3D Printing a Boat...mold

I am not a pro boatbuilder like the guys in here, but I have built two CNC machines so I figured I would chime in. The problem you are going to face is that the amount of travel on the machine gets exponentially more expensive. For instance I bet you can by a 12"/12" DIY kit for <$1000. One that travels 20 FEET will probably be more like $200+K and you will have a hard time finding a place to keep it. Also with large travel distances it is really hard to keep tolerances (so it repeats exactly where its supposed to go)

Cool idea, but unless you have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to burn and a permanent place to put your machine... run, dont walk, from the idea.

 

Sorry it took so long, I have been away.

This is the forum I was referring to;

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/bo...onents-boat-building-49145-19.html#post688811

It was easier to find by searching my email. As I recall I had quite a detailed debate with lots of good links/news reference. Certainly 3D printing has progressed greatly since then. The only negative has been the collapse of 3D print company equity prices, relative to earnings.

To answer the question posed in the original post, you could 3D print a pattern to cast a roto-mold or a vaccu-forming mold, or a blow mold. Any of these would be capable of producing hundreds of thousands of small boat hulls at world class prices. The only challenge is to design a boat with sufficiently high sales potential to overcome the higher break-even cost.

 

Scott, the exponential cost is true of CNC because of cutter forces and the need to design to a very limited deflection. Because there is little to no force needed to accurately 3D print, preinter costs do not rise nearly as fast with size. Look at the difference in cost between a laser cutter gantry that will fit a 4X8 sheet of plywood and a CNC machine of the same size -more than 10X the cost. That laser and gantry is more than capable of SLS -all it needs is to add more Z axis and a bed to hold and sweep the powder.

The cost of material is more likely to be the economic problem.

 

I will spare the ones and zeros if you will save the smart-*** comments.