Nice! Surffoils, what’s are your initial thoughts on the quality of the 3D printing. Did all fins fit the first try or did you need to clean up the boxes at all? Just curious as to how close the 3D printing tolerances are?
" Its a bit of a disappointment really, I thought it would have been harder to design something capable of taking all the different fins." - I think that speaks more to your design capabilities and thinking through the problem in the simplest manner possible. Your solution is really clean and lacking complexity. Usually the sign of a lot of thought and preparation on the front-end before the design work starts.
Congrats, looks awesome! You should ask the guy who did the CAD drawings if he’d mind open-sourcing the document so anyone can print them. Then anyone here on Sways could use a local 3D Printing service to get some made for themselves.
what cant did you go for?.. is it a 6 or 9?.. also did the ridge work with fcs fins or did you go for something else?.. Just couldnt see the ridge in the photo? Have you tried a fcs2 yet?
Lawless , the quality of the printed boxes is really good, the lines and corners are sharp, the angles are clean and consistent, there’s a slight textured finish to them but its completely acceptable.
I’m not sure if they were printed and then cleaned up but what I got in the mail was ready to go straight into a board. The CAD guy is reading this thread so he will say if he’s happy to offer the file to share. It still needs more work to get it completely functional for all fins so it might be better to wait until that’s done and then hand it out. That’s such a cool idea too, anyone could email the file to a printer and get a set of universal boxes in a day or two. I think the design is perfect for travelling surfers because they can mix fin companies and they’re not locked in to just one brand. Foamhack, the cant is 6 degrees. And a few pics of the FCS II fins in the box, they fit snugly like all the FCS fins and can be adjusted back and forth by about 35 mm. Grasshopper, the CAD guy was keen on getting the thin resin dam walls and some outriggers for a stable install and he’s already done the drawings for that in Pic 3 and 4 below.
Assuming this is an “under the glass” install you want to move that resin-dam ridge to be built up around the fin-slot and the screw holes, rather than the perimeter of the box. Otherwise you won’t be able to get the glass to lay flat. Same way that FCS/Futures builds up their under-glass boxes. Anyway, great execution and I think you actually have something marketable for the board manufacturers.
OK. I guess the cat will eventually come out of the bag, so I might as well admit I’m doing the CAD modelling for SurfFoils. To help ease the load on him for answering your questions and also my questions, it might be time to show everyone the different versions that have currently been modelled and let those who have extensive experience installing fin boxes to offer any advice on the design in regards to installation, etc. I will be happy to share the files once the design/s are finalised - “open source” makes the world go around after all.
Images are in the following order.
Post Glass Installation Wide Flange Version - would require double routing or use of excess resin.
Post Glass Installation Narrow Flange Version - single routing of irregular shape
Pre Glass Installation Version - similar to Futures installation I guess (but I have no personal experience with this).
Of course 3D printable routing jigs can easily be modelled as well, to suit any of the boxes. I would just need to know the required thickness and offset distance from the edge periphery of the box.
Because everyone’s got different ideas about this, I’m happy if they accessed the file now and designed it the way they want to. Some would like it to be after glass , some before.
No problems for me. It’s relatively easy to do all three once we have the “internals” sorted out. That way people can choose the one that suits thir preferred installation method. Those of you who have experience with either installation method (pre glass or post glass) and can see things they don’t like, please speak up and help us to get this thing close to being right the first time. Thanks.
but expand the flange to incorporate the grub screw holes… as the drawings show areas that could have some giant airbubbles … if not used to installing pre glass
yeah. Pre-glass is my vote too. As foam-hack says, you will have to make sure the grub-screw holes have plastic all around them. Also the sandable ridge around the box need not be so wide at the top. Too much to sand. Then you need die-cut stickers/tape to cover them so no resin leakage. I think there would be a market for these (if injection molded) if you are so inclined…
Thanks for your input foamhack and Jamie. I’ve never seen a pre glass installation done, but now that you’ve told me stickers go on I know what to do with that top area. I wasn’t sure if it was left open and you lamintaed around it or not - I’m stuck in the post glass installation mind set where you have a fin in the box to set your angle. OK that makes sense now.
I plan on completing one pre glass version and one post glass version, so there’s no need to vote - you will get both options.
Injection moulding for any of the designs shown would be quite tricky to say the least. The shape of the internal area of the box is not conducive to tooling.
“Injection moulding for any of the designs shown would be quite tricky to say the least” - Not to mention cost prohibitive. Just getting the injection molds made is a serious investment. You’d have to sell a LOT of boxes to even break even. That’s what’s SO cool about 3D printing, the 1 off cost is affordable, all the work is in making the 3D file. And you’ve done the hard part (quite well I might add). For someone to send the file to a printer now and get boxes made for $50 is a huge breakthrough in prototyping. Before you’d have to invest 10’s of thousands of dollars in molds and prototyping and then sell at volume to make the process even feasible. Now, a couple guys in OZ can knock out a prototype in a few weeks and graciously share the 3D file with guys around the world. All the buzz about 3D printing being a game-changer in manufacturing, this is exactly the process they describe. Stoked just to watch it unfold.
RDM, here is a Futures install video just to give you a sense of the process. May help guide your design -
Jump to 4:20 to skip the routing process and get right into the glassing:
Thanks lawless. That fills in the picture for me. I like how they use the reversible jig to cut the two different depths and shapes with the one depth setting on the router. The pre glass version of Surffoils box shown above is slightly wider than the Futures box as the screws on the side require it to be. But it looks like you could still use the Futures reversible jig and just redo the outer one that it “runs” in. You would have course have to fettle it a little by hand in the screw areas with some rolled up sandpaper as described by Surffoils earlier in the thread.
You know how FCS have those little round recesses on the tabs for the screws ?
With the new Futures fins having the ‘perforated’ base, I lined up the screws to fit into the holes and hold the bottom beam of the base. It works the same with the Futures that have a solid bases as they have the same pattern of recesses. A simple solution.
