3D Printing Technology presented to the Toronto Metro Marine Modellers Club

On Saturday, March 28, Javelin’s Paul Sesto delivered a seminar on 3D printing technology to the sail division of the Toronto Metro Marine Modellers Club – the MMM – for their Annual Spring Opener. This meeting was an afternoon of what’s happening for the upcoming summer season of radio-controlled (RC) yacht racing and a chance for members to share information about their hobby and to learn something new.

MMM member boats range from a 1930’s refurbished “pond sailor” (far left) to “735” a Soling Class racer (far right) a 1 metre long rc scale model of an ex-Olympic class sailboat. (Photo by Steve Penney – MMM member)

About Paul Sesto, Javelin’s new dedicated 3D Printing Education Specialist

As a member of MMM for the last 3 years, Paul is considered a “builder” in that he builds originally designed RC sailboats from ‘scratch’ in a combination of materials – balsa wood, fiberglass, epoxy resin, and carbon fiber. When MMM Sail Captain Rick Levick, discovered that Paul was now in the 3D printing industry, he asked Paul to share his knowledge with club members as many had heard about 3D printing and expressed an interest in learning more about this technology especially in respect to their hobby.

Paul Sesto, Javelin’s 3D Printing Education Specialist, presenting at MMM

The 3D Printing Presentation

As Paul explained during his presentation he has the daily opportunity to be talking with educators, teachers, professors, and staff from libraries, “makerspaces”, elementary and high schools, colleges and universities, and research centres. Makerspaces also known as fablabs or DYI (do-it-yourself) spaces are places where people gather to create and share information. And as Paul expressed with MMM having started in 1958 and its members being involved with model boat building, electronics and radio controls, they could in fact be considered as one of the original makerspaces.

3D Printing Technology Print Process

During the presentation members learned about:

• The various 3D printing technologies including Stratasys’ Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and Polyjet technologies and printers that Javelin supplies and supports to the commercial and education market across Canada.
• The 3D printing process from 3D CAD model to printed part.
• The necessity for support material during particular part builds.
• What’s needed in regards to 3D CAD for model creation and printer ready file types.
• Where to try out 3D printing in the Greater Toronto Area such as the Toronto Reference Library, other local libraries, makerspaces, innovation hubs and commercial service bureaus.

Paul included example 3D printed boats from the web article: Australian Man Designs & 3D Prints a Working RC Boat on his DIY 3D Printer (see http://3dprint.com/16599/3d-printed-rc-boat/)

The difference between consumer/hobby printers and commercial grade printers

Paul also discussed the various differences between consumer-hobby printers and commercial grade printers such as Javelin’s line of Stratasys Canada 3D printers and of course the possible applications for the RC model boat builder. After the seminar, members had a chance to see and hold the various 3D printed parts that Paul brought along and the recurring statement seemed to be: “wow, this is off a 3D printer!”. (Which of course is off a Stratasys 3D printer).

Now armed with a better understanding of 3D printing technology, you could see the creative ideas starting to generate from the MMM members as to how they could perhaps utilize 3D printing to build better and faster boats.

You can learn more about the difference between consumer and commercial 3D printers here.

Watch the video below from Stratasys to learn more about 3D Printing Technology:

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