Has anyone attempted to 3D print an RC boat hull yet?

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Jeffmaturo

Jeffmaturo

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2015
Messages
547
The car guys are really diving head first into 3D printing for parts and now entire cars. I was wondering if anyone has tried to make a boat hull. Seems plausible if you laid some fiberglass on the bottom and transom to beef up those areas....Who knows.....but it would be cool to see one.
 
Have not used 3D printing for the actual hull but it works great for making fiberglass mold plugs. For large parts like boat mold plugs, many 3D printers cannot handle the size in one continuous print. The way around this is to break the part you are making into smaller sections that fit a typical 3D printer envelope. Then glue the sections together to form the single part.

For plugs, the 3D printed surface has to be finished with body putty or something similar to smooth the surface.

Overall have found this works well and fairly cost effective.

Mike
 
Thanks for the input Mike. Was thinking along those lines with making the hull in sections and then glueing together...........................maybe a project for me in the future.
 
I can print up to 24" so making sponsors for riggers wouldn't be any problems. even a tub I can make it in to two pieces and glue together. I have made 100s of parts for my ice cream trucks
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Here is a picture of P-Spec / P-Ltd tunnel design I am working on.

It's printed in ~1/4 scale. The final design will be around 32.5" - 33.5" in length.

It should work but I think the final hull needs a thin layer of fiberglass and epoxy for a smooth finish and to be able to paint properly.

Currently I'm working with PLA plastic and it does not hold up to heat at all. It gets soft in hot tap water. ABS as the final material would be better but it's harder to print and it smells while printing.

Nothing has been done on this design / project in the last few months just like the PX-300 build and the 3D printed propellers.

WP_20170331_19_20_39_Pro.jpg

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Very cool! Hull looks nice, I think we are getting a lot closer to being able to make it happen. Thanks for the post.
 
Thank you.

Printing the hull in sections is the way to go. The test print turned out to very stiff. I could possibly have managed to break it with a lot of force.

The full size hull could possibly be stronger than a design in wood.

The PX-300 wood-over-frame kit is strong but I think I can break it over my leg if I wanted to.

It does take a long time to print but having an almost perfect control of the shape of the design is such a great advantage.
 
Christian Holmstedt said:
Thank you.

Printing the hull in sections is the way to go. The test print turned out to very stiff. I could possibly have managed to break it with a lot of force.

The full size hull could possibly be stronger than a design in wood.

The PX-300 wood-over-frame kit is strong but I think I can break it over my leg if I wanted to.

It does take a long time to print but having an almost perfect control of the shape of the design is such a great advantage

what printer have you got>??
Click to expand...
 
It's a cheap Chinese kit called Anet A8.

It's less than $200 and to some extent it shows but I'm positively surprised by what it can do.

The electronics is a bit shoddy and I don't trust it running without supervision if you know what I mean.

Which one do you have? If it can print 24" pieces it must be huge.
 
I have the Black widow highly modified extended frames bigger power supply and a better board it actually prints very well, maybe this winter I will print some front sponsors for a rigger or a cowl to see how it turns up
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Nigtmare said:
I have the Black widow highly modified extended frames bigger power supply and a better board it actually prints very well, maybe this winter I will print some front sponsors for a rigger or a cowl to see how it turns up
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Click to expand...
Can you determine the thickness of the object your printing? Just wondering if the weights would be comparable to traditional wood or fiberglass construction.
 
Jeffmaturo said:
Nigtmare said:
I have the Black widow highly modified extended frames bigger power supply and a better board it actually prints very well, maybe this winter I will print some front sponsors for a rigger or a cowl to see how it turns up
default_smile.png
Click to expand...
Can you determine the thickness of the object your printing? Just wondering if the weights would be comparable to traditional wood or fiberglass construction.
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Yes, it can be done in two ways.

Either the part is designed as a solid and then those details can be set in the slicer (wall thickness and infill), or the part can be designed as a hollow part which is much more complicated because you as the designer needs to draw every single detail.

I think there is a good chance the weight can competitive with the right settings.
 
what slicer are you using Christian? you can design the part let say 1/8 thick then use simplified 3d and put it @ 10% infill and the part will be hollow. I think if you use vase mode you can make it paper thin and use couple coats epoxy
 
This is how you build a truly light weight version of my favorite airplane.

lohring Miller
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nigtmare said:
what slicer are you using Christian? you can design the part let say 1/8 thick then use simplified 3d and put it @ 10% infill and the part will be hollow. I think if you use vase mode you can make it paper thin and use couple coats epoxy
Click to expand...
The Anet A8 comes with Cura.

On the tests I've done a 10% infill is way better than Vase mode. The infill makes it very stiff and you'll get water tight compartments for free.
 
LohringMiller said:
This is how you build a truly light weight version of my favorite airplane.

lohring Miller
Click to expand...
Very nice. The guy is using a Prusa i3 Mk II printer which is a very good kit and it is also an open source design. The Anet A8 is a clone of it and technically it should be possible to print this model with it.

The designer spent a lot of time on these parts. They are not done with any infill setting in the slicer.
 
There are some good 3D print design websites that are open source and let you create for free. I particularly like Tinkercad.

I have a Swiss design printer assembled locally here in St.Petersburg.

I bought a roll of Acetal I have tried printing with with no success.

Most races I go to I have the printer running in the trailer.
 

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