Following your project with huge interest. 
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Hi Troll,
Any news on the project?
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I have got a 3D printer now. 
That will speed up the prototyping.
And, winter is coming. Actually, it’s already here.
Just need to clean out the shop and get on with it.
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anything new to show?
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Sorry, but nothing new regarding the stick.
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beautiful helmet!
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Wanted to say thanks for choosing to replicate the stick as a massive Viggen fan. Hoping Heatblur can give us the draken aswell 
I look forward to seeing the sticks progress!
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Hey there, @Jazz and a warm welcome to Mudspike! 
I would absolutely love a Draken, for DCS!
I hope to get going on the stick development soon. A lot of real life commitments have been prioritized lately… But, I knew this would take time, so I never commited to a release date. 
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Thankyou! Ofcourse, it’s perfectly understandable by all means take your time
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…must resist…
So no update this week?
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Might I interest you in a Porsche calendar, perhaps, instead…?
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The weakest part of this stick will be the safety catch.
I’m having a really hard time casting it in a material that won’t snap.
I have tried the alu plastic, two component metal dough, two component metal filler and two comp. fibreglass filler…
They are all too brittle.
I need to solve this or I will have to send new safety catches to dissatisified customers, for years on end.
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They all snap at the same location it seems? Could you try adding material to the backside?
The grooves on the front side probably act as a predetermined breaking point.
A spine of "material"in the back? I have no idea how they are called in english but you know… those T section shapes?
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You are both right.
But I’m determined to keep the shape true to the original.
So the grooves must be there and I can’t add material.
Maybe layering some carbon fibre in there?
IIRC carbon fibers help with tensile strength/pulling resistance, not so much if the think breaks in the middle when pressed.
Yeah, technically there would be some improvement but I’m not sure it would be the solution.
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That’s a good point.
Casting it in aluminium will probably also be too brittle.
Maybe I need to have this part water jet cut from billet aluminium.
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This, you’d have a hard time arranging the fibers to help with the stiffness of the part. You’d probably have to arrange them in tubular shape or L-shape and that would be quite hard in such a thin part.
Have you inspected the mold? Maybe the groove where it breaks has a sharp v-shape that acts as a starter for cracking. If the mold is very sharp at that point, possibly removing a tiny amount of material could make a lot of difference for tensile strength of the resulting pieces.
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An internal structure might a good idea, though probably using a material that works together well with your casting materials.
But, have you considered drawing up this part in a CAD application and machining it? That is probably the only way to get a resilient part.
I think the top side that has the finger grip may have ridges that are too sharp for a cast part.
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Sounds like a PITA to manufacture though, if he’s going for numbers. CNC definitely sounds like a better option than that.
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