Thursday, March 3, 2016

Re: [Electric Boats] 3D printed propellers

 

50cm? That is what... almost 20"? Big prop, that. Only very high end commercial printers would be capable of printing this in one piece. However, a modular approach might be practical. Print the hub, with dovetails for sliding in new blades, and nacelles fore and aft that would prevent blades from sliding out of their dovetails and also streamline the assembly. The hub and nacelles could be used again, with different blades. Then the blades themselves could be printed. A home printer can be built easily enough that would print an 8" long blade. the print time is kind of irrelevant unless you need the printer for something else. A commercial print business DOES need the printer for other jobs, so outsourcing would be expensive because of the long print time. Filament is not too expensive, though I have not sourced polycarbonate. PLA can be had for around $16 for a 1kg spool. Maybe $100 in material to print with PLA. ABS slightly more. I am thinking $200 in material, tops. And $300 for an open source RepRap printer kit, another $200 to make a nice heated enclosure, necessary for printing large ABS parts without warping. The printer of course could be used again, for other jobs. So best case scenario you pay about what a bronze prop would cost, and get a custom designed prop, and a free re-usable printer. Of course that is not counting mistakes and wasted plastic from failed attempts. Time spent with 3D CAD software, unforseen expenses and time expenditures.

An enterprising person could also perhaps print a prop, then use it to make a mold, for casting aluminum or bronze, similar to lost wax casting. Just sayin.

Currently I have no room to set up my printer and I am going to have to give it away, as I am living on my boat, so I will not be trying this any time soon. But if I had a house I think it would be a worthy project to print a full size modular prop, with a high degree of probability that eventually a usable prop would come out of it.

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