Scratch Built Wooden Quadcopter

Building a quadcopter seems like a pretty intimidating project for a beginner such as myself, but I can assure you that with little knowledge or experience on multirotors, making my own quadcopter was not as hard as I thought it would be. This entire project cost me around $130, that is not including ESC's which I got for free (Thanks Mr. Kress). Here are all the electronics I purchased for this build:

-Motors

-Accessory Pack

-ESCs

-Flight controller

-Props: CW & CCW

-Servo lead http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=67134&aff=1183777

Here is a list of all the other parts I used to make the frame.

-M4 bolts and nuts (8 of each)

-M3 nuts and bolts (8 of each)

-1/2" Poplar square dowels

-1/8" Poplar 4x8 sheet

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There wasn't a whole lot of planning in terms of parts and dimensions of the frame, I knew aproximately how big I wanted it to be, so I eyeballed some measurements. The arms of this quad are 8 1/2 inches long, and the frame is a 4x4 square. I used poplar 1/2" square dowels for the legs and 1/8" poplar for the frame

Once I got all the parts I used needed to establish some measurements. First off I wanted to make an X quad, In order to make sure the arms are aligned I took a straight edge and drew a line from corner to corner across the plate, this formed an x. so I already knew that I wanted there to be 2 inches of the arm in between the top and bottom plate, so I marked 2 inches from the corner on all 4 corners. Then I marked out the holes where I needed to put the bolts into, there were going to be 2 bolts per arm so I made them 1/2" apart from each other, this is what it looked like

 The next step was to cut the booms, so I cut out 8 1/2" arms and marked out the holes where I needed to drill, 1/2 inch from each other like on the frame plate.

 I was using M4 bolts, and my local hardware store only sold drill bits in inches, so after some surfing the web I learned that a 5/32 drill bit should somewhat work for a M4 bolt, so I got one along with a 7/64 (for mounting the motors) and started drilling the arms and frame. Since I only made measurements on the top plate I drilled all the holes then taped the bottom plate to the top one and used it as a template for the bottom plate (makes more sense in the video).

 I actually forgot to drill the holes for the motor mounts before I put the frame together, so that was supposed to be the next step. take your motor mounts from the accesory pack and just mark holes and use a 7/64 bit (with some wiggling) to drill the holes for M3 bolts which fit perfectly throught the mounting holes.

Then take the legs and sandwhich them between the top and bottom plates and put the M4 bolts through the holes and make sure that everything fits with right, then use M4 nuts to tighten everything up.

Now comes the fun part where the Quad starts coming together. I installed the accesory pack onto the motors already so i just needed to align them with the holes I drilled and fit the M3 bolts through them. Then tightened the nuts on both the bolts. 

I then soldered all the ESCS together (positive leads to positive leads, negative to negative. Dont mix them up). I needed 6 hands to solder them because the leads were giving me some problems while I was soldering them. If you want a cleaner build and you don't want to solder the leads you can also just buy a power distribution board or cable. 

Then you can mount the ESCS onto the arms, this is pretty straight forward. You can fasten them with zip ties.

Looking back at it now, I kind of wish I somehow figured out a way to fit the esc wires through the frame rather then have it on the bottom. Maybe someday... 

Almost done, now you need to install your flight controller, try to put it as much in the center of the quad as you can, also now you have to establish the front of the quad. You can put your flight controller on with double sided tape or maybe some hot glue. The reciever can be mounted the same way, it just doesnt need to be in the center

Now your going to have to use male to male servo leads to connect the reciever to the KK2, you can follow some diagrams online on what to plug into what because not everyone has the same reciever as I do, I'm not going to go into detail about that. Just in case you didnt know is that the top left and bottom right motors are supposed to spin clockwise and the top right and bottom left motors need to spin COUNTER-clockwise. If any motor spins the wrong way just reverse two motor wires going to the ESC.

I recommend that your balance your propellers because it helps reduce vibrations, which lead to a more stable quad, and also reduces jello if you are going to do FPV or aerial video. I was lucky enough to recieve my props pretty much already balanced.

Now its done, just put your props on and fit a battery strap through the frame or if you dont have one long enough like me, you can also use zipties.

If you want to build a quadcopter like this and you run into problems or have any questions feel free to email us at theturbulenceshow@gmail.com.