After building my last quadcopter drone, I was lest with a lot of spare parts, I've decided to invest some time (and money, of course) and build wooden multirotor drone. Od course, not everything would be made from wood. That is kind of impossible. Only frame. Quick research on the internet proven that is fully possible. A lot of people are using wood to build drone frames. If they can, so do I.

Since this project was supposed to be as cheap as possible, I've decided to use the same propeller size as my main setup: 10x4.5", the same radio: Turnigy TGY-i6 and batteries Turnigy 3S 5000mAh 25C. Full planned configuration is as follows:

  • ~400mm wooden frame (plywood and slats) in Dead Cat configuration,
  • 10x4.5" propellers,
  • Suppo 2212/13 1000KV motors,
  • 30A Xt-Xinte ESC,
  • Thunder QQ Super Flight Controller, since seller has sent me a new one,
  • Turnigy TGY-i6 radio,
  • Turnigy 5000mAh 3S 25C battery

Today was the first day of actual building. After one day I have central plate and front arms.

Cutting plywood for quadcopter frame

Fron arms with Suppo 2212/13 1000KV motor

Front arms attached to central plate

Fron arms with Suppo 2212/13 1000KV motor

3mm plywood was too flexible, so I reinforced central plate on edges with additional wooden slates. That gave some extra rigidness on longer axis. Arms are secured using M4 bolts.

I must say, that this frame might be way better than I expected in the beginning. I was surprised how rigid front arms are. And lighter than anticipated. It's not done yet, but I expect frame's weight will be around 400g. I'm only affraid if it will survive first crash...