Here is an idea for those wanting a 3D printing challenge....I wonder how sturdy it would be, and how price competitive it would be to 3D print your own kayak in comparison to a store bought one? It sure looks cool....though I think I'd prefer an olive drab colour. 3D-Printed Kayak
The 3D printer industry will be a Billion(s) dollar industry in the future. I would be a bit skeptical to on the kayak since it is bolted together and seamed seal with silicon but that's just me... Now, if they had a big enough printer and a big enough piece of stock they could have made a one piece...and this industry will get there with time.
In the early stages of emergent technology, the devices and techniques tend to be crude, clunky, and quirky....but with refinement, capabilities and costs improve. It will be interesting to see how 3D printing develops.
What exactly ARE 3D printers? I've heard lots about them, that you can make this and that with it, but how does it work exactly, and what material does it use? And can it make me a stone cottage?
It could probably make you a faux stone cottage, plastic stone by plastic stone (or by concrete).....
58 pounds of ABS, unknown pounds of silicon and a LOT of bolts. Not so sure this would be the lightest kayak. Very good proof of concept.
I have been playing with 3-D printing for a little over a year now, pretty impressive what you can print with one. Right now, there are only two types of Plastic printing strand available,and depending on what you are trying to do one will usually work better then the other. I have and use both, I find for high strength parts ( like that slingshot) the hard/stiff Poly strand is better,but harder and slower for the printer to handle, where as the nylon blend is much faster for the printer and takes less power. Both materials can print in very fine detail with little final finishing needed, or for a rapid prototype part, you can set the machine up to print in less detail and get results much faster with way less material used! I can print objects up to 24"X24" and depending on the amount of material used, the detail and quality of the final result can take any where from 15 min to over 4 hours!!! I have made Boat Propellers with mine and they have worked very well so far ( and I have a lot of HP to spin a screw with) I have made gun parts with it, like stocks and hand guards and other cool ideas I have come up with. I originally got mine to use for scratch building my R/C Model Ships and my Jets, and things quickly expanded as I discovered more and more things I could make with this! It Really needs to be set up to run the latest versions of AutoCad, or one of the newer 3-D print works programs to take full advantage of what this tech can do! This combined with a Full 5 axis CNC Router have to be one of the coolest setups for modeling I have ever seen, and the things you can make with this combo are simple amazing!
