Folding propellers for Rocket Drones

Folding propellers for rocket drones

What's aRocket Drone you ask? Think of a Rocket Glider but instead of wings it has drone pods and can recover like a drone.

One of the first successful ones I've seen is a Mars Lander being developed by George Gassaway based off a model offered by Mech-G.

George's project has the motors facing down and to reduce the influence of the props on the thrust phase, a folding prop concept was proposed but because there were no commercial 'reversed' folding blades some of us started looking into 3D printing them, and that pretty much brings us to this listing.

V4

The V4 batch of blades was inspired by Mech-G's design and I'm in the process of testing them, so use them with caution. I will post my results later (stay tuned)

• The V4 version has sturdier hubs and the blades can be printed sans any support, however I do recommend a brim along the edge to help keep it in place.
• V4 is designed to swing up to a 'stop' when fully engaged.

• If you have Fusion 360 and want to explore this prop design - here is a link to the Fusion file.

  V3

  These blades are basically 6x3 / 5.5x3 / 5.75x3 in size.

WARNING Use 3D printed blades carefully and at your own risk

*UPDATE 6.21 Realizing that for this project the blades didn't need to bend to fit around a aircraft fuselage, I made straight blades and a beefier hub.

• V3 Fusion 360 file

• The blade prints very nicely on a bed and at .1mm layer height, `100% infill. The reversed blades are marked with an R near the hub. The curved edge is in the direction of rotation. Here is a video of the V3 blades being tested.

  V2 / V1

  I made these for a drone project that used blades that would fold down, but again I stress they have not been tested.

• The smaller hub had a asymmetrical issue that has been resolved in the V2 version I just uploaded.

• V2 Fusion 360 file
• I've offered two hubs that change the blade's rotation diameter from 6" to 5.5" (this had to do with the project it's for)

• The reversed blade is marked with an R to help make them easier to identify

• Print at 100% infill and the highest resolution your printer can manage

• The best strength for the props is achieved by printing them as horizontal as possible and this will require using support.

• I use M3-8 allen screws with the head pointing in the direction of rotation. Depending on your printer you may need to slightly bore out the propeller holes to give them more freedom to fold. Here 've printed all the hubs and forward rotating blades in PETG - the reversed blades are printed in PC.