3d Printing

Old Boat; New Parts!

Last winter I found out a friend of my had just purchased a 3D printer. I had read about 3D printers and now I had access to one. If I could think of something to print, my friend could help me print it.

Not I only had to think of something. I came up with two ideas. A custom tiller clip and a halyard protector for the top of the mast.

I ended up making a prototype tiller clip from a piece of wood and an off the shelf tiller clip. It took several 3D printed prototypes. The clip seemed to work perfectly but on the first test sail, the main sheet got wrapped around it and it flew off!

The halyard protector’s purpose was to define a space between the mast and the shrouds through which the main halyard could run freely. This took a clay prototype and four 3D printed prototypes.

Over all, I spent about 20 hours learning how to use Google Sketchup to create the 3D models and another 20 hours to actually create the real models.

Here are some photos of the process.