A large BT-80 nosecone can take up to 8 hours to print at 0.2mm resolution, (or as little as 4 hours if I change the diameter of the print nozzle), the print would use about 100 grams of material with a 3/32" wall thickness (for ABS, or about 110 grams for PLA) At $15/Kg the plastic material cost is about $1.50.

I have made nosecones like this visit: https://forums.rocketshoppe.com/sho...29&postcount=35 for my Estes Panavia to Cherokee D clone http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/showthread.php?t=17244 .

I am currently limited to printing nosecones that are 400mm long (not including the shoulder which can be printed separately). I would only be able to print 4 of these larger nosecones at one time. I actually modified one of my printers with a 900mm high Z axis; however, there are still a lot of issues to work out and I have not been able to print anything over 600mm long.

Attached are pictures of a BT-20 size scale ASP nosecone I just printed. It took me minutes to draw the cone in RockSim, another few minutes to slice the exported 3D model with CURA software, and the 3D print took 3 hours and 2 minutes at 0.12 mm resolution and used about 7 grams of ABS plastic filament. The antenna is a bit flimsy but I think it will be OK for flight. I guess I will have to build and fly the scale ASP model to prove this.

Attached Thumbnails

   

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Bruce S. Levison, NAR #69055