Necessity is the mother of invention. I broke the fins on my surfboard and I needed new ones. It didn't take too long for it to dawn on me that fins are much too unnecessarily expensive. They run for 70 to 80 dollars a piece, but they're nothing but resin and a little fiberglass (occasionally some carbon fiber or some other exotic material). It made no sense not to make my own. I had a 3D printer, epoxy, and fiberglass, so I gave it a shot.
I built the frame in Fusion 360 off of a traditional thruster shape, for different fin box types. It seemed like a a perfect opportunity to test Fusion's generative design software, to minimize the fin's mass while maximizing stiffness. I wanted to see if I could create a fin that is more responsive and quick in the water. I used two methods of actually creating the fin:
The latter version was surprisingly promising. It required little post-processing after the print and performed very well in the water. Ultimately, though, I'd like to have a fully functioning fin straight off the bed. I could do this by utilizing a dual extruder printer loaded with one stiff material (like CarbonX) for the frame and another lighter material (like Ultimaker's Breakaway) to fill in the voids. |
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