Been Flying

Reprinting the 9cyl Rotary in LW-PLA is proving quite a challenge not least as the Centauri Carbon does not like  LW-PLA!
It appears that LW filament is geometrically different enough from normal PLA that the feed mechanism throws a wobbler and refuses to load it.
So its back to the humble Anet A8!
Of course LW-PLA cannot produce the same fineest detail possible with ordinary PLA.
Not all nine cylinders are yet complete but this close up shows the level of detail achieved.
 
For scale the cylinder is 15mm diameter
So far it looks like the complete rotary will be just 1/2 the weight of the PLA one.
LW fiament being white means it will need a light paint spray unlike the "steel" colour PLA filament used previously which allowed it to be left unpainted.        

After quite a bit of tidying up to remove strings & excess flash the LW-PLA printed Oberursel 9 cylinder is complete.
Unpainted it weighs 9.9g
 
The identical original in PLA weighed 20.2g
 
So as hoped in LW-PLA it is about 50% lighter although painting it in silver will add a little bit.
The rear wing mounting has been reprinted and a 3mm Depron fuselage bulkhead added to better support the front wing mounting bolts.
 
The next modification will provide a battery hatch in the top of the fuselage right behind the cowling to insert the individual cells that will make up a1000mAh 2s
Still a bit to do..  

Nicely done!  

The problem with LW-PLA was simply that the powered four filament feed mechanism (its called the Canvas) does not like it and simply will not "engage" when the LW-PLA is presented so it does not even start to feed!
Interesting with the original single filament feed of the basic Carbon printer it handled LW-PLA fine but then you had to manually push the filament all the way down the long PTFE tube as the feed drive was in the print head.
Still the old Anet A8 works fine with LW-PLA so that is now its only job. The LW-LA filament stays permanently mounted on it!
A bit of progress on the V25 as the motor bulkhead is reinstalled which means the fuselage is now back on its wheels.
 
As it will use a 2s instead of 3s a lighter 20A ESC (was 30A) will be fitted. As the motor power will also be reduced I have ordered a 10x5 to replace the previous 11x7. The extra 1/2" of prop tip ground clearance will be a benefit!
Still quite a list of bits that need "mending".