If you want to get active out on the water, you could buy a new kayak, or hunt one down on Craigslist, Or, you could follow [Ivan Miranda]’s example, and print one out instead.
[Ivan] is uniquely well positioned to pursue a build like this. That’s because he has a massive 3D printer which uses a treadmill as a bed. It’s perfect for building long, thin things, and a kayak fits the bill perfectly. [Ivan] has actually printed a kayak before, but it took an excruciating 7 days to finish. This time, he wanted to go faster. He made some extruder tweaks that would allow his treadmill printer to go much faster, and improved the design to use as much of the belt width as possible. With the new setup capable of extruding over 800 grams of plastic per hour, [Ivan] then found a whole bunch of new issues thanks to the amount of heat involved. He steps through the issues one at a time until he has a setup capable of extruding an entire kayak in less than 24 hours.
This isn’t just a dive into 3D printer tech, though. It’s also about watercraft! [Ivan] finishes the print with a sander and a 3D pen to clean up some imperfections. The body is also filled with foam in key areas, and coated with epoxy to make it watertight. It’s not the easiest craft to handle, and probably isn’t what you’d choose for ocean use. It’s too narrow, and wounds [Ivan] when he tries to get in. It might be a floating and functional kayak, just barely, for a smaller individual, but [Ivan] suggests he’ll need to make changes if he were to actually use this thing properly.
Overall, it’s a project that shows you can 3D print big things quite quickly with the right printer, and that maritime engineering principles are key for producing viable watercraft. Video after the break.
800 grams/hour.
24 hour print.
about 19.2 1 kg spools
$10/spool (cheap PLA in bulk).
$192 real money.
So he breaks even on material cost at about 192,000 views of the clickbait (using $0.001/view obsolete rule of thumb).
Assuming I’m right about the crappy, fast printing plastic.
What did he pay HackaDay?
So I can finish the analysis…
Using stuff I have laying around in my garage I could build a coracle in a few hours for about $3.
Wait, so you’re saying I can use a 3D printer to make things? And if I have a large 3D printer I can make large things? Got it.
Didn’t watch the video. Who is today’s sponsor?
Like the summary says, using a 3D printer to make big things with lots of time didn’t seem interesting enough, so [Ivan] tries to use a 3D printer to make a big thing with little time, which presented interesting new challenges.
Unfortunately, the challenge of coming up with a usable kayak design wasn’t fully met.
I wish I was as cool and detached as Andrew.
I thought this was actually quite interesting. I haven’t watched the video yet, but I will.
You are unlikely to find anything more than what is described by “3D-Printing A Full-Sized Kayak In Under A Day”. Close your eyes, imagine that for a second, then get on with your day.
Well geez I thought the walkthrough on how to set up a regular ol’ treadmill to become an infinite Y-axis and work out all the kinks to get the thing to print watertight all in one piece was pretty interesting. Tough crowd
Back in the olden days, whitewater boat designers would prototype designs with a cedar strip boat, which is definitely not 24hr turnaround. Video is worth skipping through to see his inclined printing scheme (I was wondering how he avoided supports before I saw the video.
Yeah I’ve done cedar strip before, it’s a lot of work! And you need to know how to carve and use a plane/drawknife. Which are skills that take a good while to learn to do right.