3d printing applied to cruisers

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Easier to print then ABS , doesn’t smell up the place , excellent layer adhesion , waterproof and UV stable

...also somewhat better heat resistance and strenth than PLA (the most commonly used thermoplastic for 3D printing).

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Spot

My last printing job was yesterday making an aux headlight switch for the old motorbike until I figure out the issue with the current wiring harness (several connectors and switches and wires to diagnose). It took 3 prints to get it right: 1st print failed due to a loose belt on one axis, nothing was printing round or to size. Second print was 100% accurate except that I measured the switch incorrectly and the case was too small. 3rd one is zip-tied to the bike. CAD was done with Fusion360. The history function in Fusion360 allowed me to correct the switch size (2 of 3 dimensions) without losing the whole design. Filament is PLA+, eventually I would also like to try PETG.

This a good point about 3D printing. I usually end up printing a bunch of prototypes for my designs. I print them at low quality so they print faster.

An advantage to using an existing design is you just print it and use it (assuming its exactly what you need).

PTEG is an easy step from PLA, just a bit higher extrusion and bed temps.

Ive printed parts for the engine compartment of my Jeep that would not hold up to the heat in PLA, but PTEG worked well.

[GoneDiving]

Following

[Artey]

Okay I'll bite, here's a couple things I've done...

one was a 5 minute project to design a little led holder
led holder - onshape.com

The other is a custom fit plug for a gauge cluster that I'm still printing and fairing out for mold prep. Each piece takes 18-32 hours to print depending on necessary supports. I wanted the experience of making a plug with 3d printing, no one makes one for where I want my gauges, and I wanted to put Onshape through its paces instead of using Fusion 360.

Customer Gauge Cluster - onshape.com

The gauge cluster has been a super big challenge just in designing to meet the small footprint of my printing bed, with a bigger printer I could just print the finished model all in one piece and paint it or put a thin fiberglass skin on it for strength and save a ton of time and trouble fairing/making a mold surface.

[Spot]

Artey, thanks for posting. What are you impressions of Onshape?

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by alaskanviking

For a boat there is an insane amount of work a 3d printer can do. Several plastic types are useful. PLA for prototyping, ABS and Nylon are standard boat plastics already. PetG is useful for thousands of uses, carbon or glass fiber reinforced plastics are good for high strength stuff, you can even get metal filiments that have to be sintered in an oven or kiln later. The soft rubbery filiment is good for custom gaskets.

Anything plastic on the boat or on the engine can be recreated if you get good at the software. Think of all those plastic clips you have laying around somewhere because you buy a pack but only need a few. Custom parts to fit your boat, spacers to match a curve like on the mast, hard to find engine parts.

Combined with fiberglass and epoxy you have even more. Make a shaped plug that fits a curve or complicated space and fiberglass over. Coat a part in fiberglass to help strengthen it. I believe you can use the Lost PLA technique as an interior plug. PETG apparently makes an excellent mold for epoxy and fiberglass.

Ive watched a couple of YouTubes on 3D printing molds for fiberglass/carbon fiber. Also some on printing plugs to take the place of wax for casting. Cool stuff.

And, if you dont want to spring for a bigger 3D printer or one that can do things like epoxy/metal deposition printing then there are services that will print your design for you.

Opens up a huge range of posibilities.

Ive not used mine for the boat much yet, but got into 3D printing because Im restoring/upgrading my 30 year old Jeep. Has come in very handy for that.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Artey

Okay I'll bite, here's a couple things I've done...



one was a 5 minute project to design a little led holder

led holder - onshape.com



The other is a custom fit plug for a gauge cluster that I'm still printing and fairing out for mold prep. Each piece takes 18-32 hours to print depending on necessary supports. I wanted the experience of making a plug with 3d printing, no one makes one for where I want my gauges, and I wanted to put Onshape through its paces instead of using Fusion 360.



Customer Gauge Cluster - onshape.com



The gauge cluster has been a super big challenge just in designing to meet the small footprint of my printing bed, with a bigger printer I could just print the finished model all in one piece and paint it or put a thin fiberglass skin on it for strength and save a ton of time and trouble fairing/making a mold surface.

Did you have CAD experience before using OnShape?

Ive been working with a friend who is interested in 3D printing and am finding that the modelling is a real struggle for him. Learning CAD concepts w no CAD background can be a tough hill to climb.

[Allied39]

I have to say that shaper 3d is really good.
I had no cad experience and picked up shaper 3d pretty quick. It actually has tutorials through the process.
To be honest I have not printed anything I have not designed from scratch, I know thingyverse has loads of STL's (designs) but I have not used one yet.

I actually designed and printed 40 diamond shaped sofit (eaves) vent covers for one of my rentals. Simply awesome.

So perhaps your friend might check that out. Not free, true...but perhaps worth the investment if he is having troubles?

[Artey]

Originally Posted by Spot

Artey, thanks for posting. What are you impressions of Onshape?

I really like it actually. Its definitely not as capable as Fusion 360, but I spent a fair bit of time modeling the gauge cluster and never had anything I needed that wasn't there. The biggest plus is its cloud based, I can be on any browser anywhere and pull my model up and it doesn't matter if the computer is capable or not, it will do the modeling as long as I have internet.

Been a while since I've used Fusion, but when I used it, that wasn't an available feature other than to view the model, but you couldn't edit it.

[Artey]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Did you have CAD experience before using OnShape?

Ive been working with a friend who is interested in 3D printing and am finding that the modelling is a real struggle for him. Learning CAD concepts w no CAD background can be a tough hill to climb.

I did do some CAD and CAM in Fusion while working with some desktop sized cnc routers, but never got that far into it until I got my 3d printer. But really following some very good youtube channels, and there are a few out there, will take you VERY far. You don't even need the machine to do the tutorials. They are all based in fusion but honestly once you learn one, they are all fairly similar. If fusion is an issue, I would suggest at least starting with something like TinkerCad. OnShape has a forum that seems fairly active for its userbase with dev and tech support as well as power user types posting frequently.

[Anders]

What printers do you have to keep on the boat?

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Artey

I did do some CAD and CAM in Fusion while working with some desktop sized cnc routers, but never got that far into it until I got my 3d printer. But really following some very good youtube channels, and there are a few out there, will take you VERY far. You don't even need the machine to do the tutorials. They are all based in fusion but honestly once you learn one, they are all fairly similar. If fusion is an issue, I would suggest at least starting with something like TinkerCad. OnShape has a forum that seems fairly active for its userbase with dev and tech support as well as power user types posting frequently.

Yes, Ive got him started on TinkerCAD.

[steffan]

Originally Posted by Anders

What printers do you have to keep on the boat?

I'll be taking my Creality Ender 3 Pro aboard when I go full-time. It breaks down to a pretty small form factor and the power demand is reasonable.

[Tudorsailor]

I am a keen 3D enthusiast. I have moved from 123Design to Fusion. Once mastered, Fusion is brilliant. I own an Ultimaker 3 and then decided it would be nice to have something smaller on board. I have bought an Ultimaker-Go on eBAy and then upgraded it so that it has a heated bed and a bit hot end. It is still at home!

For indoor things I print in PLA
For things going outdoors I print in ASA as it is UV stable. Easier to print than ABS should anyone ask.


Given the number of enthusiasts who have contributed to this thread, someone should set up a 3D printing forum for future sharing of knowledge and designs.

[PaulBartomioli]

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