There's as much art here as there is tech advice. 3D printing artistic talent is what I've seen from jimc and several other members. I'm envious, being just a nuts and bolts user seeing truly amazing creations! No doubt, jimc has some crazy art skills! I was looking at his motorcycle painting websi...

This is a chain sprocket for a machine used to wrap fireworks shells with paper. This one piece part replaced about four separate parts previously used to fasten a commercial sprocket to this metric D shaft. Being able to make a perfect fitting D shaped bore built into any size sprocket I want is aw...

wow yeah your right there then close to max temp. i assume you would have some type of temp feedback to the remote or a temp cut off so you dont get it too hot. so where do the tubes comes into play on this thing? its part of the structure or just an air chamber? The aluminum tubing in the perimete...

yeah that is cool. i does really look like its tricky to fly. looks like it cools down real quick and wants to come down. seems like you have to start heating way before it begins coming down. something i guess you just gotta get a feel for. It is indeed tricky to fly because it does cool fast. It ...

Cool video. How much lift does that thing generate? Lift is a variable that depends on the outside temperature, the temperature inside the blimp, altitude and air density. I designed it using a relatively conservative value of 13 pounds lift per 1000 cubic feet of volume at 200F inside the blimp an...

That's good to know, using acetone to smooth out the surface is certainly a lot easier than sanding and produces a better looking finish. I'd hate to have to give that option up.

Here's a video showing the RC blimp in it's current state. I'm going to modify this same blimp to use the pressurized tubes for the next version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIQ9Crb ... oXccpORKLA

freaking people out is a big part of the motivation You're going to freak out the FAA, too, with that one. But I'm all in favor of it! Currently the RC saucer wouldn't violate any FAA rules, but if they ever rammed through some of those draconian "drone" rules being proposed then it could depending...

hahaha a 9ft flying saucer. your gonna spook some people with that one. all those sightings on the news over the past 20 yearsare probably from you! lmao :lol: Well, I haven't got mine working yet but I'm not gonna lie-- freaking people out is a big part of the motivation :) Most of those UFOs you ...

The blimp progress will be posted to the build log linked to above. I'm working on an RC flying saucer that will likely be using some 3D printed parts too so I can post that here. It's not a run-of-the-mill quad being passed off as a flying saucer, it legitimately looks and flies like a flying sauce...