As well as building a CNC cutter to provide parts for my EeZeBilt designs, I have just been given a stereolithography 3D printer to play with.

This is an ideal tool for making marine fixtures and fittings - so long as you can draw them! With it you can reproduce any of the rare cast fittings which came with models like the original Aerokits Crash tender, or many of the old Sterling models.

I am going to have a go at learning to use a 3-D cad package, so I wondered:

a - if anyone could recommend an easy-to-learn one, and
b - if anyone else is already doing this, and has any print files they could share....

Rather than posting in this somewhat obscure subforum, ask the same in the more trafficked Dock Talk and Scale Boats.
Find some threads like:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...g-Parts/page56 (page 56!) General 3d printing commentary

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...5#post46623545 where I'm printing stuff for a tugboat;

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...-Deck-Fittings where I get into real metal fittings

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...eaplane-Tender where I print an entire large scale model

And MANY pages on FB.

Now, do you have a REAL SLA printer, where the build table submerges DOWN into a deep vat, and a steered laser draws on top of the pool?
Or one of the cheap new MSLA printers, where a masked LED array shines up through a clear window, and the part is built upside down? Two very different beasts.
And note- if the the thing was given to you... ask yourself WHY. Things go wrong with the new inexpensive printers, and some newer ones are light years ahead of the older ones, working or not. You'll do yourself a favor to pop for one with a monochrome masking screen, as opposed to the earlier color ones... print time is greatly improved.

Oh, and I use Fusion360, which has some downsides but can be had for free. Quite powerful.

P.s., I've already done a full fittings set for the Sterling 42 Corvette, offered on Shapeways. If I thought there was much demand, I'd print them myself on my MSLA and offer on ebay or somewhere.
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/patm...7+Corvette&s=0

Oh, and I use Fusion360, which has some downsides but can be had for free. Quite powerful.

Thanks - I shall have a look. I use a 2D package from Ashlar-Vellum, but I always had difficulty getting my head round 3D.

And note- if the the thing was given to you... ask yourself WHY.

Probably because it was my birthday. It's one of the cheap ones - a Phrozen SonicMini 4K. Not huge, but it looks fine for small marine fittings...

And MANY pages on FB.

Don't go there, I'm afraid. But I see that there is quite a bit of stuff on GrabCad.

Rather than posting in this somewhat obscure subforum, ask the same in the more trafficked Dock Talk and Scale Boats....

Ah, now we come to the point. You see, information and interest in old model boats is VERY low. I cannot reasonably claim that there are many people interested in this topic, and there are fewer every year. It's odd - vintage model aircraft have a strong following, while vintage model boats are essentially being forgotten.

That being the case, my interest is in documenting as much as I can of the history of this hobby for future generations. I do this by collecting old plans/artwork and putting them up on the web for free download - it has to be free, of course, otherwise the items would not be available to repositories like the Wayback Machine, or museum and private collections.

This forum is obscure precisely because it provides a meeting place for the diminishing group of vintage enthusiasts who are primarily interested in preservation of the old rather than development of the new. These people might have old items in their collections which can be copied and made available in the way I mentioned above. I'm afraid that the demand for items like a Sterlings fittings set is going to diminish rather than expand, though I would very much wish that it were otherwise! If you find that there is no market for those designs you might consider donating them to our Old Boats web site rather than letting them die?

Agreed that the old/collectible genre is a special subset... the point is that techniques used in the wider hobby are perfectly applicable here, and are more widely discussed elsewhere.

I also note the irony of a situation that you may have already met: While purists will eschew and belittle techniques like 3d printing (it's not craftsmanship, you know), they have no problem with a hobbyist buying an old kit full of ready-made castings and precut wood shapes! Ah well...

Agreed that the old/collectible genre is a special subset... the point is that techniques used in the wider hobby are perfectly applicable here, and are more widely discussed elsewhere.

You are correct that learning techniques is certainly best done by connecting to a specialist place. The advantage of posting on this forum is that it will connect with people who may own or have access to some of the rare items that I am interested in preserving. The difficulty with vintage objects is always in getting your hands on the original without having to pay collectors prices, of course!




I also note the irony of a situation that you may have already met: While purists will eschew and belittle techniques like 3d printing (it's not craftsmanship, you know), they have no problem with a hobbyist buying an old kit full of ready-made castings and precut wood shapes! Ah well...


Ah, yes - the aero boys hit that in the 1980s with their 'Builder of the Model' rules, when they tried to ensure that aerobatic competition entrants were using their own models. By now 'ready-to-run' models are so common that many people can be 'model enthusiasts' without ever building anything. Model vehicle owners usually buy cars, tanks or rigs ready-made....

Craftsmanship is marvellous to behold, of course. It survives in the static ship community. But that does not mean that you can't make use of modern tooling. I cut wood shapes for my models using a CNC router - but I design them myself in 2DCAD. And, incidentally, built the router (an eShapeoko!).

I think that the key to enjoyment of this hobby is to have built something yourself, and insofar as pre-made fittings detract from that, then the enjoyment is less. I don't know if you have seen some of my other web sites where I try to get youngsters interested in the hobby - the EeZeBilt one is the original - There you will find plans for the old Keil Kraft range of starter kits, together with illustrations of how to make various fittings out of tinsheet and wire. This tries to reproduce that experience of creation that we had as youngsters - the best boat is the one you made yourself - even if it's just half a plank with a nail stuck in it....

I think that the key to enjoyment of this hobby is to have built something yourself, and insofar as pre-made fittings detract from that, then the enjoyment is less. I don't know if you have seen some of my other web sites where I try to get youngsters interested in the hobby - the EeZeBilt one is the original - There you will find plans for the old Keil Kraft range of starter kits, together with illustrations of how to make various fittings out of tinsheet and wire. This tries to reproduce that experience of creation that we had as youngsters - the best boat is the one you made yourself - even if it's just half a plank with a nail stuck in it....

Yes,and thanks to those like you dodgy, the "Fun" element of the toy boat builders can be served. Glynn Guest designs follow the same formulae that not everyone wants to build a "Museum" quality rendering but can still have an enjoyable afternoon in the fresh (Eventually) air.

Regards Ian.

When I rebuilt a Sterling Corvette, I could not find the oval portholes. I would have bought anything close. New, used, metal, plastic, I could not find a
grommet close in size. I believe if you make them, we would buy them.

I do. Link above.

Originally Posted by mikesuss

When I rebuilt a Sterling Corvette, I could not find the oval portholes. I would have bought anything close. New, used, metal, plastic, I could not find a grommet close in size. I believe if you make them, we would buy them.

If I drew them, I would put the print files in with the relevant free plan downloads. This is why I am starting to learn FreeCAD - which is not a trivial exercise! But not impossible - I enclose a pic of a MkXIII torpedo print that I have just done, compared to a (roughly painted!) MkXIII torp which is in the plans for the EeZeBilt PT Boat. A decent drawing with all the screw holes, etc can be sized to any dimension you want, and would obviously do for the Aerokits PT Boat if doubled in size. You can see that the twisted prop blades are beyond my capabilities - for the moment. But once I have the torp and the launch rack that will go into the plans as an .stl file.

I anticipate a future when everyone will have reasonably easy access to a 3-D printer, and be able to make their own items. At the moment it is going to be easier just to buy a one-off item, but there are so many applications for this technology that I think it will be picked up by many modellers. People could start by learning to use a 2-D drawing package like LibreCAD. If you want to commission an item from someone then it would be really useful to send them a 2-D 3-view which was computer-readable.

And a 2-D drawing can drive a CNC cutter directly, of course. Over the last few years I have obtained a CNC cutter and a 3-D printer. Both were around the £300-400 mark, and both are likely to have a place in the modeller's workshop of 2030....

Try using Tinkercad atTinkercad.com it uses shapes to add and remove to make quite complex assemblies.
It is very easy to learn. I have made bitts, winches, cabinets, funnels, mounting plates for servos using ABS filament in my Prousa 3D printer
Best of all this is design site is free!
Geoff

This seems to be the way that things are going.

I raised it here specifically because one of the things we could not replicate before was the fittings set included with some of the old boat kits. Now it looks as if we will be able to bring back all the old accessories. Does anyone from the UK remember the old Mersey Marine display cabinets they used to have in the model shops.. .?

Thought I'd update my progress with FreeCAD. It's free. but a full professional 3-D cad package which takes a while to learn. There's a very useful forum. The torpedo took me a week of struggling - the launch rack was done in a few hours. There is little rack detail, because there seem to be few pictures on the web. My first attempts are all a bit simple, of course...

I enclose the 3-D images, and a picture of what comes out of the printer when you feed them in. The brass bar is an addition - it's the way I secure the torps in the rack. I will improve these a bit, then add the file to the EeZeBilt plan download.

Originally Posted by patmat2350

Agreed that the old/collectible genre is a special subset... the point is that techniques used in the wider hobby are perfectly applicable here, and are more widely discussed elsewhere.

I also note the irony of a situation that you may have already met: While purists will eschew and belittle techniques like 3d printing (it's not craftsmanship, you know), they have no problem with a hobbyist buying an old kit full of ready-made castings and precut wood shapes! Ah well...

To me, I think hobbies evolve to include various techniques like 3d prints, wood and metal lathes and such. I like to point out to purist (which I'm clearly not) that unless your whittling that ship model part out of wood with a knife don't talk purity to me. I believe hobbies should be fun and my goal is to build models as minimalistacally as possible. If I can cut a corner, save some time and energy I'm all in.

It seems to me that people all want slightly different things out of the hobby - as opposed to, say, skiing, where the aim is usually more single-minded. Some collect, some build, some sail... I tend to be interested in recovery and restoration. At the moment I'm on a kick of re-creating early single-channel systems - ideally valve rather than transistor. For this, you can't just turn up to a pond and turn on - there is a lot of tuning and adjustment to be performed before each outing! But it gives you the same experience that the modellers in the 1950s went through...