Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

Re:Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone by tsungxu on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @05:31PM (#44241668)

Yes I used single wall foaming PLA which is much less impact resistant and more brittle vs any foam, even cheap foamcore and especially EPP or EPO. This has definitely been an issue with crashing and rebuilding.

But my first and only other VTOL build was foamcore Readyboard and that took a 12 ft drop onto asphalt with only a slight compression in the fuselage. Never replaced it.

I would add dovetails or other clips for printed sections if I did another printed build.

Yes avionics and propulsion parts are COTS for speed, the Amprius pack is US manufactured but others are all made in China.

I'm starting to see some more Ardupilot used commercially too but yes the UX is janky and unintuitive.

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Re:Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone by the__alchemist on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @05:37PM (#44241730)

Hopefully now that it's in a polished state, you don't need to worry as much about impact resistance as you did when designing/tuning.

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Re:Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone by tsungxu on Tuesday June 10, 2025 @05:38PM (#44241739)

Thanks, I did crash it again, and that's why it was half assembled on the wall at the end. But yeah foaming PLA is extremely soft, almost feels like tough, thin paper.

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