Make the world 3D

The ultimaker is back up and running. I had only a 4 hour break in the past 4 days, and is still going strong, below are pictures of some parts printed lately.

i think this is a hip, left one abs 0.15mm layer height, right pla 0.07mm l.h.

pan for some electronics

some mistakes appeared but that will sand out

the cover

aheesion problems, this will sand out too

motor mounts

telescopic extension

Bled race report, the F5g sailing season opens

Bled is a small town, or more a village, located in mid Slovenia, it's glacier lake makes it a big turist attraction.(www.bled.si)
Every year a national championship race is organized there.

The wind is usually allright, generally from 4-10knots, with small waves.

This year the organization was the best of all national class races i've been to. 

The starting fee was 5€for senior competitors(above 18yrs of age).

Every boat got a sticker:

it says bled sailing club below the waves

I think this stickers are great!, a nice touch, and could be collectable if one would be presented with it on each of the events.

Every skipper also got a sandwich and a beer.

The course was a classic triangle. The left side of the starting line was much more promising than the right.

The wind was a bit tricky, sometimes gusty, some gusts were above 10knt, there were also some luls, lasting a few minutes. Everytime the wind droped it went left, and when it went up again it went right, so that was a tactical issue to be considered.

The array of boats was also interesting

There was this wing sailed boat

I goes through a lot of modifications, getting faster and faster but not really competitive

this wing sailor shares the hull with her winged brother, it goes better, but i personally would not opt for the swing rigg

This boat has not seen the water for years, but was sailing great,her skipper bought #44 earlier this year and is coming back to sailing

Niko, a dedicated sailor brought a whole fleet of his boats(and skippers) to the race

A micro magic finished 6th overall!! 

Competition from the sea shore, a fast but heavy boat 

evolution, the original, note the fore rudder

a rookie, perhaps the best rookie of the race, with a new boat

after some help the orange boat started sailing well here with a borrowed rigg

blulife now sporting ex fila rudder, was skippered by my friend, it was his first regatta, a 9th place is a good result.

fila(me) and evolution(father), evolution is getting a carbon keel, and fila spec. rudder for the next race

some pictures of the luls

overall was great fun

Some people were shooting (photos) with real cameras so some more photos should emerge shortly.

Seven races were sailed. All starts were more or less successful. Tangles were often.

The top three got a fancy diploma

fancy pants it is, the wood and styrene sail give it arealy nice feel

here is a link to the results(at the botom):

http://forum.modelarji.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=87701

So i won(! :D) and now?, now the focus is to get more time sailing the boats, all of a sudden we have 4,5 active competitors here in maribor, that is enough to do some practice races.

The goal is also to get all the premissions to organize the Rogla regatta coming in the end of may.

The goal also is to finish revolution, make moulds for fila, get the canting keel sailing, build a shunting footy etc. etc 

The next race is in Koseze coming in two weeks

Ultimaker finally running!

Finally two ultimaker nozzels arrived at my door.
This post is a negative critique.
Firstly why is postage across europe for these two things 15€??
I've send 10times heavier letters to the USA and postage was below 10€

Secondly, i understand that it is expensive and hard to make a nozzle for ultimaker2 out of a single piece of brass.
But it does not cost 70€ !?!  nozzles are waste material, after some time one has to change it.

The above is the reason why i have ordered one ultimaker2 nozzle and one ultimaker1 nozzle.
I have modified the printer to use the old nozzle of which i can get cheap chinese remakes.(3 cost like 10€ not 15€ like the one original)

old mk2 nozzle on the right, new one left, unmodified mk1 nozzle far right in the bag

New expensive mk2 nozzle on the right with it's adapter, new mk1 modified nozzle on the left, the heater block is a reworked old nozzle, the adapter is original one with m6 standard thread cut over the fine m6 thread.(stupid but works)
Right  the new adapter, true to the original, with fine m6 thread

Mk2 left, custom mk1 right

Mk2 is set aside, at the moment mk1 nozzle is printimng there is alittle leak but some teflon tape should  fix that.

a multi wii mout for a hexacopter, first part after re-nozzeling

So far so good.
The printer has plenty of orders to finish, so it will run for the next few days non stop. We will se what brakes, well that thing needs fixing/improving.

In the mean time a set of remake nozzles are beeing shipped from hongkong.

I will have another adapter made, this time with a standard m6 thread to fit the new nozzles without leaks or teflon.

I would recomend this modification to all ultimaker 2 users.
It must be said that ultimaker has great technical support, high quality material and excellent printers, BUT there is no reason for such overpriced spares.
If the economists at ultimaker thought that people who do 3D printing are not capable DIY masters they were wrong. :D

Fila rudder linkage

The play in the rudder linkage is eliminated. Two screw joiners hold a 0.8mm steel wire. Both are shimmed to reduce play.
Red "flags" on the linkage are for safety, in case a screw gets loose(despite locktite) the wire can't slip out of the joiner and the rudder can not be disabled.
The flags are self sticking dacron wraped around the wire.

More&more people, finally........Evolutions maiden flight!

Yesterday, there were three bats on the pond, My father, the friend, and me.
The wind was about 5-6 knots, then it died and then went up to about 3 knots again.

Enough to sail a bit before the race next weekend.

Fila and blue life were going great.

The highlight of the day was getting evolution waterbourne 

I put the electronics in trimmed the sails(damn the new sails trimm well) and of she was

In the light wind the boat just flies, sailing at the same speed as fila, but accelerating much much faster, due to less weight(1615g)

 

Boats ligned up, evolution is sailing with an aluminu keel which flexes alot, a carbon finn will replace it in the coming days.

Here is fila geared up for sailing

Evolution has the finn far back, electronics in the bow, this results in an itneresting handling, and what was seen on this day a very fast boat out of the box.

In the last photo volume distribution can be seen through the hull curve. Evolution has the peak below the mast, thats were volume is, this keeps the bow up, despite the wide stern. Giving the boat lively handling, reducing the need for a big rudder. This is EXACTLY the effect i was looking for when building evolution :)
The need for a big rudder is further reduced by the small distance between the keel fin and rudder.
This makes a boat that turns easily, and feels nimble, great for crowded racecourses.
Evolution is also ready to recieve a forward rudder(5cm in front of the mast), the front rudder might resolve possible directional stability issues, when under power in hegher winds.
The white rudder is very old, and has a 24% chord thickness ratio. I hasn't been used for 2 or 3 years, but showed great results in light air!

My father will sail Evolution on bled,  there are no numbers for the boat yet, but we are looking at 89 or 86.

The goal for this week is to put all the boats in the water atleast two more times.
-to build a carbon fin for evolution
-fix leaks on evolution
-fix play in Fila's rudder linkage