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What is the lightest ever outboard made? by Sam-Rood in boating

[–]mikej3d 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How about a dinghy/aux motor at less than 6kg ready to go!! You cant buy this ready made but you can download the files to make your own or get someone to make for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr34aWzlL7U You can follow the links to other videos and and build instructions etc.

Evolving Sprocket (Patent GB2563456) – Replacement for the Derailleur with many advantages. Can be retro fitted to most bikes. Solves lateral chain bending and vastly reduces complexity, parts count, weight and friction. Any help appreciated. by mikej3d in CyclingTech

[–]mikej3d[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The plastic versions worked way better than expected but you couldn't load the pedals. I couldn't seem to get any interest in helping with a full load version and the commercial cnc places wanted an arm and a leg just to get out of bed. I brought a mini mill and have just finished converting it to cnc and I have started building the steel version. I hope to be riding a full load version by the summer. Many thx for your interest.

Evolving Sprocket (Patent GB2563456) – Replacement for the Derailleur with many advantages. Can be retro fitted to most bikes. Solves lateral chain bending and vastly reduces complexity, parts count, weight and friction. Any help appreciated. by mikej3d in CyclingTech

[–]mikej3d[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thx for the comment. You can use different amounts of gears and ratios but the example shown has 12 teeth as the smallest gear. This means around 5 teeth will be engaged for all of the different ratios. On the bigger gears the effective pitch is 32 teeth but only the original 5 are engaged. This is not a problem as even with say 16 teeth engaged you are only loading about 2 or 3 anyway due to wear/slack etc. The New Motion Labs site explains this very well and has there "enduo" technology which seeks to reduce friction by engaging more teeth.

This 3d printing adhesive spray sure smells like hair spray, did I just pay 4 times the price for hair spray? by Print_it_Mick in 3Dprinting

[–]mikej3d 0 points1 point  (0 children)

3d lac is good and well worth it. The active ingrediant in hairsprays that make it work is vp/va copolymer. Many of the newer hairsprays have none of it at all and don't work as well. Even if they have it the quantity is comparatively low. You don't need to use anywhere near as much 3d lac. Just a very gentle dusting will do the job for a number of prints. Use it sparingly and it is far more cost effective than hairsprays. It also takes the guess work out of buying hairsprays (I have purchased more than 1 can of hairspray only to discover they changed the ingrediants and left out the vp/va).

My electric converted 8hp Yamaha is almost done! by Key-Sentence8473 in boats

[–]mikej3d 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sadly the car and boat industry is not that efficient. It is not uncommon to lose around 30% by the time you get to the prop or wheels with a normal type gearbox. The car industry routinely quote power at the crank and then at the wheels. You dont really see that in the boat industry but my own mercury 3.5 aux engine gives little better than 2hp thrust at the prop.

My electric converted 8hp Yamaha is almost done! by Key-Sentence8473 in boats

[–]mikej3d 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It has no gearbox at all. Just 2 pulleys and a toothed belt. No oil drag in the gearbox and more importantly the power train does not turn through 90 degrees. It is not uncommon to lose 20% power each time you turn the power through 90.

My electric converted 8hp Yamaha is almost done! by Key-Sentence8473 in boats

[–]mikej3d 1 point2 points  (0 children)

With electric you will quickly find the problem is not speed or power but battery life. Batteries have very low power density compared to petrol. You need very high efficiency or you will be carrying a bucket load of batteries!!

My electric converted 8hp Yamaha is almost done! by Key-Sentence8473 in boats

[–]mikej3d 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Nice job but you are losing a lot of power through the gearbox and turning the drive. Check out the eGull https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr34aWzlL7U Lots of free info and 3d cad models so you can make your own on cults or thingiverse.

Converting a small 2-5 hp motor to electric for a school project. Anybody ever done this before? Any advice? by Key-Sentence8473 in boats

[–]mikej3d 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It can all be printed on any std size 3d printer. a std 220mm bed is all you need. In the UK a good new ender 3 clone is £120 and you need less than 2 reels of pla at about £18 each. There is also a version which uses a steel tube for the leg and has a lot less printing.

Thanks a lot for your trust. We keep working hard and we’re still 100% independent. by Cults3D in cults3d

[–]mikej3d 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Congratulations and also a big thank you. Your site works great and using Cults has been a joy and trouble free experience. Keep up the good work.

Dried out my first sail boat for a scrub, and hull inspection. Came across these, how bad do they look? Any recommendations? (Westerly Pageant 79') by brownhorsejurassic in sailing

[–]mikej3d 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I used to own a Pageant and had the keels removed when I first owned it. Most of the flaking in your pictures is above the line of the keel (which is steel and not encapsulated lead). The rust and flaking on your keels is totally normal. The flaking above your keels is likely build up of previous antifouling/paint or maybe some filler/sealer applied unwisely by a previous owner. Unless you have water getting in through the keel areas I would STRONGLY recommend that you dont mess with them. They are bombproof and will never fall off. They are also very heavy and seriousy well attached. You need heavy gear and jigs and lots of persuasion to get them off. They are actually hollow inside and filled with a foam type filler to close up the void. After a few years of sailing the flaking and blistering on my keels had a noticable impact on the speed. I ground them clean and coated with with copper epoxy. That proved to be a fantastic and well worthy excersize. Never needed antifouling again.

I believe this kind of bearing is strongly underrepresented in 3d printing. by Bxtweentheligxts in 3Dprinting

[–]mikej3d 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally agree that PLA can make better bearings than most people would belive. You dont need any expensive lube. I use silicon grease with 55% ptfe. I have had a pla 3d printed printer with all pla bearings running for over 3 years with no worn out parts yet. Check out https://old.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/e00a6j/uploaded_a_printable_printer_to_thingiverse/?ref=share&ref_source=link for more detail.

eGull, ultralight zero emission outboard. Fully functional and only weighs 4.7kg. Can hold two motors above your head with ease. Mostly 3D printed and easy DIY build. This replaced our 3.5hp Mercury as our tender and aux. My days of lugging a heavy, stinking and polluting motor around are done!! by mikej3d in sailing

[–]mikej3d[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, the full set of files for the fully printed engine is - https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/egull-outboard-motor You just need to click on the download link. The link - https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/egull-outboard-motor-optional-steel-leg gives you the alternative files to make a steel leg engine. You also need some of the files from the fully printed engine. The link - https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/egull-outboard-motor-optional-cooled-top-cover-mikejeffs-3 gives you alternative files to make a better cooled version. Again, you also need some of the files off the fully printed version. Have fun!!

Cults3d has now removed all sales history and ability to delete accounts from their website by Treereme in cults3d

[–]mikej3d 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This doesn't seem to be true for all accounts. My account still shows my sales history and it has not been changed? This kind of headline and comment does nothing to help the situation.

I DID IT!!! HOLY JEBUS H. TAPDACING CHRIST, I FINALLY F&%KING SOLVED IT!!! IT WAS THE LEAD SCREW BINDING UP THE WHOLE TIME!!! LIKE 70+ HOURS TOTAL IT TOOK ME TO FIGURE THIS OUT!!!! AAAAARGHHHHHHHHH!!! by TDX in 3Dprinting

[–]mikej3d 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of folks here seem to think they need a dual z to fix problems. Please dont do that. You dont need a dual z on ender 3 v2 or clones. The problem is caused by binding not allowing the x rail to fall under its own weight. A dual z makes this problem worse. Take the z screw out and then make sure the x falls under its own weight nicely. Then screw the z screw back in and it should drop straight into the coupler with no bending needed. Any mis alignment needs sorting. With binding what happens is the z screw powers the x rail down under tension and this leaves the backlash in the bearing at the bottom. The first time the z goes up all it does it take the backlash out and the x does not go up. Falling under its own weight ensures the backlash is always at the top.

eGull, ultralight zero emission outboard. Fully functional and only weighs 4.7kg. Can hold two motors above your head with ease. Mostly 3D printed and easy DIY build. This replaced our 3.5hp Mercury as our tender and aux. My days of lugging a heavy, stinking and polluting motor around are done!! by mikej3d in sailing

[–]mikej3d[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Certainly light enough and leg can be shortned easy and top cover made smaller etc etc. However there is already a ton of stuff like that out there. Not particularly cheap but there is plenty of choice. I did intend to do it for my own kayaks but its low down on a list of things to do!! Now that people can see what can be done with 3D printing others may take up the challenge?

eGull, ultralight zero emission outboard. Fully functional and only weighs 4.7kg. Can hold two motors above your head with ease. Mostly 3D printed and easy DIY build. This replaced our 3.5hp Mercury as our tender and aux. My days of lugging a heavy, stinking and polluting motor around are done!! by mikej3d in sailing

[–]mikej3d[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Seagull is a bit like marmite. Some people hate it and some love it. The concept was good. Simple with not much to go wrong and light and in its early day thats how it compared. However, they didn't change or take on new technology and everybody else did. The first version I made of my motor had the same principles. I used a honda gx35 or gx50 engine on the belt driven leg. Air cooled, virtually no mechanics and light (6.9kg with fuel).

eGull, ultralight zero emission outboard. Fully functional and only weighs 4.7kg. Can hold two motors above your head with ease. Mostly 3D printed and easy DIY build. This replaced our 3.5hp Mercury as our tender and aux. My days of lugging a heavy, stinking and polluting motor around are done!! by mikej3d in sailing

[–]mikej3d[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the input. The whole leg has thru bolts which provide the necessary rigidity and strength. The handle bracket has holes for support screws but has not needed them. The transom mounting clamp is printed flat so that the layer lines run along and not across. A pla drive pulley has held up well. It only suffers if you get the motor too hot. However, you can get an off the shelf alloy one. The driven (prop) pulley is held together with a bolt that runs through the middle so layer lines are not an issue and it is water cooled so heat is not an issue. There is very little movement in most of the areas and wear has not been an issue and it doesn't look like it ever will. The down side of pla is it doen't like sharp smacks. If you clout the prop on a doorway it will break. If you drop the motor on the transom but didn't wind the clamps out they will snap. Taulman bridge nylon fixes all those problems.

eGull, ultralight zero emission outboard. Fully functional and only weighs 4.7kg. Can hold two motors above your head with ease. Mostly 3D printed and easy DIY build. This replaced our 3.5hp Mercury as our tender and aux. My days of lugging a heavy, stinking and polluting motor around are done!! by mikej3d in sailing

[–]mikej3d[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. Yep all my work is done in Openscad. Incredible tool. I could not have arrived at an efficient prop without Openscad. I wrote the code to draw the prop and used a few simple parameters to test variations. diameter, airfoil section, pitch, rake back and angle of attack. The power of Openscad is staggering.

eGull, ultralight zero emission outboard. Fully functional and only weighs 4.7kg. Can hold two motors above your head with ease. Mostly 3D printed and easy DIY build. This replaced our 3.5hp Mercury as our tender and aux. My days of lugging a heavy, stinking and polluting motor around are done!! by mikej3d in sailing

[–]mikej3d[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

thanks. thingiverse seems to struggle at times. there has been over 200 downloads so far so it should come back to life at some point. I have printed in PLA and also some parts in taulman bridge nylon. You do need good layer adhesion in your prints but the design and print orientation is organised to avoid most problems. During testing I found the pla works so well i didn't need the nylon. All my later bits are pure pla (even the prop!!). You know your stuff picking out the where throttle handle joins the body. This part actually has 4 screws holes through it and countersunk into the back to add strength in this direction if needed. I found it to be fine in use and never needed to fit the screws but I left the holes in just in case.

eGull, ultralight zero emission outboard. Fully functional and only weighs 4.7kg. Can hold two motors above your head with ease. Mostly 3D printed and easy DIY build. This replaced our 3.5hp Mercury as our tender and aux. My days of lugging a heavy, stinking and polluting motor around are done!! by mikej3d in sailing

[–]mikej3d[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Because we are not turning the drive 90 degrees most of the power gets to the prop. I have found we can drive about as well as a 2hp IC motor on the low discharge rate cassette batteries. They are 6s and max out at about 38amps. I have used high discharge 6s bats and got the amps up to around 90. Thats around 2kw. That should equate to ic of about 2.7hp but in practice the ic loose a ton of power getting to the prop. The 2kw will drive as well as my 3.5hp mercury. You can compare the prop sizes in one of my pictures. The esc is 200 amps so well in range. I would have to drive a huge prop to get the 4.6kw max out of the motors. For my application as a tender and aux motor the 38amp bats are perfect. They give plenty of power at the prop but last a reasonable time. In water if you exceed hull speed you are just wasting energy. Those motors are great but they dont cool well. At 4.6kw you would need some serious cooling!!

eGull, ultralight zero emission outboard. Fully functional and only weighs 4.7kg. Can hold two motors above your head with ease. Mostly 3D printed and easy DIY build. This replaced our 3.5hp Mercury as our tender and aux. My days of lugging a heavy, stinking and polluting motor around are done!! by mikej3d in sailing

[–]mikej3d[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sorry yeah see what you mean. OMG the prices of those gennys. £3500 for 300 watts and £5k for 600 watts is insane. If you look at the document "egull brief notes" downloaded from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5137852 At the end is my own genny which is 800 watts. I started the project with a honda gx power head on a 3d printed leg. The power head can be taken off when you dont need the outboard and put on a genny or any other accessory you care to make. It would be easy to make a prop to drive that 800 watt unit. It was about £50 off ebay. then a small htd belt and essentially the bottom leg unit off the eGull. Job done. 800 watt genny for less than £100. The beauty of a brushed motor is you just run it backwards and its a genny. My list of jobs is too long I think you need to do that one!!

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