I have plans to offer the 3D printed nosecones to eRockts to use in their remake of the Centuri Hummingbird boost glider kit. I looked at the Centuri Moonraker build on Chris Michielssen's blog:
http://modelrocketbuilding.blogspot...ild-part-1.html , and now I am not sure I got the shape exactly right. I printed the shape as elliptical and made it match to the profile tracing from:
https://sites.google.com/site/centurihummingbird/
Can some one provide exact measurements and/or a good close-up profile of this nosecone next to a standard measuring scale (ruler) of some sort?
The best thing about 3D printer is that I can easily change the print color so a red, white or blue #7 nosecones are possible. I adjusted my 3D print file so the nose cone fits in the ST-7 tubing that I got from eRockets. I made the nosecone shoulder slightly loose to accommodate the sticker or pressure sensitive tab, as supplied in the original kit, which was used for gluing the nosecone into the paper body tube.
I can easily make decent 3D prints in PLA of the current design. I already have printed a half dozen or so in white and blue PLA. I am worried that the PLA plastic will not be durable enough for this purpose. I have read stories about PLA prints melting in a hot car parked in the sun or shattering when dropped on a hard surface on a cold day when the temperature is below freezing. These nose cones weigh in at 3.1 +/- 0.05 grams I am wondering if that is too heavy for the boost glider?
My ABS prints are much smoother than the PLA prints and should be much more durable and they weigh less at 2.8 +/- 0.05 grams. I currently have about a half dozen white ones since I only have this color of ABS filament.