Boating and 3D Printing

[Bigplumbs]

During lockdown I decided to explore another little hobby which is 3D Printing. I bought a very good but also very cheap 3D Printer from Bangood A Creality Ender 3 Pro which only cost £150 delivered.

Since I bought it I have been designing and printing various things many of which are things to make boating more easy. I feel that the more accessible etc your various things are the more fun you get. If any of you are interested 3D printing is great fun and I am sure will be the future.

Before too many people jump on this and proclaim more useless plastic being created. The material most Printers use is PLA which is made from corn starch and is biodegradable over time.

On my sib I have a wooden battery box that fits on the front seat with my chart plotter etc. I have made things to fix to this.

The beauty of 3D Printing is you can design your own little items bespoke to your situation and make them and also share with others should you so wish.

Here are a few of the items I have designed and made in the last few days. All fix to my battery box:

1) A deep mobile phone holder so that I can access my phone quickly but is stored safely

2) A simple bracket to clip my little VHF handhold onto

3) A Go Pro Camera mount.

You can design and make far more detailed and sophisticated things than these This is just a start.

 

[Bigplumbs]

Here is a little video of my little Ender 3 Pro printing away on another little project

 

[Bigplumbs]

Also downloaded and printed this little articulated Octopus that I think looks good on any boat. Things like this can be printed as a single object

 

[andy59]

Could you 3D print an ECU, asking for a friend

 

[Bigplumbs]

Could you 3D print an ECU, asking for a friend

Yup but it wouldn't work.

 

[vas]

on the plus side, it would never rust as it would be made out of polymer
looks good, one of the issues I find with 3D printing (I'm doing a few bits-actually designing them and getting them printed at the lab at the uni if they are for testing on an outside bureau if it's for good) is that strength is so much related to material deposition pattern and you have to be careful how you slice/print it else you may end up with something that rips apart v.easily...

 

[Bigplumbs]

on the plus side, it would never rust as it would be made out of polymer
looks good, one of the issues I find with 3D printing (I'm doing a few bits-actually designing them and getting them printed at the lab at the uni if they are for testing on an outside bureau if it's for good) is that strength is so much related to material deposition pattern and you have to be careful how you slice/print it else you may end up with something that rips apart v.easily...

That is indeed true but I am only printing simple little things that are not under much load at all. But you are correct

 

[Seastoke]

Yup but it wouldn't work.

could you print some flybridge seating .

 

[BruceK]

That's awesome and pretty handy. Well done. I could make plenty use out of something like that.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Could you print me out a San Lorenzo SD112, 5 East European bimbos and £100m please?

 

[MystyBlue2]

I love the custom Gopro attachments...

 

[vas]

Could you print me out a San Lorenzo SD112, 5 East European bimbos and £100m please?

at what scale Mike? don't forget these 3D printers will do bits in 200x200x200mm (if you're lucky)
so if you don't mind a bit of superglue or sika to keep the bits together, pretty sure BP could do it within his lifetime

 

[tillergirl]

What is the cost of making, for example, the GoPro bracket please?

 

[simonch]

I've printed loads of stuff for my boat! I moved my speed/tacho gauges and they were fouling on something behind them so printed tapered adaptor rings to deflect them slightly. I did something similar for my helm to angle it up more... And my bluetooth head unit - it's at my knees so i couldn't see the screen... now it points up towards me! 3D printing and boat ownership are 2 hobbies that go hand in hand!

 

[madabouttheboat]

There are people that will print things for you from a design you supply. Quite a cheap option compared to buying and running your own 3d printer, unless you use it lots.

 

[simonch]

There are people that will print things for you from a design you supply. Quite a cheap option compared to buying and running your own 3d printer, unless you use it lots.

For me it's a hobby! I've printed loads of stuff for round the house, things for friends etc! But yes, i'm sure there are lots of people who can do it on your behalf. Learning CAD was something to focus on during lockdown as well!

 

[hinch]

I've printed clips to fix my boat cabin downlights, some cup holders, some hangars for the lockers. its proved quite handy. I'm just prototyping some hose clips to keep the calorifier hoses away from the alternator belts as they keep catching and the belt keeps splitting the pipe.

 

[Bigplumbs]

What is the cost of making, for example, the GoPro bracket please?

About 20p

 

[Bigplumbs]

There are people that will print things for you from a design you supply. Quite a cheap option compared to buying and running your own 3d printer, unless you use it lots.

They are incredibly cheap now. An Ender 3 Pro is £150

 

[slawosz]

Currently I need to create 6 bonnets as described here: A cure for leaky chainplates - Practical Boat Owner
I don't have access to mill, in theory I could use column drill but recently I thought about 3d printing. Either entire element (need to think about UV degradation here) either mould to do it out of reinforced resin. Looking for other projects to justify spending 150 quid on 3d printer. I am also considering ordering such element.
For other projects, I also thought about designing printed element to make it possible to reinforce it with some resin and fiberglass.