3D Printed Cessna 172 Reading Light

My name is Micah, I am 14 years old, and Homeschooled. This Instructable is a 3D printed Cessna 172 reading light that I created using Tinkercad. I hope you enjoy:)

Supplies

1.3D printer

2.24 AWG Stranded Wire (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087TJNJZS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

3.Mini Rocker Switch (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S2QJKTX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

4.Soldering iron and solder

5.Paint (Black, White, Gray, Red)

6.Paint brushes

7.Battery

8.5mm White Led

9.Wire Spring(about 7mm wide)

10.3mm copper pipe

11.1mm thick metal(I got mine from the bottom of a tin can)

12.Wood/Super glue

13.Saw dust

14.Electrical tape/heat shrink tubing(optional)

15.Clear coat

16.3D file

Step 1: Model Preparation

The first picture is how it printed for me. Your first step obviously is to remove all the scaffolding(pic.2,3,4,5). After this I had to sand some walls and drill some holes but I tried to fix this in the file so It should be minimal for you when you print it. Picture 6 is how it's going to attach to the base and how it's generally going to look. You can see some of the places I had to sand in pic. 7 but the only place you should have to sand is where the battery box inserts into the base.

Step 2: Assembly and Electrical

Picture 1 is a diagram of the electrical. The black wire will attach the the spring on top of the battery. The first step is to cut out a round piece of metal to go in the battery box and put a small bump in it(pic.2). Cut a tab and bend it over of the top of the positive(Red) wire(pic.2), clamp it down, and put some solder on it. Make sure to leave some extra wire so you can pull the box in and out. Then connect the same red wire to the right tab on the switch (make sure to leave some extra wire so you can pull the box in and out) and solder another red wire to the left tab of the switch(pic.3). Solder the negative(Black) wire to the spring(pic.3) and glue the spring in the hole on the top of the base. I had to use some popsicles sticks to cover the opening where the wires exit the box(pic.4,5) but I tried to fix it so you shouldn't. You also need to cut the spring to the right height so that you can get the battery box in and out. Insert the copper wire into the base(I only glued it the the bottom half), and cut the wires with enough slack to wrap them around the copper wire (pic.6). Glue the two pieces of the base together making sure the wires, switch, spring, and battery box are where they need to be(I only used a couple drops of super glue around the edges just in case I needed to access the inside later on, and the switch keeps the two halves together pretty well by itself). Final step is to sand the wings.

Step 3: Painting

The indents in the top of the base are to be painted white(pic.1), the top a little bit gray/black pavement color(pic2,3), and the edges black. In order to fix the white imperfections on the top(pic.1), I went over it again with just the gray paint and tried not to cover it completely so as to make it look a little more realistic(pic.4). Sand down the bottom of the wings and give the airplane a couple base coats of white(pic.5,6). You can do what ever paint scheme you want but I picked one that's similar to a one I've flown in my area(8866U). I didn't really have a template for the plane I just used a pencil, looked at a picture, and tried to match both sides(pic.6,7,8,9).

Step 4: Finishing

After everything is painted solder the wires to the leads of the LED (Red goes to longer lead) and cover the leads of the LED with electrical tape or heat shrink tubing(optional), so that it doesn't touch the other one(pic.1). You will need to insert the LED before you solder the ends. Because of this you do want to make sure not to melt the plane with the soldering iron. Unfortunately I did do this but I was able to fix it with some wood glue/saw dust paste. Glue the wires to the airplane, paint white over them(pic.2). You'll probably only be able to glue/paint the wires half way in order to have enough slack to glue the airplane to the copper pipe. I also painted the end of the pipe black. Once you glue the plane to the pipe, glue the wires on the rest of the way and finish painting them(pic.3). Next step is optional. It would be a good Idea to clear coat it to keep the paint from scratching off but you don't have to. Keep in mind some spray paint will actually eat away at the print filament so make sure to check. I hope you enjoyed and please let me know down below if you make it:)