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Nose Cone Part 2

A project log for Backyard Space Program

Modular water rocket, with pressure gauge, gyro, thrust control and everything else a modern space program needs.

haydn-joneshaydn jones 03/27/2017 at 18:440 Comments


(image wikipedia)

Here is my attempt to print out the code for a 2 litre Morrisons (UK supermarket) water bottle, others may vary. I had to extend the overhang and I elongated the cone keeping angles at 45 degrees or lower for my printer (0 is vertical 90 is flat).

Make sure in slicer you use the Spiral vase mode and say 'yes' to the warning. I still haven't worked out how to 'switch off' the base, but i will update as soon as I know.

spiral mode printing

Final print came out with a thick base, but looked good.....

This was overall quite strong, except for the 45 degree upper cone which was too thin, and split slightly. This could be solved by varnishing, by using a thicker extruder nozzle or by simply making the upper cone a sharper angle.

Here is the edited code for MY bottle, it may not fit any others! Slight glitch in the angle calculations for the upper cone, which ill fix on the next update.

overhang =50;//to secure to bottle
bottleradius=98/2; //width of bottle/2
lowerconeheight=60;
sideanglelower=20;
sideanglehigher=45;

cylinder (overhang,r=bottleradius);
translate ([0,0,overhang]){
    cylinder (lowerconeheight,bottleradius,upperconeradius);
}
upperconeradius=bottleradius-(tan(sideanglelower)*lowerconeheight);
upperconeheight=tan(sideanglehigher)*upperconeradius;
translate ([0,0,overhang+lowerconeheight]){
    cylinder(upperconeheight,upperconeradius,0);
}

Bonus, don't have a 3d printer or want to choose a better material. Here is pepakura, a papercraft software. It would need a bit of fiddling, but could be worth it....


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