14 DAY TRIAL // Some of the best 3D printers I wrote about are the sort that were developed by a person or small group of people in the privacy of their personal workshops, or as part of high school or college projects.
The case of the John Semmens DIY 3D printer is a bit more than that, though. Not because it's different but because its inventor wanted to also use the printer for something remarkable.
Long story short, he built his own 3D printer and then used it to produce an RC boat.
The 3D printer doesn't actually have a name yet. John Semmens is the inventor's name. He built the thing from medium-density fiberboard (MDF for short) and used components from old 2D dot matrix printers.
As for the boat, he got the free hull design software package called DELFTship and exported the sections of the hull to DXF filer, which he processed with a program he wrote himself. So that makes Semmens both a hardware engineer and a software programmer.
All that was left was to convert the SVG files to Autodesk 123D and “loft” the sketches into the solid hull.
In the end, the boat was made from 20 parts with hull thickness of 3 mm. The whole boat is 600mm long. Not something you can ride in, but it can be great for a bit of fun.
