Custom-Crafted Multicopters

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“Roswell Replica” Wooden Quadcopter

Tattoo artist and hobbyist woodworker Greg “Grease” Lehman built an alien-inspired wooden quadrotor based on the original foam-and-paper Roswell Quadrocopter. CNC-cut and -milled from ash, oak, walnut, and padauk, it looks heavy but it flies. Grab EPS files for cutting here.


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“Crossfire”: 3D-Printed FPV Quadcopter

Mike Bristol is an air ambulance/bush pilot in Alaska who likes drones, FPV “video piloting,” and jumping out of planes. He built the most popular 3D-printed multirotor shared on Thingiverse (thingiverse.com/thing:32281) — and don’t miss his aerial video of BASE jumping off towers!


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Laser-Cut MultiWii Quadcopter

Australian surfer and programmer Dylan Fogarty-MacDonald designed and built a hackable, easy-to-repair quadcopter from laser-cut plywood parts. No additional power tools are needed. Assembling it yourself brings the frame cost down to about $50 (not including motors and electronics). Get the DXF files and full instructions here.


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Acrylic and Wood CNCed Hexacopter

Designer/fabber Jens Dyvik machined the entire structure of his hexacopter, including the propellers, which he CNCed out of lightweight wood. The body was laser-cut from acrylic, and then formed on an acrylic bender. There’s a second version in the works with wooden arms. Get the 2D and 3D design files from DyvikDesign here.

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Anna Kaziunas France is interested practical digital fabrication focused project documentation (anything that turns codes into things), as well as adventures in synthetic biology, biohacking, personal genomics and programmable materials.

She's currently working on the forthcoming book "Design for CNC: Practical Joinery Techniques, Projects, and Tips for CNC-routed Furniture".

She’s also the Academic Dean of the global Fab Academy program, the co-author of Getting Started with MakerBot and compiled the Make: 3D Printing book.

Formerly, she worked as an editor for Make: Books, was digital fabrication editor and skill builder section editor for Make: Magazine, and directed Make:'s 2015 and 2014 3D Printer Shootout testing events.

She likes things that are computer-controlled, parametric, and open— preferably all three.

Find her on her personal site, Twitter and Facebook.

View more articles by Anna Kaziunas France

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