Balsa Sanding Block For Wings and Tail Surfaces
Balsa Sanding Block For Wings and Tail Surfaces
3D
Published 2020-11-12T15:29:35+00:00
This is my recreation of a sanding tool sold by a popular RC airplane model manufacturer. The tool is discontinued and its patent is expired. I have the original aluminum version but had a friend wanting to borrow it. I decided that it would be a good project to model in CAD and would be handy for other makers to have in their collection of tools.
The simplicity of this part makes it friendly to scaling. You can scale the Z-axis to your desires. You can go big so for a long sander which is good for doing control surfaces and larger models. The original tool's length was 11". I've found 150mm is great for small models, especially small and fragile free-flight models. Scaling it across the X-axis, or the sanding face, will make the contours for leading edges and tail surfaces appropriate for different sized models. On my first print I set this dimension to 47mm. The tool was perfectly suited for smaller free-flight models. In essence you can print many different "widths" for different sized models and come up with a good "common" length.
The part should be placed vertically in your slicer so that no support is required. This is the suggested orientation.
Printing this part can be done in any number of non-flexible filaments. I have printed in PLA and PETG and the tool worked great. Since this is a hand tool I suggest finding a good balance between infill and wall thickness. My first print was limited to using a small infill but bumping up the number of wall passes to 4. This produced a tool that felt sturdy when applying light to moderate pressure to a wing on a smaller model.
| Date published | 12/11/2020 |
| Sin apoyo | YES |
