sandwiched between some cloth layers. I bought a naish 5.3 wing and I'm currently debating a Gong HIPE inflateable or an Indianna Wingfoil inflateable for my board. I have an 820mm mast with base on order from aliexpress from a couple of weeks ago, hoping my kiteboarding and windsurfing skills will translate to getting up on foil with the long starter mast My 12 year old girl is giving the naish wing a test

[TheJoe]

Nice I made a full foil but messed up the fuselage. It had too much twist in it. Never got back to working on it and finally bought a Moses rig. I do plan on sanding down the 2 different wings I made for it and see how they fair. The big low aspect one might be good for winging it. But I'm 1 to 2 years away from committing to wings.

[fluidity]

Nice I made a full foil but messed up the fuselage. It had too much twist in it. Never got back to working on it and finally bought a Moses rig. I do plan on sanding down the 2 different wings I made for it and see how they fair. The big low aspect one might be good for winging it. But I'm 1 to 2 years away from committing to wings.

I'm total noob at it, not even tried yet but I figure a 840cm mast and 80cm fuselage and 98cm wide wing will give me some stability. Keen to order a Gong inflateable but I'll grip-wax an old self built kiteboard after bolting an aluminium plate under it for the foil and give it a crack launching super low voume first I won't know I can't without first trying super hard! And I used to balance a sinker windsurf board a foot under water and still sail... slowly and very carefully!

[fluidity]

So pleased, final structural composites curing in place. Basalt both faces of the lift wing, glass both faces of the stabiliser wing and surface tissue over both layers of both wings.
1:1 scale lift area works out to approx 1750 sq CM which is in target for my learner needs

[TomW]

Soon, I hope, a foil company will work with Arevo and 3D print a front, rear wing and fuselage in one unit, plus mast in thermoplastic carbon fiber. It would be really cool to have the whole thing in one piece just for the challenge.
Add 3d printed board.
https://www.theverge.com/21318648/super ... rice-specs

[fluidity]

Soon, I hope, a foil company will work with Arevo and 3D print a front, rear wing and fuselage in one unit, plus mast in thermoplastic carbon fiber. It would be really cool to have the whole thing in one piece just for the challenge.
Add 3d printed board.
https://www.theverge.com/21318648/super ... rice-specs

It's quite possible but anyone with a printer able to print in nylon powder or similar good structural material is usually incentivised to churn out small high priced items for many customers. The size of printer required to print a one piece front wing in a laser sintering process is pretty huge. These sorts of projects are done for love, not money. Next time I print out a front wing the size of the one I'm currently using, it's going to keep the printer busy for about 4 days.

[Michaelr123]

May I ask what filament you guys are using for printing these wings? I've given this a few different shots and found all the carbon fiber nylon filaments to be way too soft.

[TheJoe]

May I ask what filament you guys are using for printing these wings? I've given this a few different shots and found all the carbon fiber nylon filaments to be way too soft.

They are all going to be too soft. You have to wrap them in carbon fiber or fiberglass. You have to be careful if you are vacuum bagging though. If you pull the vacuum down too much it will deform the plastic. When I did mine I would do a thin layer with low vac. Then come back with more layers and then pull it down hard.

I used PLA with 2 outside layers and 10% infill.

[Michaelr123]

ah understood. I was curious if anyone had luck printing using a fiber reinforced plastic to print wings directly.

thanks!

[Michaelr123]

ah understood. I was curious if anyone had luck printing using a fiber reinforced plastic to print wings directly.

thanks!