04-09-2019, 12:03 AM
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Retired with Way Too Many Kits
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,223
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
I have a few of Boyce's 3D printed rockets and kits (a Cox Nike-Zeus and a Cox 1:125 scale Apollo-Little Joe II, plus a set of SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage landing legs and grid fins). They all require some sanding, but not much. I was just looking at my Boyce Aerospace Hobbies Apollo-Little Joe II, and--although I'd have to examine its surface with a jeweler's loupe (I'll dig out one of my close-up-viewing monoculars in a moment) to be sure--the plastic "thread" forming the parts appears to be about 1/6 of a millimeter (or less) in diameter (I just held a metric tape measure against its parts, and I couldn't tell exactly how many plastic "threads," side-by-side, spanned a millimeter--they are that fine in size). ADDENDUM:
I just tried to count the number of plastic "threads" per millimeter again, using a close-up-view (2x magnification) monocular, and I still couldn't tell exactly how many "threads" span a millimeter. It looked like five or six. In any event, the surfaces of the Boyce Aerospace Hobbies 3D printed rockets aren't very rough, and don't require laborious amounts of sanding.
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Thanks for the feedback. They certainly sound reasonably smooth — especially compared to what I’m familiar with just a couple years ago, in terms of printing quality.
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Lee Reep
NAR 55948
Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp
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