I would stay away from PLA for an application like this. It does not have much flex and if left in direct sunlight it will warp. ABS hates UV and will degrade if left in direct sunlight for long enough. PETG is the same stuff that plastic water bottles are made of. It has flex, laughs in the face of UV and can handle the heat of direct sunlight. Pretty much the perfect material for this application.
If a plastic water bottle can survive out in the ocean for years then that’s saying something.
There is a forum member ‘Hans’ who has developed an excellent online platform for designing fins.
It is located here: finfoil
I think I just used the stock fin with the FCS2 base.
PS Saw the comments about PETG, thanks. Kids got me some for the holidays, will try it out soon.
First try , inspired by this thread…
This fin was compression moulded.
I used a finfoil 3D print and made the negatives off that fin.
The fin has a double foil.
I started using CAD for projects like this and my skills are limited. I faced too many issues with designing the mould in CAD -even with the STL from Hans- so I made the moulds by hand.
I won’t rival any existing fins, but I am pretty happy with this first try. I guess with this kind of mould you could make any type of fin / foil.
What do you guys think of tough Pla?
Thanks for the inspiration!
Next one is a singlefin…same type of mould ,but I’ll try a infusion setup using an MTI tube.
Bro that is awesome! I am literally on the verge of doing the same thing but I’m pressed for time so I will probably just print some for the short term and then mould some later. So just to make sure that I understand you correctly, you have concave surfaces on both sides of the mould and you didn’t get any air pockets trapped in them after compressing it? Did you just use glass and resin or did you include an EPS inner core?
Also, did you pay for that export from finfoil? I’m doing this because I can’t afford to pay for fins and in Africa the conversion to export a high quality STL from finfoil is pretty dang expensive. I was looking for a way to get STLs of high res but it seems that since the online tool was released there is no longer a way.
It came out pretty clean. It has some tiny holes, but it’s really next to perfect. You will have to detail the base , cause the mould doesn’t close to zero tolerance.
You can take the volume of the STL and use that to calculate the weight of the fiber.
Overdose your resin , the fiber stays in the mould and the resin gets squeezed out.
I found it difficult to stuff the optimum weight of fiber into the mould , but it’s close .
Take a look at the video I linked before…
The piston setup of your mould helps to keep the right amount of resin enclosed.
And yes, I payed for the high res… It’s a great program, but for me the timebased subscription modell is not the best solution.
I am working on doing it all alone on freecad, but there are so many details in the way that it will take a long time to get there. There are probably better programs available .
I have problems with PETG quality, and switched to toughPLA. If you can do PETG good, I think if you would choose a different base, you could probably just print a fin and ride it with the right slicer settings and orientation on the bed.
That’s really good feedback. I was super worried about there being air pockets in the concave parts but now I am keen to jump in head first!
I agree that the time based model does not make sense for this sort of thing. I would be happy to have a per-fin cost where I can buy credits and then spend them on exports. X credits for medium res, Y for high res etc… That way I could take as long as I want to create a mould, test it and refine without having to worry that I will have to pay again for another month I am not happy with the result.
Just wanted to share the result of the second try.
I made a lot of effort to squeeze in the optimum fiber ratio of 60% ,ending up with a worse result. It’s to dry and sands like cardboard.
Better take it easy on that… I can’t really say how much I used ratio wise on the first try…guess it was something like 50/50 or even less.
The above is wrong,
the failure was in my use of the resin , not the ratio
I used infusion resin with slow hardener (200 min) for the first time, and I misinterpreted the appearance of the result. The resin was still not fully cured after 24 hours with raised temperatures.
Sorry for the misinformation.
Hey nemoz, you should set up a free account on Thingiverse, then you can upload your files there and they are easy to share.
A while ago a gracious Swaylocks user made a bunch of adapters and boxes and added them there to share:
https://www.thingiverse.com/crapoladesign/designs
mako, do you have access to CAD software?
I’ve got a 3D Printer I can print you some molds on if you can come up with the design.
Or if you make a fin in Finfoil.io and buy the high-res model, my son has 3D software and is doing engineering classes so may be a good exercise for him to figure out how to make a 2 part mold if you’re keen on trying it.
I’m working on the newer version of the plugs, anyone is using them or want the updated files?
I´m interested. But eventually I´m not smart enough to convert the files from .txt to .stl . Tried to change the file name as recommended earlyer. didnd work. I´m using Solid Edge or Fusion360 as my CAD programme. both diddn´t accept the files.
is there any chance, you could send me the actual .stl file or put an upload in thingiverse?
I’m doing a new twin fin set because my indonesian trip is coming closer and closer. On the bottom left one fin that has only to be sanded, the violet mould with elastic band as seal, both moulds are already waxed for better release, fiberglass are already cutted in shape, I just closed the moulds withot other pictures, I will make another one tomorrow.
