3D Printing Submariens and Sub Components

[rwtdiver]

RCJetDude,

That great that your water test went so well! Is it possible for you to upload a photo of your hull showing the placement and amount of foam you used to trim out the surface aspect of your boat? This could give me a starting point on mine! Thank you!

I just finished up the primer on the bottom portion of my hull, I am now ready to start the final finish work to the hull! (sanding, filler, sanding, filler, and more sanding):-))



This project is coming along faster than I thought, but now that the Gov. of Arizona and Mayor of Gilbert have put a lock down on us untill April 30th, that will mean a lot more time to build!

I do hope all of you are staying WELL & SAFE!!!

Rob

"Firemen can stand the heat"

[SubDude]

I got my Redoutable trimmed out. Took a day and a half but it sits well at the waterline and washes over the deck evenly when statically diving and completely submerges. It may need some tweaking but is at a good starting point. Once I get my receivers back it will be ready for a maiden voyage. Very stoked. Its almost done.

[Subculture]

Extruded tubing varies in internal diameter consistency enormously, but if you measure the tube in advance, you can tweak the cad to suit before printing.

A lathe is the ultimate universal machine for a model submariner looking to make their own watertight parts. It trumps a 3d printer every time for me, which is a 'nice to have'.

Still it's surprising how very few are willing to spend the modest investment on such a machine tool, in spite of the fact it'll largely pay for itself the first WTC you make. Naturally you need to know how to use it, but the kinds of parts need in a WTC don't not constitute advanced turning practices, and you can pick up the basics very quickly. Tolerances are also fairly wide, so you don't need to have the greatest lathe either. Turning parts is fun, and you can build what you want or need, rather than what is commercially available.

[rwtdiver]

Resins & powders will undoubtedly be the new future, to an extent for our hobby! Manufacturing a true water tight cylinder end cap is at this point still in the hands of real craftsman, such as David Merriman! I will bet that not all 3" (as an example) cylinders are true 3". There fore a lathe and accomplished hands can provide the tolerances required to achieve the fit required along with the correct seal to achieve that perfect non-leaking end cap!

As much as I enjoy 3D Printing, nothing will replace the hands on craftsman!!

Rob

"Firemen can stand the heat"

[Subculture]

They'll get easier. If they hope to crack mass production they'll have to, along with repeatable consistency.

The first commercial laser printer by HP cost about £8k in todays money, now you can get a very good laser printer for about fifty quid. I don't think 3d printing will ever trickle down to the cost levels that paper printing did, but I can envisage binder jet machines coming down to he sub £2k mark within the next five years. Couple that with much easier and intuitive software plus the 3d scanners that are already appearing on smartphones and tablets, and there isn't going to be much that is off limits.

[RCSubGuy]

I agree with Andy. Filament printers are the placeholder until the better technologies mature.

While sintered printers offer significantly better parts, they're also much more complicated to operate, which will make them less approachable by the general population. Filament printers have the advantage of simplicity. Load and go. Lots of pre and post-production on sintered parts. Resin has a lot of opportunity, but it's messy and more complicated as well.

Regardless, we'll see this technology advancing quickly.

[Subculture]

Filament based 3d printers are the equivalent to dot matrix paper printers, IMO. Laser and inkjet made obsolete. I think the future consumer level machines will be powder and resin based. Resin is already here to some extent, but will get cheaper with a greater range of materials. Powder based sintering is still the province of expensive machines, but is getting cheaper, and will continue to do so with material range growing too. the anisotropic properties of sintered items are far superior to filament printed items.

[Sinksalot]

Yep having fun is the most important thing in this hobby. Please keep up the good work and keep posting your pictures. Just remember, you never to old to have fun!

[rwtdiver]

Sinksalot,

I am really not interested in using any other filament other than PLA! Its safer for the environment, does not smell up the hobby room. Plus you do not need to spend thousands of dollars for new printers. My take on it is to use proper gluing methods, primers and sealers to get the results I am after. If I where going to build submarines and SD/MSD the way they should be, I would get with the guys in the know! (David Merriman, Tom, Bob Martin "SUB Ed", and all the others) and learn the old tried and true methods and do it right!!

I do understand where you are coming from and I am sure as time progresses forward with 3D printing, that new innovative 3D printing machines and filament materials will sprout up and really change the way this hobby is being done. I am not trying to change the world of sub building (to old for that) just want to learn as I go and use the 3D Printing processes that I know and understand! BUT most of all have fun with this hobby!!

Rob,

"Firemen can stand the heat"

[Sinksalot]

Hi Rob,

Your WTC looks great. Yea end caps are the hardest part of a the WTC to make. If your printing you own, PLA is ok, but ABS or ASA filament is better for end caps. However you will need your 3D printer in a enclosure to keep the filament from cracking or warping. That being said a few people have switch over to Resin 3D printers for making end caps and other parts. I dont own a Resin 3D printer, yet.. Small ones can be gotten for about $200. But I want a large one that prints at least 200mm and those are $1000 or higher yet. I would like to 3D print the whole hull in resin.

[rwtdiver]

Todays update:

I installed the on/off from the ESC into a 3D fabricated box that is mounted on the end cap.



Put it all together, dumped it into the pool and it checked out NO LEAKS!

As you know I fabricated my WTC using 3D Printed parts, this included the end caps. I purchased the O-rings from amazon and used a product called Magic Lube ll on the rubber seals. At this point in time I was unable to 3D print an end cap that was perfect enough to seal up tight enough to the cylinder, even with the rubber seal and lube to prevent a total leak proof system, it did not work. I used Z-Proxy finishing resin to seal the end caps inside and out and this stopped the water penetration through the PLA at 100% infill.

I came up with my solution to totally seal my 3D Printed WTC! And it works great. I sealed up the WTC, weighted it down and put it into my pool at about 3 foot of water for 3 to 4 hours and I am happy to say, I did not have one drop of water inside the cylinder! :-))

Here is what I did to make the final seal!



I know this comes NO WHERE CLOSE to a David Merriman SD/MSD designed system! But for a totally 3D printed WTC it works!! (bailing wire & duct tape)

I will be using this WTC in both the Redoutable and the Astute submarines as surface runner application only. Now that I have a total water tight WTC, dynamic diving will be next!

Rob

"Firemen can stand the heat"

[rwtdiver]

RCJetDude, for your Futaba T9CAP look around for Futaba module FP-TJ-FM as they are already 75mhz. Also look around for Futaba Synthesized module PK-FSM. It will let you use any 75mhz freq on your T9CAP, please note the PK-FSM will only work with single conversion receivers. I was able to buy a few 8 channel 75 mhz receivers off a hobby shop in china. They are tiny little things, 33mm by 22mm by 12mm. They work great on my Futaba Robbe F-16, FC-28, T7CAP, T8UAF, T9CAP Super and Vex. All at 75mhz. Yea I know I got to many radios lol. I also sent a few receivers and TX modules to Radio South a few months ago, he is pretty quick. Mostly FP-TK-FM modules with FP-R148DF and FP-R148DP receivers for better retuning to 75mhz. My current projects are a new Engel U177 1/45 scale sub. I also bought the optional upgrade kit with the late war decking and conning tower from modellbau-wikinger. To get that sub shipped to the US in its close to 7 foot long box was a very tearful moment for my bank account. I also have three 3D printed subs I am working in Fusion 360. it just takes time which I just never have, so it slow going.

other David

PS, Been reading stuff in this forum for a long time. Just never open my mouth before. That maybe a good thing or a bad thing

Other David,

Glad you came aboard! It's nice to know there are others starting to use this building process! I know 3D Printed Subs are not as yet up to the high standards as set forth from builders like David Merriman, Tom, Bob Martin, "SUB" Ed, and many others using the tried and true traditional building methods! But over time as 3D Printers improve and new kinds of filaments come to the market place, then we will see some real solid submarines being built! But for now we just have to deal with special sealers, primers, paints, and adhesives to get these subs in the water!

Rob

"Firemen can stand the heat"

[SubDude]

just got a new test tank today.......or puppy pool.

I've thought of that too...

[trout]

just got a new test tank today.......or puppy pool.

[SubDude]

[QUOTE=He Who Shall Not Be Named;n137375]

Well crap! My tub isn't long enough to float my boat so I can trim it. Now I have more incentive to get the pool running again.[/QUOTE

LOL. We all have our Crosses to bear (err …. deer). Clean that pool and get back into the game. Man! I've heard some lame excuses before, but … Damn!





David
The Horrible

It's a bit too early to open the pool here but I have started. The pump/filter went out last year so I ordered a new one.