I am building a home made drone this winter as a project. I have the circuitry and programming to do the multi motor setup and controls but the frame is my stuck point. It needs to be light as it will be carrying to start a small battery, chip set, and future GPS controller but I am not sure the material. It will have a center pod (diameter ~ 5"/height ~3") with three arms (hollow with coming off 120 degree angles with motors on the end of them. How hard is fiberglass to work with? Is there any other material that is suggested that is light but easy to work with from the assembly point of view such as epoxy?
Corrugated plastic, Carbon fiber?
Maybe focusinprogress can help you to make some small tubes out of CF
Is CF really expensive? I am thinking the arms are only going to be 6-8" long tubes that support motors on the end. Also, is it hard to cut/drill/bond?
Also, I am looking to do this on the cheap to start and see where it goes.
Microlattice FTW. Not sure how cheap it is though. 
^^ some day if I become independently wealthy. I also feel for something that flys, it may be too light too. Haha.
I have a friend who is SERIOUSLY into R/C planes, would that be of any help? He builds everything himself, he’s got a plane built out of a political yard sign…
Spam16v@gmail.com email me, and I’ll fwd his contact info to you.
That is the corrugated PVC that I mentioned. It is light and very rigid. The other suggestion would be Balsa wood. It is much more prone to damage as it is a very soft wood, but it is also light as a feather. Check a craft store or a hobby store for this type of wood.
Or use Balsa or styrofoam as the core for CF or Fiberglass; Vacuum-Bag it, and that’s about as strong/light as you’re going to get.
Ask Toto. Although I think Spam beat me to it lol.
PVC foam is a lot better to use as a core than corrugated plastic or extruded polystyrene foam.
Oh, and the political signs are typically corrugated high density polyethylene. Not PVC.
You’re building a tricopter? I think rcgroups.com has a section for those, probably some good ideas for frames there.
I hate to give away all my awesome finds on the internet, but here, this should help: http://www.robotcombat.com/products/metals_materials_main.html
Si, is he on here?
Carbon tubes of all sizes can be had at fields hobby on Union very inexpensive. More details… 3s lipo? more? What payload? What stabilization system? ap rig? I am huge into rc helis and know a lot about this as I was planning one (quad copter) for various projects. So gimme the goods!
There are tons of build threads on Helifreak.com and as mentioned RC groups.
^^ no but I have ridden with him from 716riders.
I will take a look around. The material fabrication is gonna be the hardest. I figure a tricopter will be a good start as its managable from a programming standpoint and can get away with some basic things that more complicated things like a helicopter would have to deal with. The goal right now is to launch it and fly it using my custom board and then by the end of the summer, have it be a fully unmanned flight with the GPS chip.
Pm me
Can we put a go pro on it and spy on hot girls at the beach/their bathroom?
Stunt kite suppliers also have lots o light weight strong stuff.
Getting the design together. I am still working on the electronics part first as that will be the hardest to get working and then can expand to the hardware to move it.
w3rd