Forum Replies Created
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Issue 157: Busman’s Holiday
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Posted 2 years agoFinal fit out..
Decided to make a proper floor/seat arrangement rather than butcher the sleeping mat
Sit on top kayak seat for comfort, although this almost doubles the total weight!
3D Printed skeg in PETG (drinks bottle material)
40L dry bag, approx. 550mmx 350mm x 150mm
Weight approx. double that of the Mk1, however this includes the heavy kayak seat. Add another 1kg or so for the paddle
Posted 2 years agoAnd it’s alive!
£17 Lidl TPU inflatable mattress seems to make a nice floor
2019 & 2022 build comparison
Posted 2 years agoJust out of interest, how did you scale up the more complex sections from the prototype?
All done in AutoCAD, just print it out full size on A1/0 sheets rather than an A3 sheet.
Out of interest, what are you using to weld the seams at home? I’ve got a sleeping mat idea, which could be an interesting home build.
cut off the sides with a chop saw to leave a flat 9mmx 70mm rectangular heat iron (side of iron).
Posted 3 years agoI started this time last year after realising being able to weld is a huge capability upgrade.
Started on stick (MMA) (R-tech 135) which is a superb bit of kit – no sticking, starts easily, weighs nothing (inverter not transformer). You can do a surprising amount with it (and an angle grinder if it gets messy).
+points: minimal steel prep, will weld through millscale & rust, no gas, easy to access difficult welds, can weld outside in the wind
-Points: Messy, requires cleanup, slag everywhere, smokey, less than 2mm steel thickness is hard. Steel prep in terms of “fit” is important – a gap between the two bits to weld will result in bad times.You’ll quickly realise you’ll need a few things like chop saws, angle grinders, steel benders to make the most of metal work, here are a few things that I’ve made using MMA/Stick.
Welding table – that’s the first thing to do
WFH office desk, inspired by CV19
Garden steps
Rounded crank bolt removal
I then progressed onto TIG as my mate kept going on about how it’s the future etc.
Whilst it does produce very nice welds and is a nice process, material cleanliness is critical.
+points: looks great, very clean relaxing process (no sparks or slag flying off everywhere), you can ‘fuse’ stuff together without any extra filler rods etc, can do other materials (Stainless)
-Points: Material prep, can’t really do it outdoors, needs gas (pure Argon)A few things using TIG
Bracket for a TVR (S Series) bonnet hinge Mod.
Piece for a table – this is fused, so the weld material is from the parts melting together
Bike Packing panniers – 10mm SS tubing, 1mm wall thickness. This was a pig to do tbh.
And a couple of weeks ago I thought I’d give MIG a go, I’d liken it to using a hot glue gun, quite easy to get the hang of, not as messy as MMA/ARC but not as nice as TIG.
+ Points: Easy to get the hang of, no mess (if using gas), less material prep than TIG or MMA, can weld thin metal (car body etc)
– Points: Bit of a faff (wire spool feed etc), needs gas (CO2/Argon), weld penetration not as good as MMAAs you can get away with pure CO2 for MIG (C02/Argon mix is better depending on what you’re trying to achieve), I’ve rigged up a fire extinguisher setup for the gas (I have a good supply of out-of-service extinguishers), which I’ve worked out will give about 20mins of continuous welding (at 10 litres per minute) – note it’s upside down as CO2 extinguishers have a dip tube to dispense liquid CO2.
I made the stand using MIG, which is the only thing I’ve done so far. I’m definitely sold on it for quickly knocking stuff up that doesn’t have to be aesthetically pleasing.
I think you need to decided what you’ll want to be doing with it, but you’ll be surprised what you can do with a little MMA/ARC Machine (and an angle grinder to clean up…) to begin with.
More stuff here: https://www.pinkbike.com/u/mikeyd/album/Welding2021/
Posted 4 years agoHer maiden voyage (with me) last night to the Mewstone
Buoyancy was achieved with a few pool noodles and a couple of empty milk bottles lashed in.
She’s not exactly a performance vessel, but I knew that and it was a fun trip.. could do with a back support and drain plug and lashings and… might be time to upgrade 🙂
Posted 5 years agoSorry, I’m alive, didn’t have time last week for the testing..
Managed to get out for it’s maiden voyage today, thought a bit of surf, off shore wind and no lifeguard cover would be a good test…
Vid: https://vimeo.com/364510145
Fairly terrifying/super fun in the surf, not so much of case of catching a wave, more the wave catching you!
Paddling position is a little odd in that you are very low in the water and have to make sure the paddle goes in very close to the raft as it turns on a dime, will be great fun on river whitewater.
Lack of spray-deck is a bit of an issue in the surf, fills up quickly which needs to be emptied after each big wave. All in, pretty pleased!
Posted 5 years agoPlans to make a paddle were scuppered by Planet-X’s bargain paddle – DIY materials were going to be around £40 and their Carbon/Nylon offering was £55. At just over 1kg, it’s lighter than a few of the big name 4-piece paddles and has been designed so each piece is the same length which is great.
A bargain compared to something like this, similar weight, 6x the price and the pieces are different lengths.. http://wernerpaddles.com/paddles/packraft/pack-tour-m
Total weight of the setup including paddle and mini USB air pump 2925g.the commercial offerings come in around 3-4kg for the packraft alone.
Possible sea trials tomorrow as long as the weather isn’t too bad..
Posted 5 years agoWow, looks like this has turned into a marketing campaign for on-one 😉 DM me to arrange my commission – a paddle will do 🙂
Looks great Whitestone, maybe I should have done something like that before starting my design.. I thought it would handle like a tractor inner tube compared to a traditional boat so just cracked on.
I knew this stage would have to be done, but I was kinda hoping I had been thorough with the heat sealing and aqua-sealing: Leak finding: a couple of holes found by sound, but had to do the old water test to find the rest:
Posted 5 years agoShe’s alive!
Bow view
Stern view
Underside – notice the tubes being pulled “in” slightly, this is due to the inflatable floor.
Posted 5 years agoGetting there now:
Valves for inflatable floor – armband valves, 1 c/w 1 way valve the other one has the 1 way valve removed for ease of deflation. Not really a critical part of the packraft so the extra failure point isn’t really an issue.
It works! jump test confirmed it’s airtight and not going to pop
95% complete, the Boston valve hasn’t arrived yet, fingers crossed it’ll arrive today. The last front and rear seams were very awkward and took ages, hopefully I’ve heat sealed them enough to get a good bond.
Time to start thinking about a paddle, tempted to cut an existing one into 4 at the moment but have seen some nice homemade carbon creations, however, material costs alone would be ~£50
Posted 5 years agoProgress Update:
Shapes cut out:
Temperature test – 180 degrees no good, 200 and 220 material is inseperable
All shapes joined to centre, double layer bottom which will be inflatable on its own
Sealing the curved parts to together, hardest part so far with each seam taking around 45mins (10 in total)
8 curved seams complete so far, next step is to aquasure/glue them internally to ensure they are air tight
Time taken so far: 2hrs tracing and cutting, 10hrs seam sealing
Posted 5 years agoQuick update on the 3D printed switch.
Thanks to those who’ve given me some beer tokens for one, you’ve almost paid for the light! (at its black Friday price…)
Ongoing improvements with my testing team (Bentudder) has led to V3, which integrates the o-ring loops onto the main body to reduce the stack height by around 20% and makes the whole thing a lot sturdier on the bars.
Posted 5 years agoGood idea Bent Udder,
Mk2:
If anyone wants one, it’s 1 x beer token posted. (£4.50 around these parts)
Posted 5 years agoGreat light, let down a bit by the mount and flimsy remote which I found a bit cumbersome.
Go-pro style mount modified from £5 ebay jobby:
Re-housed the remote switch with a 3D printed jobby, happy to share the .stl file if anyone wants to print their own.
Posted 6 years agoNice work Stevied
That jigsaw looks ace too.
Been trying to work out a way to transfer maps to a 3D relief, the best I’v come up with so far is to print out on a laser-jet onto some thinnish paper, soak the paper then stipple onto the 3D relief. Used a bit of PVA too to keep it down. Fairly pleased with the results, however might try and rig up some kind of vac system (i.e. bin liner and vacuum cleaner) to suck it onto the relief.
Posted 6 years agoSorry didn’t answer some of the Qs above,
Milkie – yes, will set one up.
Redthunder – with difficulty to be honest. It would take ages to model and would be hard to print due to the amount of overhang. You would have to split it into parts.
latest attempt at something functional;
Top to bottom; Initial prototype – Test prototype – Working prototype
The initial modelling took 2-3hours in TinkerCAD, with the tweaks in-between taking 30-60mins. Print time approx. 4hrs for each prototype with a 40% fill and 1.4mm shell thickness.
The “put it in a vice and smack it with a lump hammer as hard as you can” test on the first prototype caused it to delaminate slightly, but that was expected tbh.
Will ride this for a bit and see if it needs anymore tweaking then print out of black PETG, probably with 100% infill.
Posted 6 years agoSee below. The loading is fairly high and the assumptions fairly conservative.
I don’t really know that much about structural timber, not sure what is done ref. load factors, I think there’s something to do with load durations. (i.e. don’t blame me if it collapses)
You have something that might look like an arch, in reality you have just weakened a bit of timber by cutting a bit out of the middle.
Increasing your 180mm beam depth, reducing your 3m span, load sharing between the beams, adding a decent handrail, not jumping up and down on it will all help. Make sure the depth of the beams are laterally restrained so they don’t buckle.
