3D printing for boats

[Efisio]

Originally Posted by Nightcrawler

Frankly, because the plastic had just a bit of give in it, they weren't so likely to snap due to brittle material, like the originals, when installing. They were wonderful.

Parts produced by injection molding have several more contrains than 3d printing. Extraction from the mold doesnt allow undersquares, thickness of plastic shall be as uniform as possibile, quantity of plastic is minimized to reduce the piece price...

[patja]

Fusion 360 still offers a free license for hobbyists. It does require authentication over the internet and your projects are stored online. I learned everything I know about using it from watching YouTube videos from Kevin Kennedy aka Product Design Online.

[Efisio]

Originally Posted by vpbarkley

...For marine fittings you need a filament with UV stability, not PLA. PLA is relatively strong but also brittle.

I can confirm that after few hours under the sun I got one PLA part deformed. Only a small portion, probably the thickness was not enough and design generally weak. All the other PLA parts are doing good. By the way, PLA is risky, better to use ABS or the other materials suggested for outfitting.

Originally Posted by vpbarkley

Unfortunately, 3D printed items are not fully dense, so they are generally not immune to water infiltration.

The internal mesh give more stiffness and strenght
compared to industrial injection molded components...tipically the internal strutture is closed and therefore water tight. You can also increase the wall thickness is if water tightness is important. Some experts suggest to design internal structure instead to trust in the slicer.

[Efisio]

Originally Posted by Sysunday

I impregnate the PA under vacuum with two component silica nanocoating.
I have many navigation lights, a super lightweight 2000gr wind vane and many housings for low friction sheave blocks:

How do you coat the printed part? Is It similar to carbon fiber lamination?
This is very interesting for the strenght and aesthetic finishing!