It’s been a WHILE since I posted anything here. When I left off I had started dabbling in 3D printing using a Lulzbot Taz 6. Fast forward almost 2 years later, and I have ditched FDM printing entirely in lieu of resin printing. I won’t get into the details of why I prefer resin printing here, so maybe I’ll save that for a future post.
I recently introduced my daughters to the world of model rockets by giving them a couple of beginner Estes kits for Christmas last year. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, we finally had some family time available to get them assembled and had a great time launching them. But as I was analyzing one of the recovered rockets, I thought to myself “hey, I could design and print one of these”.
So I did.
I’m proud to present to you the Martin Space Program’s first fully functional prototype, the Taurus Mk1. The Taurus was fully conceived and built by me using Tinkercad. While I did use an Estes Alpha for some size references, all of the components, including the airfoils, nose cone & integral cord attachment, engine mounts, and inner components were all designed 100% from scratch.
Here are the specs of the print:
- Printer: Anycubic Photon
- Resin: Elegoo Water Washable Photopolymer Resin (Black)
- Designed in: Tinkercad
- Slicer: Chitbuox 1.6.3
- Print time: 10 hours, 14 minutes (one continuous print)
- 0.05mm (50 micron)
- 8 second normal exposure
- 60 second bottom exposure
- Print cost: ~$1.63 USD
Here are the specs of the rocket:
- Overall height: 13.5″ (343mm)
- Base width: 4″ (101.5mm)
- Engine: 1 x Estes B6-4 or Estes C6-5 (may fit others, but tested with these)
- Pieces: 8
- Nose cone
- Upper stage
- Lower stage
- Top engine stop
- Engine mount
- 3 x airfoils
Rendering in Tinkercad First Emergence Good Adhesion to Build Plate Curing in the Sun Assembled Logo’d and Ready!
You’re welcome to help yourself to the STL files attached to this post and tinker with them yourself. I provide no guarantee or warranty for these models or prints!
Enjoy!